1/07/05

Member Details:

Area Hunted

Southeast of Paddock Reservoir along a series small west facing ravines feeding into a wide grassy valley. This area is the next valley east of the large bowl Carl and I hunted last week.

Directions

From Boise head west on I-84. Take Exit 13 and go north to the T-intersection. At the T take a left and follow (20+ miles) until you come to Little Willow Road to the right. There will be a state recreation area sign to Paddock Reservoir.

Little Willow road will wind through a long agricultural valley and the number of pheasants and quail that you will see will leave most birds hunters drooling. Continue to the end of the paved road past Robertson’s Kennels towards Paddock. The private land in this area is extensive and the landowners are serious about prosecuting trespassers.

Hiking Rating

The hike is moderate.

Birds

Hungarian Partridge and chukar.

Baby Steps

The best day of the year! A limit of chukar? No. A limit of Huns? No. Just 3 Huns in the bag and lots of missed shots but it was a day for Zealot to shine. To understand my excitement you first need to understand the frustration of the first half of the hunting season. My 2-year-old shorthair that runs like a field trial dog spent a good portion of the first 2 months hunting on her own, not paying much attention to the supposed partnership we were meant to be enjoying in the field.

The day was overcast and there was about 4 inches of new snow on the ground, so the birds were holding tight. I was hunting the rolling hills just before Paddock Reservoir in an area I had heard some shooting the week before. I like hunting Hungarian Partridge. At this point they are my favorite bird to hunt. The series of small ravines with scattered clumps of vegetation promised to hold lots of birds.

From the spot I parked at the top of the larger main valley it was a little hike to good ground with cover. We were moving paralleling some large power lines. I was relaxed moving through the open ground not expecting anything to happen for another ¼ mile. Z had moved uphill and out of sight and when she did not reappear after a few seconds I moved in that direction. There she was, locked hard on point at the base of one of the power line towers. She was over a hundred yards away so I picked up my pace to get to her before the birds flushed. My excitement grew with each stride; she wasn’t flinching and the birds were holding tight in the snow and clumped vegetation. I was about 40 yards out when she started to creep. This is the cool part…I saw her start to move and called out a soft Whoa. She stopped dead again! It was beautiful, especially since it had to be her listening to my Whoa command, right? She remained there until I flushed the birds and the whole thing put a big smile on my face.

The next thing that happened and it happened with the next 2 downed birds was retrieving. Up to this point Z has shown little interest in dead birds, other than plucking a few feathers off. When a bird goes down she goes into cat mode. She chases it down, catches it, and then proceeds to torture a live bird by throwing and nudging it as if to say, “Ok bird, one more chance to run, I’ll even count to five, really!” If the bird is dead she just usually stands there plucking feathers until I come to get it from her. Well now when the “dead bird” calls went out we both were near the birds when she found them. I always try the “bring it” command before I move in to get the bird. Something was different and I sensed it and now that I look back at it I think she was holding them longer. She tossed the dead birds a couple times and started to move away from them but with a quick negative “aahhh” and pointing to the bird again with “bring it” she brought both of them to the hand! I was ecstatic. Like a father seeing a child take their first step I watched with pride as she retrieved her first wild birds and 2 in a row to boot. Ok, the retrieves were each only 5-10 feet but next time it could be 20 yards and then 30 yards and then who knows!