Upland Bird Article Page 3

Upland Birds Hunting

The final factor at upland bird hunting is private land selection and the realization select environmental factor promote or inhibit upland bird productivity. These environment limiting factors further explain why some areas have pheasants, some bobwhite quail, some both and some areas have neither all within a short day's drive.

These environmental limiting factors are agricultural practices rendering required minerals unusable to wildlife. Insects such as fire ants and chiggers attacking chicks. Further, others consider increasing turkey populations correlate to declining quail coveys in the same areas. All total there are several factors to pay attention to and others to be ignored. The Association staff tracks these factors and in general upland birds in general to know where to recommend our hunters to hunt and where not to spend any time. This is another reason why paying for the services of a land lease group makes for a better hunt. For any of us to come into a new area and expect to do well is acceptance of the risk of failure as the location of these factors are unknown to most of us. The Association staff with a past demonstrable performance record that also hunt over their own bird dogs is the true value of the Association. Not only are they aware of where both pheasant and quail are and where they are not, they track changes in predominate areas and adjust to these changes. How many of us could take the time to do this? The answer of course, is simple -- we cannot. Again the value of the association is clear. We pay for that which we cannot or wish not to do, that is, the work required to secure land access in the right area for the best upland bird hunting.

Land Of Plenty. While our Association does have a lot of upland birds habitat it is located in close proximity in every county where we have leased properties. This allows for less driving time and more hunting time to the point the drive between hunting spots is a welcomed rest.  

Hunting a 1x3 mile contiguous field is a good walk even when limiting out half way through. This ability of having land in close proximity where a limit can be harvested over good upland bird dog work makes for memories long held after the hunt. While it would be unreasonable to expect a limit every time out hunting it certainly does happen often enough to make every hunt worthwhile.

The two basic memories to be gained from every hunt are of the hunt itself and the second is the meal, sometimes months later, that rekindle the memories from the hunt. The memory from every hunt in the Association is one of non-competitive hunting, on game productive land where each hunter can hunt in the style of his choice.

This has allowed for new enjoyment that before has not been experienced by many. This enjoyment has further manifested itself in that since joining the Association I have developed a new rule about such memorable days and that is we only take a picture when we have bagged a limit from one walk in one field off one dog. I have more of these pictures than I probably deserve and each one has a special place during my off-season day dreams. We would like to add the requirement to our picture taking rule of when all upland birds were harvested with one shell each, but that seems to be too difficult for us right now. Never before in my life have I seen more pheasant and quail in one day than I observed in any entire season hunting other states and this does include Iowa!