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Arizona Quail Hunting Log - December 2009 Hunts: 5 December, 18 December, 28 December 5 DECEMBER 2009
Pistol Pointing Mearns Covey - Ice Backing Today we headed down South for some good old Mearns Quail Hunting. The cloud cover was nice and for the most part the cool weather held up all day. At our first stop we spread out over the was with 4 dogs and 3 people. Almost right off Ice got really birdie in a patch of thick grass and went on point. Nothing flew up be we held our guns ready and right as she went on point for the second time a few birds jumped up and I shot one. Farther on down the was after walking for a while we found Pistol on point. I snapped a shot and walked in to see if there was anything there. (The dogs had pointed many times with out results, but we still wanted to give Pistol the benefit of the doubt.) As I walked in I spotted a young male on the ground and shouted out "birds" as the covey flew off.
Zeus Retrieving Mearns Quail I was able to get a bird and Zeus managed the retrieve. We didn't manage to find any more birds on this walk so we moved on to a new location. This location was a place we had hopped to stop last year, but didn't get the opportunity. This year we stopped and got out, but didn't expect much as the grass appeared to have been grazed down by cows sometime that summer. We walked the canyon anyway, and Doug managed to find a covey up one of the draws on our way back and get a bird out of that one. From there we moved on to a new area.
Terra Pointing Mearns Quail Single At this stop we didn't have to go far before we were into birds. The three of us were all able to get a bird out of this covey so we were pretty excited for Tim who was hoping for a limit and only had half a day to go! We continued up the canyon and were able to get into a few more covies. Terra nailed a single Mearns Quail and we missed it. As we worked the various covies we were had some great action with a lot of missed shots, but we got a few more birds. Unfortunately, aside from getting into a few covies I don't remember most of the details. Here are a few pictures from that walk.
Pistol Retrieving Male Mearns Quail
Ice Pointing Mearns Quail Covey
Mearns Quail Retrieve
Beautiful Country If you know where the above picture was taken...then you've already been there...if you don't...good luck finding it...let me know if you do.
Javelin We spotted this guy on our way to the next and final area. There was a group of 4-5 of them and they cruised on over the hill and down into the bottom of the next canyon. Quick little guys.
Ice Pointing Mearns Quail Covey At our final stop we were fortunate once again to get into birds right off. Ice pointed the covey, but they didn't fly right off so I gave her the okay. She moved up and pointed again about 10 feet up. This time birds flew and I was able to get one. We chased the covey around but the managed to elude us. The next covey was also pointed by Ice (above picture) and she held them nice. The birds flew all over and I was able to get one more.
Mears Quail Flushing As Ice brought in the bird I shot a few more birds flew up out of the bushes a few yards off from where the covey had flown out. Ice (with bird in mouth) spun around to see where they went...and it looks like from this picture that Johnny turned tail and ran away! We got into a bunch of singles and I was able to get a few more birds with a nice double.
Johnny Pointing Old Scent - Ice Backing Tim and I were working the hill side and Doug was down in the bottom when Johnny went on point. We moved in and nothing flew out. First point out of Johnny so I was happy when we found some birds down in the canyon.
Zeus Pointing Mearns Quail Covey - Terra Pointing Doug snapped the above shot while I was taking the one of Johnny and Ice. As he walked in the birds flew up to the side and behind him with most of them heading straight up the hill opposite from where Tim and I were. We saw basically where they went and so we hauled booty on over there. We bumped a few of the singles and had the dogs go on point many time, but never actually kicked up a bird at their point. These birds were holding tight and we were nearly stepping on them before they would fly.
11 Mearns Quail At the end of the day we had 11 birds and we had a great time walking the hills of Mearns Country after a year off. 13 DECEMBER 2009
Pistol & Ice Pointing Mearns Quail Covey's Last Known Location - 9:55AM In summing up a typical Mearns Quail Hunt you might say "I drive 8+ hours, walk around chasing dogs for 6+ hours all with the hope that there may be a few minutes of great dog work, wild flushes and fast shots." Today we went out chasing that dream. It was just Tim and I today, but we still managed to have a good time. At our first stop I turned out Pistol and Ice. We had walked for a while with a few points and numerous birdie moments, but no birds. We just weren't finding them. I'm not sure if it was the heat, or the fact that the birds had recently been pushed up the hills, but regardless, they just weren't there. Finally we had a solid point by both dogs. I snapped a picture and we walked in. Nothing. When I released the dogs Pistol ran off, but Ice was sure there was something there so she cautiously continued sniffing around. After a few moments Pistol ran over to the other side of the wash and when she was about 5 feet from the top of the other side of the hill she slammed on point, looking back towards us. "Point" I yelled out and boom...out flushed the birds. There were about 10 of them and most of them flew straight at us. We each took a wild shot and missed. Man that was fun. After chasing after singles and not finding any we moved on. We walked from 9am-11am and only found the one covey. Back at the truck we moved on to a new location to try our luck there.
Wounded Male Mearns Quail - 12:52PM This stop started out a lot better. We hadn't walked for more than 10 minutes when the dogs got birdie. Pistol went on Point and so did Johnny. The birds had moved on so we let the dogs go and that is when they started flying. The birds were spread out along the canyon floor and flew up as singles or doubles, but mostly out of range. I was able to hit one and after snapping a picture I had to help Johnny find it. This guy wasn't letting off any scent at all.
Pistol Retrieving Mearns Quail - 1:25PM This canyon proved to be a good one for finding birds. As we continued up the draw we found another covey about a quarter mile up that was about the same size as the last one. We were able to get into a few singles and we got a few birds.
Pistol Pointing Mearns Quail Covey - 1:44PM After that covey we worked down a bit further and found another covey. The coveis we had found in this canyon were all in the shade. This was a hot day and we were already out of dog water and I was already giving them my water. We headed for a windmill we'd seen and fortunately the tanks were all full of water. So we filled up the water bottles and let the dogs cool off a bit. Then it was back down into another canyon for our walk back to the truck.
Pistol With A Young Male Mearns Quail - 2:27PM On our way down the canyon Pistol went on point in a shady bend to the wash. On the other side of the wash the hill shot up at about 80 degrees and that is right where the birds went. I got one and he fell right near the top. Once we made it up there we looked unsuccessfully for singles. Moving back down into the canyon we saw what looked like a large covey of quail landing in the shad of a tree at the edge of a hill about 200 yards down. They looked small, but I was sure they were quail so we headed in that direction. When we got close Pistol went on point and we hadn't taken 10 steps when the birds started flying right out from where we'd seen them land. I shot one and then shot at another and thought I hit it, but it just kept flying.
Johnny Pointing Dead Mearns Quail - 2:30PM As we went on the chase for singles we had a few fly up right away, likely runners from the covey since they didn't fly up very far from where the others had flown out. As we came over the top of the hill and looked down I saw Johnny on point. After snapping a picture we worked down but nothing flew out. As I got close to his nose I saw a dead bird right behind the bush he was pointing at. He had found the other bird I thought I had shot. He had flown quite a ways before dying to have made it this far. We were able to get into a few more birds Tim got one and I shot one that we weren't able to find. I After that we made our way back to the truck to get some water and switch out dogs. *Note to self: Remember the duck and shoot story...It was nothing special, but sorry folks can't post it here.
Pistol and Ice Pointing Mearns Quail - 3:24PM We took a really short break as the day was quickly coming to a close and we only had about an hour and a half before sunset. We had parked the truck at the top of a hill so we had to walk back down to get into the canyon below. When we had almost reached the bottom Pistol when on point, then Ice came up and pointed too. Birds flew up and down and all around and I thought I hit one, but we never found the bird and Tim was sure I'd missed. We bumped up a few of the singles, but didn't connect with any of them. (Later...on our way back up the hill...we came up the same way and found a few more of the birds, but didn't get any good shots.)
Pistol Retrieving Female Mearns Quail - 4:01PM Back down in the canyon we'd walked for about 30 minutes and found nothing. Then finally, when we were ready to turn around Ice went on point. We moved in and nothing came up so the birds must have moved on. We let the dogs work the area for a bit and then moved on to the other side of the canyon to head back to the truck. On the way back we moved up a small canyon to our left and found Pistol pointing. I worked in on the right and before I reached Pistol I looked down into the eyes of a male Mearns Quail. I yelled quail and they started to fly.
Ice Retrieving Female Mearns Quail - Tim in The Background - 4:04pm We moved up the canyon looking for singles and got into a few right away. I was able to get a female as she made her escape. After that we moved back to the truck and like I mentioned earlier we got into a few of the birds from the covey we'd hit coming down the hill, but didn't see anything else between this last covey and those few birds.
10 Mearns Quail - 4:54pm Back at the truck we counted up the birds and found that I had my first limit of the season. Tim actually doubled his bird count from the 5th...he went from 1 to 2 birds. Good job Tim! We left the house in Mesa at 5:00am and I pulled into the driveway at home around 9:30pm, my timer showed 8:14 minutes of driving time. In all we walked for about 6 hours. And based on giving each covey we worked an average of 2 minutes we had a maximum of 20 minutes of "action" (8 covies x 2 minutes each...and I think that's pretty generous seeing as how some flushes and subsequent shooting happens in a matter of seconds). Some people think we're crazy...I think they're right...and I love it! 28 DECEMBER 2009
YoYo Hunting Quail This morning I delivered a horse to a gal that lives near Sierra Vista so I took the opportunity to go and do some quail hunting. I took my 8 month old pup out for her first hunt to see what we could get her into. I started out trying to find some new places to hunt Scaled Quail and Gamble's Quail with absolutely no luck what so ever. We walked around, drove around and finally gave up and headed for Mearns Country.
Javelina In The Hills On the way I ran across a nice sized herd of Javelina. There were 12 total including 2 babies. I raced over the other side of the hill and caught up to one of them on the other side. Man those little devil's can move.
Pistol Pointing Mearns Quail Covey By the time I made it out to Mearns Country it was already 2pm so I didn't have a lot of time to hunt. We hit a canyon up high in the hills and saw sign right off so I was encouraged. We had walked for nearly 40 minutes before we finally got into birds. Pistol pointed and after snapping a shot I walked in and nothing flew up. Then I turned and took 2 steps and boom...out came the birds.
Male Mearns Quail One bird flew right out in front of me and made for a nice shot. There were only a few birds in the covey so I moved on. I wondered if there were more and thought this might just be a portion of a larger covey, but in circling around we didn't find any other birds so we moved on.
Pistol Pointing - Johnny & Ice Backing Did I mention I love the clock on my camera. It helps to track time between birds etc. It was nearly an hour later that we finally got into another covey of birds. We had started our loop back to the truck and were coming up what looked like a really promising canyon. Unfortunately if we were to follow it all the way it would have taken us in a direction away from the truck and since it was getting late we only worked a small portion of the canyon. Fortunately we didn't have to go far before I found Pistol and Johnny pointing. Ice quickly showed up in back and made for a nice picture. The covey was actually between Pistol and I vs. where her nose was pointing so it surprised me when the birds flushed up.
Pistol Retrieving Male Mearns Quail Unlike the last covey this covey was pretty big. I would say around 15-20 birds. I shot one and watched him go down and then shot another. Pistol came back with the 2nd bird and I never did find the first one. I've been known to think I hit a bird only to have a hunting partner say...I didn't think you hit one...well...since I had no hunting partner I figured it would be easy to say I hit it and just lost it without any disagreement. We moved on in the direction that some of the birds had gone and I was able to bump one, but missed the shot.
Two Male Mearns Quail It was almost an hour before we made it back to the truck. I really wanted to get into some more birds so after I made it back, I took the last bit of the day to run my little pup. She ran good, but we didn't find any more birds. In all it was close to 3 hours and with 2 coveys found. Made for a fun end to the day. I'll go back to this spot again before the year is up. ∞ Back to November 2009 or go to January 2010 |
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