South Dakota's Tight Sitting Snowbirds

[Mike Walerak]

We had a great day in Eastern South Dakota with Rick and my buddy Tim Swank. These are only nine of the thousands of birds we saw.

We recently had an ice storm, but it didn't seem to hurt the bird numbers at all. It might even help them out because it's holding the snow up creating plenty of little tunnels and pockets for the birds to hide in to keep warm.

These birds were sitting extremly tight in both light and heavy cover which made for an extemely exciting hunt.

Sometimes it paid off letting Paris slowly work the the areas we expected were holding a birds. Sometimes we erred and watched tons a birds busting out of cover behind us because we cruised through too fast..

The birds that were in cover held extremely tight today and you either had a good dog like Paris to root them out or you got lucky and had to almost step on them before they busted cover cackling upset with you for disturbing them.

It was a great day and we're looking forward to more of the same tomorrow unless we decide to do a little ice fishing chasing some walleyes.

Are any of you still hunting pheasants? If so how did the storm affect them and how has your hunting been?

mw

[riverrat56]

Nice job, couldn't get out this weekend, other stuff going on, I've got about a month left hope to get out another 5+ times, now is when I head to the public areas with big water logged sloughs, the birds hole up right on top of the ice and many of the areas haven't been hunted all year because the birds werent there yet and they were to wet to walk. I've got a few areas that are public but completly cut off by water and private land until the sloughs freeze, southern Minnesota late season pheasants can be a blast but you've got to put your time in.

[TRITC]

Mike,

We had a good time on Saturday, had our eight birds before noon. The birds were really tight with the snow on top of the grass. It's always exciting when you have to go in and kick the bird out of there and you're just hoping it doesn't fly right up into your face.

TRITC

[WifeKidsandDog]

Quote:

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We had a great day in Eastern South Dakota with Rick and my buddy Tim Swank. These are only nine of the thousands of birds we saw.

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Glad you guys are having a great time!

Give Paris a pat from his Mama and tell him I'm very proud of him

Cheryl

[Matt Johnson]

Good work guys! Excellent picture too! Looks like you guys certainly had some fun out there!

[Blaze]

Sitting tight was an understatement! I had to literally kick 4 or 5 birds this weekend to make them fly and my wife had a rooster flush between her feet with the dog chasing right after him. Talk about great entertainment!

Here's a pic of my 9mo. old DD, Jake, on Saturday afternoon. The light really came on for him this weekend as he figured out the whole "pheasant game". Great experience for any dog. This was also my wife's first pheasant hunt, and I think she's hooked now. I wasn't so sure she'd enjoy it when we saw single digits on the thermometer Saturday AM and -14 Sunday AM, but she had a blast. I think I'll keep her!

FYI - there was a rooster about 4 feet in front of Jake under that snow/grass.

[The_Duckslayer]

Yes indeed you are!!! The wife goes fishing with me in the summer but since she is actually physically alergic to cold I am pretty much on my own hunting and ice fishing. Maybe will get her out in a nice warm permanent shack this winter. Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[Steve Foss]

Yes, I see you are lucky indeed, Blaze. And that shot of your German wirehair with the sun behind it is great. Love the way shaded snow turns blue/purple. Nothing quite like it.

[Mike Walerak]

Shown here is Wade Jensen (the land owner), Paul Waldowski and I with todays limit of roosters. Rick was along on the hunt but opted for the photographer position in this photo.

Today we took full advantage of the balmy weather to find the birds hunkered down near the edges of cover. They were not sitting as tight as they have been the last few days but they are still holding pretty tight for being late season birds.

Today we targeted smaller groups of birds in small patches of cover and as you can see it paid off for us! Today the dogs were crucial more for the retreiving aspect as we had quite a few runners which made for some exciting moments.

mw

[Steve Foss]

Geeze, you guys are STILL OUT THERE? Better hit a few of those perch potholes in eastern S.D. before you forget how to set the hook. It's a slightly different procedure than squeezing the trigger.

[LuciandTim]

Blaze...I'm curious as to where you got your dog??

[Blaze]

Tim - not to correct Steve, but he's actually a Drahthaar. I got him from a breeder by Pierre, SD. He's our third dog (GSP, GWP, and now DD), and by far the best mannered and easiest to train that we've had. If you want more info, drop me a note at mr dba2u at yahoo .com (no spaces) or check out vdd-gna .org.

Here's another point that he held for minutes before we finally kicked the bird out.

[Steve Foss]

Blaze:

Thanks for the correx. I'd thought Deutsch drahthaar was simply a fancy way of using the original German to desribe a German wire-haired pointer, but I see from a little Web search that they are different breeds bred to different standards.

I learned at least one thing today, so that makes it a good day.

[Mike Walerak]

Another great day was added to the books as we had some fast gunning on rather flighty roosters. With the temps below zero and a stiff breeze made conditions far less than ideal.

Birds that were normally our sunning themselves in the middle of the day were tucked into shelterbelts and treelines to hide from the blistering weather.

With the cold at our backs we had to work extra hard to keep up with the birds that kept running ahead and flushing out of range. As you can see nine of them made the fatal mistake of holding tight for the dogs to root them out.

There is warm weather in the forcast so my suggestion is to get out and chase these late season roosters I don't think you will be dissapointed.

mw

[LuciandTim]

Hey Blaze....Sorry never got back to you. Will do sometime, I do have some question that maybe you could help with.

Those Pics you posted, have you posted them at another site??

[Blaze]

Tim - I think the 2 pointing pics may have been posted on vdd-gna under the photo gallery section. I sent them to Laura, the webmaster, but never heard if they went on the site or not. In case you didn't notice, I'm pretty proud of him. He did a great job for being a pup and only his 2nd weekend of hunting! He had 40-50+ productive point that weekend.

[LuciandTim]

Yeah..That is were I saw it. Real nice pictures. I still have to get a hold of you. Or else if you feel like writing I just wanted to know what you like about the DD over the GSP. I'm between the two breeds and I just don't know.

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