Today was the pheaseant season opener in nebraska and my wife and I went out to see what we could find. This was also my first time hunting behind my gsp Ruby. We hit th CRP fields hard but did not locate any birds. We went back to the field I took a youth hunter to and we were able to locate 1 bird. It was in the middle of a thicket and I tried to set up the flush so my wife would get a shot. Unfortunately I forgot to let the dog know the plan and when I got there the dog decided it was her turn. She jumped on the bird and it never took flight. It was also the smallest rooster I think I've ever seen. I was about 3 feet away and got to see it all unfold. The bird was hunkered down in a clump of grass, and when I got there I just saw the bird drop its head when the dog lunged on it. I've never seen anything like it before.
Overall we had fun. It was good to get into the fields and watch the dog work. I'm still learning how to hunt with an upland bird dog and I've got a lot to learn. I talked to some other people that were hunting and they haven't seen many birds either. There is still a lot of standing corn but the combines were rolling through fields now that its dried out enough to pick. It also hasn't helped that a lot of the CRP fields were hayed or grazed because of the drought last year. Hopefully it gets better once most of the corn is picked.
Nebraska season opener
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SteveElms
- Rank: Just A Pup
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 11:44 am
- Location: Nebraska
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RoostersMom
- GDF Junkie
- Posts: 1754
- Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:42 pm
- Location: North Central Missouri
Re: Nebraska season opener
Nice handling of the situation IMO.
As for seeing more birds. It will get better when people start to care about natural resources and do more to protect them. We just sent a group from PF/QF to Washington to fight the good fight for better farm bill programs for wildlife benefits and increased habitat on existing private lands. We'll see what the result of this trip yields us - hopefully a Farm Bill at the very least.
It's too bad we're seeing the declines in wildlife habitat - the birds are following the trend of decreased habitat. Hoping for a good season this year in MO (quail), but fall whistle counts in a lot of areas don't look too promising.
As for seeing more birds. It will get better when people start to care about natural resources and do more to protect them. We just sent a group from PF/QF to Washington to fight the good fight for better farm bill programs for wildlife benefits and increased habitat on existing private lands. We'll see what the result of this trip yields us - hopefully a Farm Bill at the very least.
It's too bad we're seeing the declines in wildlife habitat - the birds are following the trend of decreased habitat. Hoping for a good season this year in MO (quail), but fall whistle counts in a lot of areas don't look too promising.