This has been one of the best seasons on quail I’ve seen since the early 2000’s. Perfect weather conditions and good habitat are by far the most important factors in producing birds. I love to chase scaled quail on the short grass, high plains of Colorado…it is by far my favorite type of bird hunting….
Author: birddogdoc
Have bird dogs...will travel. I enjoy chasing my setters and FB English Cocker in wide open spaces. (Fly fishing is something to get me between the bird dog seasons!)When not chasing my bird dogs, I'm thinking, reading or writing about bird dogs! The perfect day to me is hunting upland birds with my brother Andy in the bird rich Uplands of Idaho! There's nothing better than dogs on point and puppy breath! I love the tradition associated with upland gunning and birddogs. I'm also a classic America double gun enthusiast...nothing like carrying a 100+ y/o smooth bore on the short-grass prairie.
A Grouse Hunter’s Dream: Finding My Perfect Ithaca Double Gun
Here’s a link (click here) to Andy’s article Shotgun Life about finding the perfect grouse gun and his newly acquired Ithaca NID 20 bore. Great read Andy!!
Scaled Quail Photo Essay
Anyone that follows the Upland Ways knows of my affection for chasing scaled quail on the prairies specially in my home state of Colorado. The birds are here and with a little bit of effort, research and good bird dogs the birds can be found in decent numbers…at least enough to keep a couple guys…
Upland & Downstream Field Collars
A few weeks ago I was pouring through the September/October (2015) issue of the Shooting Sportsman magazine getting mentally psyched for my annual trek west to Idaho to bird hunt with my best friend and hunting partner…my brother Andy. I stumbled on a review by David Draper about dog collars for the hardcore bird hunter…darn!…
Colorado Grouse’n
Odd year! Dusky grouse season (generically known as blue grouse and still affectionately called so by me) began a week ago here in the Colorado high country. The cover looks spectacular and there are berries & bugs galore….but where are the birds? Higher or lower in elevation or were the spring rains to great for…
Love the Simple Things in Life: RST Classic Shotshell Co
My dear friend Walter gave me a biography on John M. Browning that sat on the shelf unopened…a few months ago, I dusted it off and read it. I grew up in the Ogden, Utah area and was familiar with the Browning Arms company name and knew that my ex-wife was a descendant of the…
Upland Ways 2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 35,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many…
SportDOG Blog Post on Essential Omega-3 FA’s in Sporting Dogs
Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Sporting Dogs
ImageSetters
Spent the past weekend with a great guy on the Colorado prairie…chasing scaled quail (the birds of my heart) and enjoying the upland life…grateful for what God has created & point’n dogs. Scott Johnson (formally of frozen Minnesota) is a ruffed grouse and woodcock aficionado. He and his family uprooted and transplanted to Paonia Colorado…
Tradition
Cool country, wonderful birds, tough dogs, soulful men… These are the enlightened words of a fellow pointing dog (foremost), scaled quail, & Spanish smooth-bore aficionado who I spent the day with this past Saturday. Sinewy Dave Kruger, MD and his leathery brother Kraig (both sadly plagued with Chukar-Hunter’s Disease) met up with me at 0’dark-30….
Cranberry-Honey Crisp Apple Jalapeño Jam
Brother Andy double-dog-dared me the other day to make a cranberry jalapeño jam which I enthusiastically accepted. I think he was trying to confuse me so that he could get out of our planned Black Friday chukar hunt. Well brother, it didn’t work and we’re still going to chase those cantankerous phookars come Friday next!…
Borrowed Dogs
I’ve been known to borrow some dogs. The first offense was in October 2011. Gary Thompson was steelhead’n on the Grande Ronde River in eastern Washington and the plan was to meet up with Andy and I in western Idaho for a few glorious days of bird hunting on his way back to Colorado. I…
Upland Ways 