Greetings from the prairies.
We've been hunting Saskatchewan for 10 days as of today and it's been fabulous. Everywhere we go people are telling us they're seeing more birds this year than they've ever seen. We've found the same to be true. There are more than enough to keep your interest level at a very high state.
The weather, however, has not been kind. It's unseasonably warm, and that's not good for hard-working dogs or out-of-shape hunters. One day last week the temperature hit 86. We've been forced to hit the fields early in the morning, take a mid-day break, and then go out for a couple hours in the evening. We've seen plenty of birds though, so it's not really so bad.
The dog work has been exactly what I expected. Yesterday I wanted to kill my dog, today I want to kiss her. Yesterday she had a bit of trouble understanding that she's a pointing dog. The only good solid point I got was on a big rooster pheasant, and non-residents can't shoot them. Within an hour this morning she'd pointed, held, and delivered to hand my daily limit of sharptailed grouse. Go figure. All-in-all I've been satisfied with her performance, and my buddy's dog is a real pleasure to watch. He's covers ground like no shorthair I've seen and every point is a production!
As with every trip I make to the prairies, especially the Canadian ones, I'm most impressed with the people. Everybody goes out of their way to help you. I was getting some gear out of the truck the other day when a farmer jumped off his tractor to tell me that he'd just flushed a covey of Huns into a fence row, and that I'd be more than welcome to take my dog down there and have her "hunt em'up."
Next day a truck pulled along side ours on a dirt road in the same area and a young man wanted to know if we wanted to follow him to where there were a lot of birds. We ended up hunting the rest of the day with him. He hadn't really been hunting, but had his shotgun with him, and had never hunted over a pointing dog. He was one of the nicest young guys I've ever met, not surprising in that the farmer I'd met the day before was his dad. We met up with him late in the afternoon and he actually apologized about the fact that we hadn't seen birds by the hundreds. They then offered us a room in their farmhouse if we come back next year.
The world could use more people like Boyd and his son Adam!
n Don Steese of Northumberland writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Item. E-mail comments to jdsteese@yahoo.com.
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Don Steese's Outdoor Perspectives column: Bird hunting is hot
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