Pleasant Pheasant Hunting

Hello! Guest blogger Gabby here to document our pleasant pheasant...hunt.:)

Last year we went pheasant hunting with our neighbors, but we didn't see much, and didn't harvest anything. Also, it was bitter cold. 

The same neighbors invited us to go again this year. We looked at the 50 degree forecast, and we said, "YES PLEASE!" 

We were invited the day before they planned to hunt, so we didn't have to wait too long! Brennen, Graysen, and I were all excited for the hunt, but Caelan decided to stay at home.




We didn't have to get up too early (6:30) so that was nice! We bundled up in layers even though it was projected to be nice, and hit the road at 7:15. We followed our neighbor to pick up a friend of his, and then on to his family's property. We brought the boys' friend 'I' in our car, and they were laughing the whole drive. Dad and I were still not fully awake, so we just listened to them, and tried to wake ourselves up. 




Our first pheasant hunting spot was a grassy field with a strip of trees down the center. There were three hunters and four kids, so we spread two kids between each hunter in hopes of kicking up some birds. And we did! We saw three hens (of course we can't shoot those...) which was as much as we saw total last year. Graysen and I picked up a few interesting things on the tromp through the woods; hence this mushroom! (It was orange, and I liked it! I didn't eat it of course;)



We went to a couple more spots, but still only saw hens, so we tried a new strategy. The boys and I stayed with Dad and posted while the other three people we were with went down and around the field to try and rustle something up. They didn't rustle up the hoped for roosters, but they did take a couple shots at grouse! And they scared three or four deer which bounded quickly away before we could get a good look. 

We had a couple minutes before we went to the next spot, so we hung out in the Nitro and ate our snacks. Graysen was our snack packer and he was not stingy! The food was very much appreciated, and so were the waters. He made good food choices!

The second to last spot we were in seemed promising. There was water, tall grass, and movement. We scared a few pheasants up, and tried to sneak up on them. However, the dog that was with us got away and scared the pheasants even further away. I grabbed the dog a little too late, and we tried to find the birds again. We only scared hens. 

Our very last spot was a swatch of tall grass in the center of a cornfield. We were all pretty warm, and didn't really expect to see anything; it was more of a companionable walk than a hunt. 

We didn't see anything at this spot, but total bird sightings tallied about 16. 15 hens, one rooster. And the "rooster" might've been a hen. That's approximately 5x what we saw last year. Pretty good!

We had a lot of fun! It gave us a chance to hang out with our neighbors, take an extended walk in the outdoors, and I got to learn how to walk in heavy duty boots.:) (but really though; I'd never worn real boots before and it was an adjustment!) I sure hope we can go again next year!



(This random Nitro picture is brought to you by watching too many car commercials ;) I saw the Nitro parked on a rise, with the sun shining dramatically on it, and I thought "Oh, that looks like a car commercial!" So I took a picture :D)