I can be a little melancholy this time of year. It’s late January, and here at least, the bird hunting season closes at the end of the month.
That’s Saturday. Three days away.
I’ll be at work until the end of the week, so if I’m hunting again this season, it will have to be Saturday. I’m not yet sure if I’m going, however. We’ll see how the weather looks in the morning.
The Arctic Express that rolled across the continent this week has been my foil. Saturday is forecast to be in the high 20s. That’s doable for bird hunting, but not ideal. The 40s are better, obviously. You can plan for the 40s. An extra layer will do the trick.
The 20s are a little more complicated. Still, another, or thicker layer should do for me. There’s plenty of walking when you’re hunting upland birds, so if the wind isn’t bad, I will be fine. But it doesn’t necessarily work out that way for my dog.
Jade always wants to hunt, but when the temperature drops below freezing, I begin to worry. English setters don’t develop heavy winter coats and Jade’s fur is as wispy as August. She’ll hunt. She’ll also go too long and too hard in that cold if I let her.
Then there’s the matter of scent. The colder the air the less moisture it holds. Even at 100% humidity, 20-degree air is almost bone dry. It may be saturated, but saturation at that temperature is a lot less than at 50 degrees, which is about perfect for bird hunting.
Dry air makes for miserable scenting conditions for a bird dog. They can still find birds when it’s that cold and dry, but it’s certainly harder.
And if you think all that cold is tough on dogs, consider what it does for birds. I’ve got pheasant and bobwhite quail where I live. Pheasant are tough birds, and so are quail. Pheasant run 2 to 3 pounds, but bobs, the smallest of the American quail, top out at 7 or 8 ounces. Smaller birds are more susceptible to frigid winter weather, so coveys huddle in circles, tail-to-tail, under heavy cover to survive through the night during the worst of it.
Coveys need about eight birds to fend off freezing temperatures. Anything smaller and the birds might not generate enough heat to survive. Bobwhites live in the harshest winter climates of all the American quail. Mountain quail deal with similar winter conditions, but this species is the only American quail that migrates. Mountain quail migration is up and down elevation, however, rather than from one climate zone to another.
There’s nowhere for bobwhite quail to go to get out of the cold. So, they need plenty of body heat, and that means big coveys, to survive the next two months.
I went out before that cold snap hit and found two coveys, neither of which offered a shot. The first covey was about eight to 10 birds. Jade found them in tall grass along a fence line. They flushed out in a nice, unobstructed arc. It would have been a double opportunity if they’d waited for me to get in shooting range before they flew.
I’m glad they didn’t. I probably would have shot but losing two or three birds could put that covey in jeopardy if winter really gets rough.
That second covey Jade pointed was a doozy of 20ish birds. They were in a red cedar windbreak, however, and with one shooter it’s hard to get those birds to cooperate. They flushed out the other side of the break, and the cedars prevented me from marking where they landed.
There’s room to take more birds out of that covey without leaving them short for winter.
If I get out on the season’s final day, I know where I’m headed.