A blustery bird hunt

Mia on point

Both wind speed and temperatures were in the 30’s for our pheasant hunt last Monday and perhaps invigorated by the cold, Mia brought her A-game.

Mia exits the slew with the pheasants

Mia retrieves the pheasant

While hunting cattails near where I had parked, Mia went on point but lost the scent in the heavy wind. She continued working the cattails and kicked up a nice rooster. I dropped the bird in the slough and it took Mia awhile to find it, but she did and made a nice retrieve.

Mia refuses to come off point, but no birds

We continued hunting and Mia went on point again. I searched the brush and found nothing, but she refused to come off her point. It took awhile before I was able to convince her that there was no bird, and after doing her own search just to make sure, we moved on. It must have been a real hot spot.

Mia on point

Mia quartering nicely with the wind to our back

Hunting with the wind to our backs, we put up two hen pheasants and a rooster. By the time I put a bead on the rooster, it was flying away with a 30 mile-per-hour tail wind, so I let it go.

Mia on point in a grove of Russian Olive trees

We then hunted a grove of Russian Olive trees and put up two more roosters, but the trees were too thick to afford a shot.

muddy Mia and her pheasant