Knowing fully the changes going on around us as we hunt this season my pace has slowed. It's truly painful to see places one after another transformed from big expanses of upland cover to bare and plowed expanses of nothingness. That's from a bird hunter's perspective anyway.
On this day the Setter's were restless by mid day with me not having reached for my hunting clothes. They keep watch waiting for some indicator that we're once again heading for the field. This is the week before the North Dakota deer season and there are still way to many hunter's for what is available to hunt. I've switched to hunting afternoons which seems to give some relief from the throngs of pickup trucks with groups of hunters looking for a place to hunt. Most settle for small sloughs they can easily access and surround.
The sun sets at 6:35 today so I hold off the Setter's till about 3:30 before picking up my gear and putting on my boots. This is what they'd been waiting for all day. I'm immediately surrounded by 3 eager tail wagging and very capable bird dog's. I'd been thinking all day about an out of the way place we could run big and not encounter anyone else. In my mind I owe it to these incredible animals to hunt them to their potential. Challenge them. The reward for me is to watch them perform their magic. Hopefully culminating in a point and a shooting opportunity for them as much as myself.
We head out in the Jeep for a section of wheat stubble with several small weedy patches and sloughs that border a large pothole with a little cover on the south side. This area holds both pheasants and grouse and even an occasional covey of huns in my experience over the past several years. Adjacent to this section to the south is 320 acres that was in CRP the last ten year's I've been coming here but now sits mowed off and covered with round bales. Those round bales were what once was some great cover we hunted every year and contain many memories and moments we'll never forget.
I park the Jeep and let the Setter's out getting they're GPS collar's turned on and my gear ready. We cast westward into the wind toward the first couple of sloughs. As we come to a rise in sight of the cover I don't see it. What's happened I think to myself. Then as I watch the Setter's casting in the wheat stubble I notice the disk marks around where the weedy patches used to be. Then I just stand and look over the square mile I'm in realizing it's the "Reclamation". The drought brought with it the opportunity for farmers to disk right through these patches of cover so important to these birds and myself as a hunter. There was once probably a dozen of them in this field not more than an acre each but enough to hold birds. Now the farmer takes it back when he can having lost it to some recent very wet years.
The wheat stubble is long and I decide to let the Setter's work it hoping maybe we might come across birds. The only scent they pick up however is from geese that had been feeding in the stubble. It's a half mile to the pot hole which still has a weedy patch around it so we walk on. There actually it turns out to be some heavy weedy cover about 2 acres maybe and the Setter's immediately start working scent. Suddenly I see no dog's moving. It's quiet. I knew I had dog's on point but couldn't see them in the mix of weeds and grass. I check my GPS and realize they're in front of me. As I move forward I see Mick holding steady looking right in the direction I'm heading. Then I see Molly to his left 50 feet steady as well. I don't have time to check Beau's location but assume he's pointing the same birds. Suddenly two hens flush behind me and to the right. A couple seconds later 3 or 4 more birds flush to Mick's left. They were "can't tells" as the light didn't allow me to get a good look. No worries. Then Beau moves in towards Mick's location and a mature rooster then suddenly bolts to the east at 35 yards. By the time I mount my gun it was a long shot and miss. We move to the east and work more hens coming to the end of the cover. I turn back to the west and see a coyote sneak out and run across the wheat stubble having obviously been working the same birds.
The rooster looked like it didn't go far so we worked around the section line road at the end of this cover. Beau picked up scent and within seconds came to point. I thought this may be the rooster but nothing was there. Probably where he had just come down minutes before. The Setter's excited again worked up and down the section line road working another hen which Mick pointed. Then I turned them back once again to see if we walked by the rooster. I lost sight of Mick until I came to where the water crossed the road. As I looked about the cattails I caught sight of him. He was waiting for me I realized and when he saw I had seen him wagged his tail then straightened it as if to say "OK here we go!" He was actually standing in water and as I took two more steps the rooster bolted again back toward the weed patch. I fired one shot and missed again. That was great fun and I gave Mick a good "Thank you" as he wagged his tail. It's funny how he communicates with me like that and he also is the one that ends up more often than not doing the detective work on birds like that.
We walked the mile down the section line road back to the Jeep as I thought about the reclamation and what it means. These Setter's are capable of providing me with some incredible experiences if I get them on birds in the right cover. But this is season 10. We've had a great run together. We were here during some of the best days in North Dakota. I'm thankful for that more than I can say. But it will be different now. The same experiences will be possible but we'll have to travel more which means less time in the field. More hunters will be competing to hunt less cover and less birds. This isn't a cycle it's the end of an era. And that is the painful truth about "The Reclamation" .
