Late Birds

[CAJ]

Don't put the scatter gun away yet for the fishing pole. Bird huntting is to good up in this neck of the woods. Fun to see the good dogs work in the snow and cold. Have to change the tactics a little, but still good Bird huntting.

[kobear]

Hit up the Forman area on Dec 4-6. Cold & Windy. Decent numbers of birds around, not much grass cover mainly hunting frozen sloughs. Hunted private land and had an adult/juvenile ratio of 2:1 based on spurs. In fact Friday morning we never shot a young bird; but on Friday afternoon in a 6 acre CRP Filter Strip that hadn't been hunted yet, with permission anyway, we bagged 9 and 7 were juveniles. Easily the most old birds we have ever harvested even with how spooky they were. EXTREMELY spooky.

We drove by lots of spots where we used to see 100+ birds. Most were 100% black having been plowed up for $5 corn. Too bad it's $3.50 now and back at what it costs to produce now that inputs went up.

[fishlakeman]

I've been having some very good success busting cattails lately. Been jumping probably a couple 100 birds every time I've gone out. It's just with being in college and not having a dog, we're walking by a lot of smart roosters. Have yet to loose a bird though, as were using 3 inch lead to make sure there's no runners. All birds seem to be healthy with a lot of fat on em. I've also noticed more mature birds too, shot a beautiful rooster with 3/4 inch spurs and a 24 1/2 inch tail feather last monday.

How many birds do you think died from this blizzard? That was a lot of blowing snow to deal with. I would think suffocation would be an issue. How bout you guys? Did u fare alright from the blizzard? I live in very south fargo on the edge of town, and could not have gone anywhere after noon on Sunday if I wanted to. Had a 4 ft drift about 15 ft wide blocking the road. Was suprised there were no deaths. Did see probably 4 abandoned cars in the ditch basically plowed under on monday morning. Would be scary to be stuck out in the country, especially with those cold temps.