Screeeech!

                    It was early in the sharptail season when Beau and I loaded up the Jeep and headed east to some old haunts we hadn't visited in a few year's. The weather had been pretty warm so far so I chose this cold overcast day to make our way to a run called the Honey Hole in year's past. This is what's called prairie pot hole country. A swath of North Dakota peppered with pot holes of various sizes creating habitat for a variety of species including Grouse and Huns, otherwise known as Hungarian Grey Partridge, which were on our radar today. Amongst the pot holes are rolling hills with plenty of high points favored by grouse as breeding areas or Leks as they're called. Since they use sight as a main defense mechanism these hilly areas are prime habitat when bordered by crop and hay fields which they use to raise their broods.

This section we pulled into on a dirt road I had hunted many times and have written about over the year's. When it was a hayfield with adjacent hills and crops the grouse loved it in the early season. It was the kind of place I'd look at and think I'd just like to hunt that because it's a beautiful place. Truth be told often times those are the eyes through which I view the places I hunt. I want an experience that includes a multitude of factors not just those centered around shooting a "limit"of birds.

The hayfield has been gone now for 5 year's having been rotated to small grains with this year's crop being soybeans. So once harvested there is virtually no cover here except what's available around rock piles and the narrow band of cattails that circle every low spot or slough. There is however a shelter belt that was planted in an L shape running the entire east side about a 1/3 of a mile with a mix of cedar trees and bushes. This shelter belt is what I had in mind being just about 5 feet tall now it offered some nice cover right next to a food source. Plus I just wanted to put my boots on the ground here once again walking along thinking about those days when everything seemed to be just right. The setting. The habitat. The bird population. And my beautiful Setter's in their early year's full of life and desire to hunt creating beautiful scenes almost surreal at times as they cast about in the alfalfa then suddenly all together coming to a point in the open cover strung out in a line.

We parked on the north end of the shelter belt a half mile off the road and planned to work south up and back. Beau was ready to stretch his legs so I let him out and got myself set up for our run. There are also Huns or Partridge that use this area along with Pheasants so while I was hoping to have sharptail for supper we also were scouting to see what kind of other birds were around. The Pheasant season opener was still 3 weeks away at this point but Huns were fair game just hard to come by.

As we walked the shelter belt on the east side the cover looked great with a strip of alfalfa separating the other half. A light rain had started and I was hoping this cover would hold some birds given the weather. Beau was casting in and out between the rows and since I use a Garmin GPS collar on my Setters I'm never worried about losing sight of him. He rarely will bump a bird anyway as he's very very careful not to push a bird once he reads scent on the wind. As I walked along he disappeared for a few moments as we crested a slight rise in the terrain. I looked out ahead and couldn't find him so I pulled out my Garmin which told me he was ahead about 50 Yards south slightly to my left on point! With my eyes focused in that direction I quickened my pace or as my friend Dennis calls it made a "surge" ahead. As I came closer I caught sight of him turned in a kind of twist and looking right under a cedar tree. This was getting exciting I thought and as I decided on my approach I thought possibly a pheasant or a covey of Huns with Grouse being my last expectation with the bird having held so long already. I went ahead on the opposite side of the tree from Beau knowing it was a toss up anyway. I stomped in and nothing happened. I turned around 360' at the ready when it happened. A flutter of wings and "screeching" with a dozen or so Huns splitting into 2 groups as they flew one forward arcing to the right and the other to the left and behind me. I chose the leading bird on the forward advancing group missing twice! Beau had held all through this obviously with his nose right on the covey under that cedar tree. You would think it was an easy shot but I tell you more times than not these small birds are very hard to get an advantage on. But what a beautiful sight in different shades of red and brown.

We saw no other birds in the shelter belt and as we walked to the end a truck came off the road I identified as the local federal warden obviously in the area because a waterfowl production hunting area borders this run to the south. I came out to the road and talked with him for a while. When I said I was hunting for grouse in the area today he suggested I go east a few miles. Little did he know how well I knew those hills he was talking about! I said yes that's where I think we'll head but I just want to check the waterfowl production area, which was a small parcel, for any pheasants while I'm here. I asked if he wanted to see my license but he said "No thank you just go ahead. I'm checking for waterfowl hunters today." I noticed his dash video camera was on so he had my vehicle plate recorded as he went up and back down the road anyway I thought if he wanted to check on me.There just are not enough of these guys to deal with the people that think since North Dakota is such a sparsely populated and rural area anything goes. So I actually like seeing them out there.

Beau and I then circled the waterfowl production area where he pointed 3 roosters for me to my surprise as the pheasant population had taken quite a hit here due to 3 severe winters in this area. It looked like one carry over bird and two birds of the year so a successful hatch here possibly. Good news! We walked on back to the north with the rain coming a little more steady as we arrived at the Jeep and loaded up.

This was a good day as I looked over at Beau before we started to head in the direction the Warden talked about. We got some scouting done and had a beautiful point and flush on a full covey of Huns. A treat on any day just to see them rise and hear their signature "Screeeech!"