This is the week 13 recap, which just happens to be the last week of the 2023 pheasant season. The Minnesota season closed last week and the Iowa season was closing on January 10th. So the only option was to take one final trip to Iowa. The weather forecast was not ideal. On the 9th, temperatures were in the high 20s, which is fine, but the wind was forecast to be in the 22-25 mph range. To make it worse, it snowed the night before and into the morning.
Driving conditions started out okay in Minnesota but as I got into Iowa, the freeway was snow covered in spots. As we hit the US highway heading west, there were strong cross winds and drifting snow. At times, there were white out conditions so I was questioning whether we would be able to hunt.
January 9th - Iowa Day 1
Despite my earlier concerns about white out conditions, when I was approaching the field visibility was good. The field we were going to hunt has woods to the north and east. Plus, the prairie grass itself was capturing most of the blowing snow.
I could tell from the parking areas that no one had hunted the field earlier in the day. Given the conditions, I was not surprised. I parked in the one parking area that was level with the road, to avoid getting stuck.
There was maybe an inch of snow on exposed ground. In the prairie areas there was 4-8 inches of light fluffy snow. Walking was generally pretty easy, although hazards were hidden and it was slippery in spots. The wind was very strong with some wind driven snow but visibility was pretty good considering how cloudy it was.
We started heading east and then north into the wind. After about 20 minutes Stella got birdy and she tracked a hen. The bird ran for a bit, which is common in this field but finally hunkered down in a clump of snow covered grass. After the flush we continued north west into areas where there weeds that the birds have fed on in the past.
Stella got birdy again and we tracked a pair of birds through some low canary grass until they flushed a head of us. I watched where one of the birds flew so we could look for it later.
From there we headed north to an area in the field that has better thermal cover and a food plot. We walked for a long time before Stella got birdy in a thicket. She pointed and we flushed a hen. After a few seconds, several other birds flushed out of the other side of the thicket. Not sure if there were any roosters or not.
At this point we were probably 1-1/2 miles from the truck so we started back. We walked almost all the way back to the truck before we crossed paths with another hen. When it finally flushed it caught the wind and flew away as if it had rocket boosters. (See video)
That was the end of the hunt but not the experience. Leaving the field I drove west, intending to look at possible fields for the next day. The road by the field had a dusting of snow over the gravel and was easy driving. As soon as the ground upwind of the road changed from prairie to tilled ground the road became covered with 8-10″ of drifted snow. Fortunately I had switched to full time 4WD and I was able to power through about 1/2 mile of the drifted road. It was touch and go but we made it. After that, the roads were just fine.
January 10th - Iowa Day 2
The last day of the season. The temperature when we started was 14 degrees. There was a light to moderate wind out of the south but nothing like yesterday. I picked this field because it had several small willow thickets that I could hunt by myself. We headed directly for the closest thicket and before we got there Stella got birdy. She tracked the bird for a few hundred yards before it flushed wild ahead of us.
We headed out towards the thicket again and she did not get birdy at all. I was surprised and wondering if I had made a strategic error. Continuing on towards the next thicket, Stella got birdy. We tracked another bird a couple hundred yards before it too wild flushed. I could not tell if it was a rooster but it looked pretty big. I watched where it went and we followed it to the north east corner of the field.
When we got to the area where I thought the bird had set down Stella was working the area. At one point, a bird got up about 40 yards away and flew into private property. So we started working our way back. to the south east. Stella did not really get birdy until we got back near so thickets.
We worked around a cluster of about three small to medium thickets. She would get birdy and track, only to lose the track. Then she finally locked up on a solid point on the down wind side of a bigger thicket. I approached her head on. As I got close, she relocated and moved right past where I was standing. A few seconds later, a hen flushed within a few feet of where I had walked.
Less than a minute later she pointed again, about 30 feet from the last hen. Again, I approached her head on. This time the bird flushed right between us. I saw the hen fly up with Stella coming up with it. She was close to catching it. See picture below and the video.
Moving around to the downwind side of the thicket she got real birdy and there were lots of tracks. The tracks were not exceptionally fresh but there were a lot of them. Stella probably spent 30 minutes following one track after the other. Eventually, I got her out and we moved on.
We next approached a thicket that I thought we had walked before. Stella went on a solid point. I moved around up wind of her, in a spot where I could swing the gun. I stomped on a branch, trying to flush whatever was in there. Nothing happened. Stella never moved which I knew meant that there was a bird there. I just waited for a minute, which will sometimes precipitate a flush before stepping closer to the brush. Stella moved, which means the bird moved, and a rooster exploded into the air. I dropped it with one shot and Stella retrieved it.
The picture is slightly blurred because it is a capture from the video. From there, we headed back to the truck.
Video
Summary
This week 13 recap covers the two day trip to Iowa. This week wraps up the 2023 season.
This will be the last weekly recap for the 2023 season. There will be subsequent posts about what we learned this year, my best practices and season statistics.
Advice to pheasants when Stella is around: sit too tight she might take a bite. Nice video and photos.