This is the week 4 recap. We are well into the season and suddenly the temperatures are too warm. I was able to get out twice, although both days were marginal temperature wise.
November 8th - Stella
This hunt was an experiment. Jae wanted to see her mother who lives in Waverly, IA. So, we loaded up the dogs and drove down. I dropped Jae off at her mother’s and then headed out to a large Wildlife Management Area (WMA) about 10 miles East of Waverly. From the satellite pictures it looked like it had good cover.
Using waypoints that I created in Onx, I was able to quickly find the parking areas. Stella and I started out at the first area. The cover was pretty good, although it was mostly canary grass, which historically has not been that good for pheasants. Stella got birdy several times and in one instance jumped a couple of hens. As we were heading back to the truck we encountered a couple other hunters in our path so we diverted. By the time we got back to the truck, there were three more cars parked next to me. So I loaded up Stella and drove to another location.
November 8th - Willow
Here it was Willow’s turn. While we were getting ready, I heard a rooster cackle not far from us so we headed in that direction but did not see anything. We did a big loop during which Willow was hunting on her own too much. She pushed up a couple of hens but nothing else. Walking was especially hard at this location with heavy canary grass and willow thickets. It was getting pretty warm now, so I loaded up Willow.
November 8th - Stella
We drove around to check out more spots and we ended up near the first location. There was a cornfield food lot near the parking area so I thought we would try there. It was about 3:45 PM and cloudy. The temperature was dropping so Stella was doing better. We pushed along one edge of the cornfield and she got birdy. Near the end of the cornfield, two birds flushed out of range.
We continued out into the prairie area and after a bit Stella got birdy. After a short track, a rooster flushed out on front of her and I missed one shot. Watching the video, I realized I missed because the wind was pushing the bird sideways and I had not adjusted.
While on this loop Stella would find a pond and lay down in the water to cool off. She did this several times. As we were getting back to the truck she went into a ditch to do it again. This time she came out black from mid chest down, with swamp mud.
Thinking about the day I came to the following conclusions:
- This part of Iowa does not have much public hunting land. Based on the size of the parking lots and obvious wear these areas get hunted a lot.
- The way the birds acted also indicates that they are heavily pressured.
November 9th
Back in Minnesota. I started late because I got home really late from Iowa. The day was going to be warm with a strong wind from the West. This was the first trip this year with three people. I took both dogs but had them take turns.
Stella was up first and she got birdy quickly. We followed her through some cattails and had a rooster and a hen jump out on front of us. Continuing on through through the field we saw a rooster fly into an area closer to the truck. We headed downwind quite a ways and then circled back into the wind towards where we saw the bird land. Well before where we expected, Stella got birdy. The farther she tracked the more excited she got, so we knew she was close. A rooster popped up and Kevin fired three times as the bird sailed away. See the video for the miss.
We continued towards where we had seen the rooster land and Stella got birdy again. We followed her all the way across the big field and eventually a hen got up. After that we headed back to the truck for a break and fresh dog.
Our second loop was with Willow. Out in the open prairie she was doing a good job of casting back and forth at a reasonable distance. When we got into willow thickets then she started to lose track of us and started hunting on her own. She did get birdy a couple times but nothing that we got close too.
By this time it was getting too warm so we packed up and headed home.
This week’s video contains some bird work and examples of poor shooting.
Video
The week 4 recap video includes bird work and crappy shooting.
Summary
This week was challenging both to schedule hunts and the weather. When it is this warm the dogs have a limited run time before I will put them up. No point stressing a dog when it is this warm.
