Thursday, August 29, 2013

quail habitat

I read an interesting quote the other day by one of our greatest American presidents, Thomas Jefferson who said,"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everyone stands around reloading". I liked that a lot, and it kind of reminds me of our state of affairs at the moment.Thanks to our near record setting rainfall this summer, we are breaking out our brush mowers for the first time in several years. Each driver will be issued a compass and machete before heading in to the river bottom courses in case his tractor breaks down. We have waited this late to begin our woods mowing because we have such an abundant hatch of native quail, and did not want to destroy any nests if possible. However, if we do not start now, we are going to make the chicks much more susceptible to predators. It's a bit of a trade off, but we think the time is right to begin.
 We had our first harbinger of fall at the first of this week. The temperature dropped into the mid 60's, and there was almost no humidity in the air. Cader IV and I almost always ride out to the shop together to meet all of the men at 7:00 am each morning. Our dog kennels are only a couple of hundred yards from the gathering area. When we pulled up to the shop about 185 dogs were just barking to beat the band. I turned to one of the men to ask him if he knew what had them so stirred up. He said," Boss, they feel the same thing in the air that you do. They're just getting excited".
 We are all beginning to feel the anticipation, and have picked up the pace a bit here. It really hit me when our first shipment of Beretta Silver Pigeons arrived today. We made the decision to switch from the Ruger as our house guns to the Berettas this year, and will have all new rental shotguns. We figured that we could pay for one new gun this year with gas savings from having to run out to the hunting courses to replace malfunctioning shotguns. Don't get me wrong here. The Ruger is a good shotgun, but ours had gotten old, and Ruger could not replace them with new shotguns in time for the start of the 2013-2014 hunting season.
 I started this blog with a quote, and would like to end it with a quote that every
 According to the Farmer's Almanac, we are going to have a colder than normal fall and winter in the southeast. We are ready for it ! quail hunter can appreciate.One of the great outdoor writers of my lifetime,Robert Ruark, once stated,"You will rarely find a dedicated quail shot who is not a pretty good guy. He has to be a nice guy because he is performing for the benefit of the dogs,himself,and his companions,and all are experts in the detection of fraudulent behavior in the field".

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Bird dogs

Well,it's that time of the year when we start filling out our dog rosters with purchases of bird dogs to supplement the ones we have trained here at Riverview. In some parts of the country they are called pointers,setters,shorthairs,etc., but here in the south we simply refer to them as bird dogs. And there is only one bird that we are referring to--the illustrious gentleman Bobwhite quail.
 One of my first of many jobs when I first returned to Riverview was purchasing bird dogs. That lasted until I bought a dog from a lady trainer who was wearing the tightest pair of hunting britches I have ever seen. When I returned to Riverview with the dog, Pop asked me what the dog's name was. When I couldn't remember, he transferred me and gave that job to Mr. Bobby Sharp.Bobby has been retired for years now, and our head dog man,Moss,is doing a great job of dog haggling.
 I love dogs, and feel sorry for anyone who has never known the love of a good pet or hunting dog. It is a very special bond when that pet you love is also a working dog. The first dog that I ever trained was named Bimbo. Well,it would probably be more truthful to say that Bimbo trained me. I was 13 years old, and he was a puppy from a good bloodline.Pop kept 150 acres around the house that he would not allow anyone to hunt on except me and Bimbo. During hunting season, I would jump off the school bus,whistle up Bimbo,grab my trusty 20 gauge single shot, and go quail hunting. Bimbo had two peculiar quirks that I never could fix. If I killed a quail in thick brush, he would go retrieve it every time. If ,however, the bird fell in open ground,he would just sit and stare at me until I picked the bird up for myself. He also only gave me four misses in a row before he would turn around and trot home. Talk about pressure, but Bimbo was a stern critic of my youthful gunning ability.
 One of my favorite bird dog stories also was one of life's great lessons for me. My Dad was one of the greatest wing shots I have ever known. He started letting me hunt quail with him when I was around 11 years old. Pop always had great dogs, and he rarely failed to double on a covey rise. Then he would turn to me and ask,"Did you get one?" to which I would respond,"I dropped one over there." so off the dogs would go looking for a non-existent dead bird. This went on for about two hours when finally Pop leashed the dogs,sat down on a stump,looked at me and said,"Son,there are two things in life that I detest--that's a liar and a sorry bird dog. So I'm fixing to shoot these two sorry dogs that can"t find all of your dead birds."Of course,I confessed promptly and learned a valuable lesson--if you are going to lie,it had better be a very believable lie.
 Hunting season is just around the corner!