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Here is a sequential record of a winter day pheasant hunt in Northern Iowa, Tuesday, January 4, 2000.
My friend from high school Jim and I and Jake the dog started the day by walking along this
stream bed. It runs in a semicircle and leads back to the road. The morning was cold and it
snowed the night before. Consequently, the pheasants were still in their roosts - no tracks
revealed their presence. Jake would get the scent, follow it to a clump of weeds, and point
until Jim came over and kicked up the bird. Jake flushed five hens on this walk.
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Jim knocks on a farmhouse door to get permission to hunt some land. No one was home.
The picture is taken through the truck window. It's hard to figure
out who owns what farmland. Lots of farmers own acreage that's not next to their farmhouse.
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Here is Jake the dog inside his traveling doghouse in the back of Jims' truck. The doghouse
is lined with straw. Jakes' body heat keeps it toasty warm. After long walks we would
have to give Jake plenty of time to warm his paws up.
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Here is a view done a country road. Note the lack of heavy cover in the ditches and the
fields all ploughed up. A stark environment for wildlife. The
day started off around 10 degrees and windy but improved.
The next day it snowed all day.
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In this ditch we spotted several hens on the ditch. You never know if any
roosters will be with them, so we got out and flushed them. No roosters. This late in
the season the pheasants are usually collected together in bunches. A good proportion
of the cocks have been bagged.
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Here are pheasant tracks from the ditch. Fresh snow gives hunters a big advantage because
you know when you are in an area with active birds.
"Just like Sand People, Pheasants travel single file to hide their
numbers"
- Old Ben Knobe, rsesident of Tatoeen, MN.
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This shows two birds walking side by side. Running pheasants leave tracks with wide spaces
between them. When they detect you most pheasants would rather run away than fly. Late
in the season, however, sometimes they'll fly when you get within 200 yards of them.
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We drove out across a ploughed field to this abandoned farm. Getting out of the truck
we could see pheasant tracks everywhere. Just on the other side of
this tree and cover we flushed four hens.
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Jim uses a burr comb to get those pesky burrs out of Jake's coat. Jim takes good care
of his hunting buddy. In the background you can see the trail across the field we
used to drive out to the farmstead.
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After the sun had been out for a while it actually got warm if you could get out of
the wind. That's how the pheasants feel too. Note even thought the snow isn't deep, there
are big drifts in the ditches. Some winters the snow is too deep to hunt this late in the
season.
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Jim and I tackle a large area of heavy cover. Jake is out ahead of Jim but can't be seen.
We turned to my left and started to see lots of tracks running away from us.
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Just over the rise perhaps two dozen pheasants eventually got up and flew. A few were roosters,
but none were close enough to shoot at. Here under a vivid blue winter sky we have found
an unusually large tract of un farmed land.
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Look carefully and you can see Jim and Jake walking out across a frozen field. Enlarge the photo by clicking on it and you will see them. Most of
the birds that flew went into the hedgerow between fields - you can see some small brush in
the hedgerow at right center. Notice my shadow in the foreground?
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I eventually made my way to the hedgerow too. Here is a photo of where a pheasant landed.
You can see where the wings and tail brushed the snow.
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The sun is getting low as we take one of our last walks for the day. There were tracks
at the bottom of this hill, but no birds. We saw 45 pheasants today, but only about four
roosters. Pheasants pair up for mating at about 1 rooster per 10 hens, so all is right
with the world.
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We didn't get any roosters today. Didn't even get a good shot. But it didn't matter.
If you only have fun if you shoot something, you are missing the point and the true
enjoyment of hunting.
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