Just Getting Started

To answer the inevitable questions about last weekend's opening day hunt, little Geoana and I did not come home with any game.

Disappointing but not surprising. First, being opening weekend in one of the best pheasant hunting habitats in North America meant sharing the Walk-In Hunting Areas and public land with a cadre of men decked out in blaze orange. One of my hunting companions for Saturday and Sunday knows a couple of landowners but hadn't made arrangements with either by opening day. No matter, the little one and I will have more chances to take down a rooster or two whether it's on private or public land. After all, we're locals.

(As an aside let me list the out-of-state plates I saw from November 12th on: Texas [a whole lot of Lone Star State guys], Missouri, Colorado, Iowa, Oklahoma, and even Georgia. And those are just the ones I happened to view, no doubt we had many more visitors.)

Second, we don't have a dog. It's a disadvantage but right now I don't even have a fenced backyard and I have strong objections to keeping Fido chained to a tree all day. Fortunately I have a couple of hunting friends who own bird dogs albeit not the best-trained ones.

Third, I didn't even get one shot off either day. Sure didn't flush any roosters but the weekend's work achieved a little redemption when, late Sunday afternoon, I saw a rooster while driving by a WIHA we had hit the previous day. Why didn't I try for that one? Mainly because I want to be an ethical hunter. Sure, I could have stopped the truck, loaded my gun, hopped the fence, and tried to get said rooster to fly but how do I know there is not a group of hunters driving this pheasant into an open stubble field? Also I was with two other guys, both of whom have young sons that were riding with me. I didn't want to give those elementary-school aged boys a visual example of bad behavior even if what I did was completely within the law (since this was WIHA-designated land I would not have been trespassing).

I used the opening weekend as a lesson for Geoana. Often times you will go out hunting and return empty-handed. However there will be other times when you might get four roosters (the daily limit) within the span of a morning. I also took plenty of time to teach her what I have learned thus far: walking the edges of fields, stopping to listen, being mindful of other hunters, identifying likely habitat, and just enjoying the outdoors. After all, to borrow an oft-used cliche: The worst day of hunting is still better than the best day at the office!

Then there is more teaching. The saddest sight of the weekend came when, while walking through a CRP stand, I found a dead pheasant hen. Since she had not yet been scavenged I presume she was shot that very day. Geoana didn't seem too distressed but her friend, the daughter of one of my hunting partners, was upset. (This is not a delicate-flower type of girl as she has gone hunting with her father for many years.) For the rest of the day this young lady (she's almost 12) kept asking why we could not take the carcass with us and I kept answering that to have a pheasant hen in one's possession, regardless of who committed the kill, is against the law. I shared with both of the girls that the hen probably was not poached deliberately. More likely a group of hunters stirred up some birds and momma hen was accidentally shot along with the roosters.

At least I hope that's what happened.

I'm taking a vacation day this coming Wednesday. Geoana will be out of school by then for the Turkey-Day break and we'll do some more hunting. Should have the public areas more to ourselves since the out-of-towners will likely head home after today.

Who knows? Just might get a pheasant yet. After all, I'm a local!