Category Archives: Bird Hunting

This is a good year!

A good bird hunting year that is! Certainly not a good year in terms of the probable continuation of the human race, but it is a good year for birds. I believe a wet winter and spring brought grasses and bugs, precipitating more birds. There seem to be more birds than there have been in the last half-decade, IMHO. We have been to Wyoming and North Dakota; both were terrific hunts. There were opportunities to take limits on both hunts, which is especially rare in the Cowboy state.

It feels good to be stumbling on uneven, rocky ground again. The weather has been spectacular, if not a bit too warm. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

I am not a big fan of the obligatory tailgate carnage photo, but this is a good one. It was a great day.

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Dove Season Opening Day!

Sadly, this was my view on the 2023 dove opener. A friend of mine refers to the days of good health and open seasons as “quality time remaining” or QTR. We have only so much QTR, so we strive for a reasonable balance of work to keep the bill collectors at bay against the joys of bird hunting, dogs, the great outdoors, camaraderie, et cetera. 9/1/2023 was for sure a wasted day of QTR. But no worry, our time in the field is right around the corner. Rent has been paid, the truck is full of gas, I have a flat of 6s, and bird dog Henry is ready to go!

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A Bright Bird Hunting Future.

We are leaving behind a tough year. You all know what happened, so I won’t go into that here, except to say the low point was the departure of my dear hunting buddy Tex. A sweet giant of a dog, he almost made it 9 years. Tex had a great life. He hunted in 9 states, was provided with $9,000 worth of knees, and was a much-beloved member of our family. He gave us great joy, and he enjoyed life to the end. His nub of a tail wagged all the time, even when we took him for that last terrible visit to the vet. We miss him very much.

The last picture of our sweet boy Tex.

So now we move on, and thankfully our bird hunting future looks very bright! Two elements warrant this optimism.

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Pray for Rain

Weather, moisture in particular,  drives quail population more than anything else. If you hunt quail in west Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico or southern Arizona, this graph is a total bummer.

Also, Texas is on fire . . .

shit.

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