Hunting Season 2009!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!! Pheasant Season has finally opened here in Minnesota, on October the 10th! Now we can go hunting anytime we want.

We missed the first two days of the season because we had an early snow and Mommy and Daddy had to get the farm and garden ready for winter earlier than normal. But we got out on Monday and even though it was snowing we found a whole bunch of birds.

Mommy and me went out at 10:15am, when it was 20 degrees F and snowing lightly. We drove to the Upper Field on the east border of our farm, on the other side of the the creek. We started out walking North along the tree row between the Upper and Lower Fields. When we did not find any birds there, we kept walking to the end of the tree row and then turned West. We walked all along the edge of the soybean field and still did not find any birds, so at the end of the field we turned again and headed South through the Small Meadow. There weren't any birds there, either, but as I passed through the gap into the Big Meadow, all of a sudden, I caught a whiff of some pheasants.

I followed the scent, but I was in such a hurry that I left Mommy behind in the Small Meadow and when I found the birds a rooster flushed and Mommy was only able to catch a glimpse of it through the trees, but she could not shoot at it.
Just as Mommy came through the gap I flushed two hens, right over her head. Since we only shoot roosters here, Mommy let the hens go. Then, I flushed another rooster, but this one flew right back towards the Small Meadow that Mommy had just left, and she could not shoot it, either! Right after that, another hen flushed, followed by a rooster which flew east through the woods away from where Mommy was standing, so no shot on that one, either. Man!! Six pheasants all at once- woo hoo!!! Now all we needed was to flush a rooster in Mommy's direction so that she could shoot it.

We looked all over the Big Meadow after that, but there were no more birds hiding in it so we left and went back through the Small Meadow again. I went all the way across to the tree line on the West side of the meadow this time and I flushed a rooster out of the woods. Mommy got a shot off just as it flew above some small trees, but, as usual, she missed it. While she was shooting, I smelled another bird so I kept hunting and flushed another hen.

Next we headed towards the swamp, and before I knew it, I found a hen and a rooster under a little clump of bushes just North of the Hog Trap Woods. When they flushed Mommy tried to shoot the rooster but her gun jammed and did not fire, so they flew away. That was disappointing, but Mommy said we might get another chance on another day.

Mommy wanted to try the woods again so we went back through the meadows and walked along the edge of the woods next to the swamp. All of a sudden, I caught some scent and took off so fast that Mommy could not keep up with me!
I ran way over by the creek and before I knew it I flushed two more hens! Good thing they weren't roosters because Mommy was way too far away to try to shoot them. Then, since I knew I was being a little bad, I went back to find Mommy.

We decided to head back towards the van, and walked all along the edge of the swamp, but we did not find any more birds. We wound up walking along the tree Line between the Lower Field and the swamp, and that was where I found another hen. She flushed right past Mommy, but of course, Mommy could not shoot her.

That ended our first day of bird hunting. Not bad- thirteen pheasants in lousy weather when we did not expect to find any. We went home, wet and tired, but happy after our first hunt of the season!