I live in southern NYS. Down here we really have no wild birds to speak of. There are plenty of preserves around that release a lot of pheasant but the just don't seem to over winter, or at least that's what I'm told. Seems if they can survive a winter in S. Dakota they should be able to survive in NY.

Grouse habitat is gone, the woods have matured, there is no farmland to speak of, no logging. I flushed one last year while deer hunting and it brought some hope to my heart.

Turkeys are the new Canada Geese, flocks on the sides of the highway, public parks, crossing the roads and stopping traffic. I suppose the may also have something to do with the paucity of the other species.

Last year I joined a "hunting club", small group, about 40 members. We lease about 2000+ acres and every year we release 3-400 pheasants. Every weekend there is a release, the birds just fly wherever they want and no one is allowed to pursue them for a couple of hours. It keeps me in contact with other hunters, keeps my head in the game and the tradition alive.

I was once taken to a preserve where we were handed a box of birds and told to "go use that field". Last time I ever went there.

Just this week I came back from a tip to VT where I hunted wild ducks in the early hours and then walked my ass off through some of the finestkind of tough underbrush looking for grouse and woodcock. I had some sucess, not nearly as much game brought home as the preserves but a thousand times the quality of experience. I hope to as much of it as possible. I am surprised if I don't find birds on a preserve but I still find it magical to find them in the wild, as though I'm witness to a secret world.

This is the price I pay to be close to saltwater fishing. Will trade stripers for grouse!

Preserves 80%, wild 20%.

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.
- Errol Flynn