COVID-19 was hard on everyone. When the lockdown came in Idaho in March of 2020, winter still maintained its chilling grip on the landscape, and even though the seasons all came that year, the isolation from other people and the fear you saw in their eyes made it seem like Ol’ Man Winter never really…
Category: Grouse Dogs
THE MAKINGS OF A GROUSE DOG
“Ruffed grouse dogs are bred, not born, and once born they are developed, not made.” –George Bird Evans, An Affair with Grouse Author’s Note: I wrote this story clear back in 2018, Rainey’s second season of hunting. It was accepted for publication in a prominent bird dog magazine and then the magazine editor retired and…
Sorta-double at Grouse Rock: A Continuation of Day Four in the Idaho Uplands & a Scaled Quail Pictorial Saga
A wise man once stated that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. After hunting the Windy Mills covert on Wednesday, we decided to drive over to Grouse Rock in search of Ron and Andy’s favorite game bird—the ruffed grouse. (I know…they’re both nuts…what more can I…
Colorado Grouse Camp 2017
Smoke and heat was the theme for our annual Colorado grouse camp this year. High above the Colorado river is where I started my day off…but not a single bird was located before the temps hit into the mid 80’s. Surprisingly, this area has been very productive in the past but that day we…
Ghosts & Ranchers
A windsept shortgrass prairie full of cholla, prickly pear, soapweed yucca, blue grama and buffalo grasses, prairie sage wort and junipers were the settings for a great day of chasing scaled quail in the canyon lands of eastern Colorado. Our first solo trip for the season. A time to run my 6 month old coverdog…
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…
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…
Samples
Bird dogs are in my blood. The Colorado prairie, though, has gotten under my skin. The loneliness and endless sea of sand-sage, yucca, saltbush, prickly-pear, and cholla…called home to very few…mangy coyotes, desert tortoises, and horned-larks but also my beloved quail. The incessant wind calms in the eve as the shadows grow longer and the…
Current Field Dog Vaccination Guidelines
Here’s my latest contribution to Strideaway.com on the 2011 AAHA Vaccination Committee’s Guidelines. Next Strideaway topics on canine medicine will include 10 top useful tips and understanding canine pyometra disease. Setter Feathers…
Chukar Hunters On-Line
CHUKAR HUNTERS ARE DIFFERENT, so different from our other game birds that they are developing their own cult of hunters— Charley F. Waterman Hunting Upland Birds I’m waiting patiently for gobbling turkeys and caddis flies here in Colorado as the snows continue to fall on my Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Six inches this morning matter…
The Start of the Crazies
Perfect Colorado weather for a last jaunt across the short grass prairie in search of scaled quail. Bitter-sweetness…the company was grand and the dogs grander! Plans are drawn and dog purchases are being made for the coming fall! I can hardly wait! Idaho for 2 weeks for certain! Pray for the perfect weather conditions and…
Upland Ways 