Montana Upland Bird Hunting: Naughty Girl

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Annie baby...Obviously still hasn't quite got the point! not chase thing down pat yet...shown here running a sage hen out of the country...How's come our bird dogs are oh so wonderful one moment and oh such naughty girls the next? I know, I know one of life with bird dogs many imponderables that we hope might someday go away but often don't...

Bird Hunting Myth # 2

Gunnin' sage hens...nothin' to it...right? Well some days maybe but not so this season...at least for this ol' boy. Season opened September 1 and closes today. In past seasons we have experienced really good sage hen hunting in September but the past couple have been tough; the big grouse have made themselves scarce and this time around even "scarce" doesn't cut it. So far as I know we did not so much as see a single sage hen the entire month. October was not much better and compared to other years, when in most of our spots birds show up almost like clockwork, it really never happened. Normally by mid-month we know the whereabouts of enough birds that "gunnin' sage hens" often really is "nothin' to it." A matter of loosing the dogs, dogs point, walk-up and collect a limit. Too easy I often pass on birds the Sisters fail to handle just so but...

Hard for us to imagine but the bird Kate has is the first sage hen I shot/shot at this season (day before yesterday). Day before Annie found a dozen or so but we never did close enough for a shot. True we didn't hunt them as often as we have other seasons but still we hit our best spots plenty enough we should have at least seen some...One day around the first of October the dogs trailed up six...all big, wary as hell, they saw us coming and flushed wild, way beyond even hope and a prayer, left the country and that was that. 

Yesterday, for better or worse, we decided to close out our 2010 sage hen operation at our best spot.  Except  for the above mentioned bunch we had not found much sign there all season and no other birds. About half-way through our planned sweep both dogs got birdy and eventually Annie pointed. A single cock flushed and I killed it and like before that was that. No more birds, no more fresh droppings, no more birdy dogs...The why of all this is more than I know considering that going into spring there were more birds using all our best spots than any other spring. Where the hell they wandered...who knows? Our hope is once winter rolls around things will return to normal. We don't need a bunch of sage hens in the bag but we do need to know they are still out there alive and well. To my way of thinking a southwest Montana not crawling sage hens would indeed be pretty sorry.

Guide Wars Over At Last...

...hopefully that is. At least it is my plan to not do anymore trips this season. Enough is enough...right?

Anyway, when I started this blog I really didn't think I'd be able, willing, whatever to post every day but did think no more than a couple days between was more than doable but...What I didn't consider was after guiding, especially during multi-day runs, how downright worn out (brain-dead?) some leave me...like no way. So this summer there have been lots of holes. Well, summer is now all but officially dead, my trip book is blank thus my plan for the immediate future is to post on a daily basis excepting those days when we are on the road and have no internet connection.

Since my last post we have been trying to get out bird hunting every chance. Most days we have but the hunting so far has not been up to par. This morning we decided since it was going to get into the 70s this afternoon for the sisters' sake we'd best get out early, make a short hunt for sage hens and, regardless, call 'er good. While it wasn't quite crack of dawn we did get out early enough the temperature was still in low 40s although the sun was well up and the Big Sky cloudless...Not at all hot but for our dark heavy-coated girls way too sunny.

No surprise but after just an hour or so both were fagged. Kate seemed especially hot, so we called it good even though nary a sage hen had been sighted. Oh well, said Gale, look on the bright side, no birds to clean either. 

Hard to argue, eh?

On the way out of town we saw several buck antelope herding harems. While not much has come off on schedule this year obviously the antelope rut is right on...

How-To Photograph Flying Upland Gamebirds in Winter

Recipe: To (2) bird-crazed German Wirehaired Pointer(aka Deutzche Drahthaar aka GWP) Sisters, Add (1)snowy sagebrush sea. Stir in one to several sage hens. Allow Sisters to Cover as much of the sagebrush sea as necessary in order to uncover the sage hen(s)and establish staunch points and/or a single staunch point with classy back. With SLR camera in hand, armed with 200mm lens and ready to fire, stride quickly into position and upon flushing bird(s) fire away...naturally at will since the more you shoot the better your odds of getting at least one passable shot. It should go without saying but should you fail at first by all means send the Sisters, try and try again. Good luck!!!

And yes the winter is indeed already starting to get a little old...not a crisis mind you just a bit irksome.

Sage Hen Alley, Antelope and Rabbit Trails

Sage Hen Alley lived up to its handle big time today as the Pointer Sisters pointed an estimated 40 or so during a couple hour loop through the snow-covered sage. While we only saw two antelope you could not take a step and not trample a track; ditto rabbit tracks(jack, cottontail,pygmy). Sage hen sign, tracks and droppings everywhere. Yesterday we saw far more rabbit sign and way less sage hen and antelope sign, no sage hens or antelope sighted and just two rabbits, a whitetail jack and a pygmy. Curious since today we were actually just over the ridge from yesterdays hike. Good thing our goal wasn't to shoot sage hens since they were about as wild as sage hens get...several times the Sisters locked up long range and each time the birds boogied, like right now. I saw one big cock stretched to full height gawking our approach; watching cautiously he stood his ground until we closed to about 75 yards. When he flushed so did 4 of his buddies and as they flapped to put distance between another single flushed wild, at least 200 yards off. All in all I would have been lucky to kill even one bird...so much for the piece of cake reputation you so often hear bantied about, eh? Believe it or not but if there are any other critter tracks in the above rabbit thorofare I could not identify any.