We ran my GSP Mocha first and while she did her job; pointing a couple mature roosters under our feet, Rookie and I did not and both duffed the simple shot..
So we entered the river bottom and were in awe at the colors of Fall...
She ran hard and got birdy several times, but we came up empty after that. Even though it was in the 30's; Mocha worked up quite a sweat by 9 and after a 'very cool' dip in the Musselshell; and we headed back toward the house to switch her out for Suzie...
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And so the hunt continued.. as we circled several islands around the river bottom..
Once up on higher ground, and only moments after Alex showed us what the birds were eating; Suzie went on-point and a fat rooster presented me with a cross-the-river shot which landed in cattails on the furthest side...?!
After a lot of coaxing, which included both Alex and I leading the way up to our knees; eventually Suzie followed across the chilly stream and retrieved a fine pheasant to hand.
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While the river bottom produced a few hens; we didn't find any more roosters till we hit the huge pigweed field..
The pigweed will surely provide great cover in winter, as even in Fall (me at 6'5") I disappeared several times dwarfed by the large stems and fat sunflowers since sprouted last post...
Still, even though Suzie did her part and trailed the runner just right we did'n't follow close enough and he flew out of range at the end of the field and across the river toward safety untouched.
After this we headed toward the first realease-site in 'the upper-field'; where a dozen pheasant have taken residence for the first time in 5 years (presumably those from the first batch from surrogator)..
None were where we thought they'd be at the first site; so Alex suggested "a detour" so we ventured on toward another drainage instead..
Once we reached the end of this cover (birdless) I realized Alex does not really know the definition of the word detour; as we now had to exactly backtrack where we came from and I was slightly exhausted I might add.
So was poor Suzie, so we took a much needed break beneath the cliffs for about 15 minutes to cool down...where Alex was kind enough to remove a few dozen burrs from Szuie's coat..
The break offered a nice opportunity to study just how beautiful these creatures we hunt are; in all their colorful plumage...
A 'fine gun' for just about $150.00 (mine)...
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Back on track, Suzie quickly found the pheasants and after a wild flush we trailed two runners like a hound dog (a hen and rooster) toward a food plot where Alex took another handsome bird right under her nose...
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Just when our confidence was at its' highest a dozen sharptails we missed after a quick volley of number sevens; brought us back to the realization we were in land filled with smart birds and whether we put them in our game-bags wasn't always up to us...
Once back at the house, and after a quick lunch; Mocha seemed ready to go again and kinda bummed we'd bagged brids without her. So we gave Suzie a much needed rest and headed after sharpies and huns up top (of the ranch) and found some quite quickly.. Though again the misses outnumbered the hits..
Still, I managed to scratch down a single out front and Mocha was only happy to retrieve on a nice sharptail...
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Over a dozen pheasants seen easy, two large groups of over 40 sharps, and two very healthy coveys of huns (we didn't even get a shot off on); and I'd say it was a pretty fine day overall...Only a few birds to bag, but I was a guest so was missing on purpose so I'd be invited back LOL...
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The million-dollar question would be 'whether the pheasant we shot were banded birds' of course; and in truth they were not. But one was very young and when we ventured up toward the group of a dozen who'd taken up permanent residence in 'the upper field' (almost exactly where we released 60); we all were in agreement these were in fact surrogator birds. Half of them were hens too; which was the point all along. If they've made it this long and fly as fast as they do now all winter; they should make it into next spring..(well over 20 during both releases got away before we could band them)..
I'm not sure of the math behind it all but I'd estimate for every dozen we see and think they are surrogator birds; maybe a dozen or more are out there we might never.
Sure over 30 likely parished under the onsluaght of hawks and other predators; but the general consensus amongst family and friends who had visited the ranch in the past and seen two maybe three pheasant (harvested only one last year) and now see over 20; is "its working". Another Surrogator has already been ordered for next year because if it..
While Novemeber is devoted to deer hunting only and no birds hunted on the ranch; come December we'll be at it again; and hopefully take a couple more nice wise pheasant ...and maybe one will even be wearing jewelry to further prove the point...
We'll see...and I'll post about em when we do too...
Moe
