The season is well underway and this is the week 3 recap. The weather has cooperated, both dogs are healthy and the Iowa season opened up. Crops are mostly out with some corn remaining. This week I did a short local hunt followed by a two day hunt to Iowa.
October 29th
On Sunday I did a short solo hunt in the Minnesota SE sector on private ground. The weather was nice and cool with virtually no wind. Stella was off of injured reserve and did well with the cool temperatures. We didn’t see any birds but did see three Tilt Rotor Ospreys fly over at low altitude. Minutes later I saw what appeared to be the Presidential helicopter. I found out later that President Biden was going to visit a farm in the area, later in the week. The video has a short clip of the Oprey flyover.
November 1st
This was my first Iowa trip for the season. The night before the trip Kevin tested positive for Covid so I ended up going solo, with Stella. Back in 2020, during the pandemic I did several trips to Iowa solo and was pretty comfortable doing it. Solo hunting can be challenging because the birds are generally smart enough to make it tougher, but we figure it out.
On the first day, it was warm and windy with wind speeds over 20 MPH. It is tough hunting in high winds because it is hard for the dogs and when birds do get up, they fly very fast. We usually try to hunt in an area that is somewhat sheltered.
My first choice for a place to hunt was already taken so I tried a WMA that is in an oblong depression. When I got there I noticed that the south edge was bordered by a standing cornfield. The same cornfield that I lost Willow in several years ago. Standing corn, during the middle of the day is not generally good, as the birds tend to hang out in the corn, which appeared to be true on this day as well. We saw two birds, both on the edge of the cornfield. One was a hen and the other a rooster that flew back over the corn. We covered most of the WMA and saw nothing else. The cover was in good condition so it will be worth trying this spot later in the season, after the corn is picked.
It was only 3:00 PM, so I wanted to try another location. I headed north to check out some other areas when I drove by a spot that I have not hunted for years. The cover looked good so I decided to give it a try. The WMA had a good variety of cover ranging from short grass to heavy canary grass. We only had about 90 minutes so I focused on islands of willows interspersed throughout the prairie. This paid off right away. On the first clump Stella got real birdy and she spent 15 minutes pointing and tracking. It appeared that the bird eventually ran out into the prairie and she lost the track.
At the next clump of willows, Stella got birdy right away. She tracked to the opposite side of the clump and then pointed. I worked around on side of the clump and then flushed a rooster. I dropped it and Stella retrieved it out of heavy cover. This sequence is included in the video below.
We continued on and Stella got birdy again and we tracked a bird out into the prairie. The high winds made it tough for Stella and eventually a rooster flushed out ahead of us, well out of range. That was the last bird we saw and we finished up soon after.
November 2nd
This turned out to be one of the best days of the season, so far. The temperature started out around 22 degrees with no wind. It was a really pretty morning with the sun rising through a few scattered clouds. We were hunting one of my favorite fields, although the last few years, due to the droughts, the cover has been spotty. This year the cover was in pretty reasonable shape with a wide variety of heights and density. While I was getting ready, we heard cackles and saw a few birds flying.
We started walking and within 400 yards Stella was birdy. We tracked for while then lost it. Soon she picked up another trail and we tracked a hen for a couple hundred yards before it jumped. We changed direction and soon she was tracking again. It was obvious that the bird was running, which is typical. Stella kept losing and then re-acquiring the track. Eventually, she pressured the bird enough that he flushed. I hit him with my first shot and he folded up but I thought it was a wing shot so I fired again. He must have hit the ground running. Stella was after him for almost 200 meters before she apparently lost the track. This sequence is included in the video.
I joined up with her and she was already tracking another bird. I thought it might be the cripple but it turned out to be another rooster, which flushed and I dropped it. Stella was immediately at the spot where it fell and took off. It was another runner but she caught it and brought it back.
We continued moving across the field. I had a bird jump right next to me that I missed. Soon after, Stella tracked a bird to the edge of the field before he flushed. I missed this one too. The miss was captured in the video.
We then looped back and started heading for the truck. On the way back, Stella tracked a couple of birds that wild flushed across the road plus another rooster that she was tracking which flushed out of range. Within a couple hundred yards of the truck she pointed and then started tracking. A rooster jumped and I dropped it. She retrieved it and we had our limit by about 11:20. (The limit is 3 per day and I had two birds in hand plus the first bird that we were not able to retrieve.)
Overall, a very successful day.
Video
This is the week 3 recap video. The more I use the GoPro, the more I like it. While frustrating at times, it is nice to capture some of the action.
Summary
In summary, we had good weather and saw some birds.
Comparisons to the last 4 years:
- On track with normal years for miles walked. Last year was about 60% less due to hip issues with the hip that was replaced in February.
- Third highest trip count.
- Second highest dog miles for both dogs.
- Second highest number of roosters seen and shot.
