Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009...7:34 pm
9/17/09 Hunting Prairie Birds in Nebraska
9/17 Nebraska
First day hunting prairie birds. This is also my first hunt in the state of Nebraska. We started our hunt in the Nebraska National Forest. It is called the “Sand Hills”
Prairie Birds include both the Sharptail Grouse and the Prairie Chicken. Unlike the Chukar, Pheasant, and the Hungarian Partridge, the Sharptails and the Prairie Chickens are naive birds.
Ran Em with Ted’s dogs. She did really well. It was her first time out since her TPLO operation. She ran well and paced herself. She covered the ground and got birdy a few times but did not find anything. I left her on the ground longer than I should have but she has not shown any problems so far. I will not make the same mistake tomorrow.
Ted’s dogs Dottie and Vegas had a nice point on a group and Ted killed one bird. We had a few get up wild but didn’t go any good with them.
This is really tough country to hunt. Sand Hills is correct. It’s up and down and the ground is loose. Walking on the sand isn’t as bad as I expected but the hills are tough. You can’t get in a big hurry. It’s a bit like boot camp for the bird hunter. If you really want to see what kind of shape you are in for the upcoming hunting season, come out here and walk the Sand Hills for a few days.
We ran Sage, Click, Stud and Richard. I have never had all of them on the ground at the same time. They did pretty well. Vernon kept up with Click and Richard. I ran Sage and Stud. Stud really stretched out. He’s running big but he’s turning when I tell him to and he’s checking in a bit on his own.
No birds but Stud found some birds way out they were gone before we could get to him. Sage got birdy a few times but could not come up with them.
We were done at 11. It was too hot to keep running dogs.
On the drive out Ted stopped to watch a 5 foot Prairie Rattler cross the road. One of the issues that you can run into bird hunting this time of the year is rattle snakes. We do what we can to avoid them but when it’s hot they will be out moving around.
I wear snake protection for myself and and I get my dogs the Rattle Snake Vaccine from Red Rock Biologics. It’s something I strongly recommend for folks that hunt in the west. I have not had a dog bit yet, but I know folks that have and the vaccine has made a big difference in saving their dogs.
We drove up north to see some other Federal lands. We got to see a few ducks, geese and 4 Tundra Swans
Vernon found a good flat spot to run a few blind retrieves with Roxy and Max.
We called it a day and regrouped for tomorrow.
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