It is a shame that in most areas housing has taken over and the only fauna that co-exists is deer and turkeys, especially in the area I live in. At one time this area was a pheasant hunters dream. You could start in the morning and hunt the alfalfa fields and put birds out all the time, hunt the heavy cover later and hunt the same alfalfa late in the afternoon as the birds were coming back to roost.
That has all changed, the state doesn't care any more for the upland bird hunter, they are catering to the deer and turkey hunters. It is true that a lot of this new farming is now leaving less "patches" of cover, and that the CRP program is not doing any good because there are no birds to use it.

It will never come back, pen released birds very seldom make it through the winter and if they do couldn't find a mate to establish anything with all the foxes and now coyotes.
So if you want to have a bird dog, they need birds, and released ones are the only choice, either state released, which is a joke, or buy some yourself and stock them. It is not the same as wild bird hunting, but you do what you have to do.

Last edited by JDW; 12/02/11 09:46 AM.
David