This land is your land.
This land is my land.
This land is our land.
This land is public land.
Beyond this sign in South Dakota live ducks, geese, cranes, songbirds, pollinators, deer, pheasants and sharp-tailed grouse in habitat created by hunters buying duck stamps.
It took me many years and many missed opportunities, but today was the first time I have ever bagged a ruffed grouse and a rooster on the same hunt. In fact, Esky pointed all three of these birds this afternoon. Super memorable and terrific meals in our future!
Today was an incredibly special one in the field with my 11 year and 9 month old "Trammell." As pheasant season winds down and her age climbs, there is joy in every walk I get with her these days. She is my dog of a lifetime!
@pheasants4ever
@SportDOGBrand
#TeamGSP
HYPOTHESIS: More wild game has been consumed in US homes during the last two weeks than any other two week period over the last 50 years. People have more time to thaw freezer items and plan meals. As a result, they are choosing wild game.
While I'm not a big fan of busting late season cattails, there is no doubt pheasants love and need cattails as winter thermal habitat . . . And sometimes after a fresh snow, a rooster will hunker for a German shorthair to earn a solid point.
@pheasants4ever
#pheasantsforever
Excited to report that Gitche and I bagged our first-ever spruce grouse last weekend off the Gunflint Trail. It was a young bird and it was delicious! (Note all the tail feathers on the ground as Gitche smacks her lips). 📸
@MStPete
#FANOutdoors
@CaptainKFAN
@KFAN1003
TO LOVE A BIRD DOG: A "golden hour" point led to this rooster's flush . . . 100 yards and 5 minutes later, Tram returned with this trophy. At the veteran bird dog age of 11, I don't know how many more spectacular moments we'll share afield, but this one I'll cherish forever!
One of these adorable little 49-day-old girls is going to join the St. Pierre pack in just a couple of weeks as "Top Gun Gitche Gumee v. St.Pierre" . . . call name "Gitch/Gitche." But which one????? w/
@MStPete
#TeamGSP
Up a hill, over a hill, down a two-track, across a berm, and ending in a tree grove. Esky saved the best retrieve of her ten hunting seasons to deliver a wing-tipped rooster to Nicholas St.Pierre today. I am absolutely amazed by the power of a dog's nose and a veteran bird dog's
“I do not ever hope to accumulate great funds of worldly wealth, but I shall accumulate something far more valuable, a store of wonderful memories. When I reach the twilight of life I shall look back and say I'm glad I lived as I did, life has been good to me.”
-- Sigurd F. Olson
Pictured is my first German shorthaired pointer, "Trammell," on September 15, 2007 on her first ruffed grouse opener in the UP. Lord-willing, my Trammell girl is one month away from reaching her 13th ruffed grouse opening weekend!
#TeamGSP
PHOTO BY
@Jo_1Queen
I'm so excited to be making my annual trip to
@SdVisit
/
@southdakota
in search of prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse behind my beloved shorthairs and with a few good
@pheasants4ever
friends. If you haven't been, it's a bucket list hunt you should make every year.
Little Gitche Gumee wanted to get right up to the palisade edge to get a clear view of Lake Superior. This little girl is going to be a handful with no fear in her DNA.
#TeamGSP
#lakesuperior
#gitchegumee
@LakeSuperior
Opening Day Grouse Report: 5 hours, 3 hunters, heard 15 grouse flush, 3 birds actually viewed, 1 shot, none in the bag. 2 doodles, but season opens next week. Rain ran us out of the woods at 5 after beautiful early afternoon w/
@MStPete
@mkucharski
1 of 2: 17 yrs ago, I chose a career with
@pheasants4ever
over a job with my beloved Detroit Tigers. While it was a difficult decision at the time, the org's habitat mission and the damn fine man on my right (Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever President & CEO Howard Vincent)
And with this ruff, my upland season refocuses on Kansas roosters, bobwhites, and maybe a scaled quail . . . with Arizona Mearns' on the horizon for early 2022.
Who else is ready to kick off their pheasant hunting season this Saturday? I'll be joining
@CaptainKFAN
at the Hildebrand Family Pheasant Camp for Minnesota's 2022 opener.
Where are you headed this weekend?
#FANOutdoors
/
@KFAN1003
Two. Decades!
I started working for
@pheasants4ever
and
@quail4ever
on this day 20 years ago.
Yes, the hemp necklace was a holdover from my previous career in minor league baseball :)