That said, try convincing this to someone who just walked for an entire day only to kick up one hen.  Or, someone who suddenly became dog-less. Sometimes the slow days make our minds wander and cause even the most dedicated upland addicts to question what exactly they’re doing. But for every moment we start to question, life seems to throw us unexpected reaffirmation. We love it. Both the good and the bad.

So as the rest of the hunting blogosphere starts reflecting about how this past year was ______ (insert: great/fun/hard/too short… etc.), I’ll leave you with a video that accurately sums up my 2011-2012 upland season. The good? I “found” some birds. The bad? My dog wasn’t always there to find them for me. The result? The realization that no matter what, if you’re lucky enough to be hunting, you’re simply lucky enough.

I’ve seen pointing labs and retrieving setters, but flushing deer? This is getting ridiculous.

The Over/Under blog is written by Andrew Vavra, Pheasants Forever’s Marketing Specialist.

Hunting Fort Riley in Kansas from left were Conner Greening, Nicholas Dombrowski, SGM Mark Dombrowski (active duty, Nicholas’s father), Tom Greening (PF member and Tom’s father), Alan Hynek, (PF member; Fort Riley Conservation Branch Chief ) and Shawn Carlson, (PF member).

Three gun dogs struck point, hard, not 10 feet before me. I pulled up my 20 ga. just before a bobwhite broke right. My first shot was behind, but the second put him down.

It was an exciting moment at the Fort Riley Army Base with the Fort Riley Pheasants Forever chapter in south central Kansas. I was also hunting last Friday with members of

Alas, the author with the last bird of the 2011-12 hunting season. Farewell, it was a good one. Let's hope 2012-13 is as good.

the Flint Hills Quail Forever chapter. Both chapters work hard to improve habitat for quail at the 100,656-acre Fort Riley Army Base, most of which is open to public hunting for a small fee.

For you history buffs, the fort was founded in 1853 and was named after Major General Bennett C. Riley, who ran interference against understandably upset Native Americans on the besieged Santa Fe Trail. The base, home to about 25,000 people on any given day, was also once home to the late General George Armstrong Custer.

Not only was the quail hunting exciting at times, but the live fire too. Yes, at one point we were directly beneath the flight path of 105mm artillery shells flying overhead. We also heard 50 cal. machine gunfire off in the distance. Of course, we were hunting far from any firing or impact zones. It was fascinating, though. I always wondered what real artillery fire sounded like. My thanks to our armed forces at Fort Riley and elsewhere, especially overseas, for their service!

As we hunted the expansive prairie and wood lots, civilian Alan Hynek, Fort Riley PF chapter leader and base conservation branch chief, explained the many things the chapter is doing to improve habitat for quail, but also for pheasants, prairie chickens, elk, deer and endangered Topeka shiners, piping plovers, least terns and much more. The chapter’s work includes controlled burns, native plant restoration, food plots, tree control, base youth hunts and much more.

Read more about this interesting adventure in coming issues of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever magazines. If you can’t wait to learn more about Kansas, attend our National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic Feb. 17-19 in Kansas City.

The Nomad is written by Mark Herwig, Editor of the Pheasants Forever Journal and Quail Forever
Journal. Email Mark at MHerwig@pheasantsforever.org.

I’m guessing this sharp-tailed grouse and rooster pheasant were the last birds taken off this CRP land before it was plowed under.

6,526,717.   That’s how many acres currently under a CRP contract are set to expire this autumn.  If you thought last hunting season was tough, think about the ramifications to pheasants, quail, ducks, deer and our nation’s water quality if we lose 6.5 million acres more of critical habitat created by CRP lands.  The clock to re-enroll those acres started this morning when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new CRP General Signup.

Here are the key pieces of information on the upcoming signup:

• Timing: Starting date is Monday, March 12^th and it will run through Friday, April 6, 2012
• EBI: Offers for CRP contracts are ranked according to the Environmental Benefits Index (EBI). USDA’s Farm Service Agency collects data for each of the EBI factors based on the relative environmental benefits for the land offered. Each eligible offer is ranked in comparison to all other offers and selections made from that ranking.  EBI rankings will use the same factors as the 2011 CRP general signup.
• No Acre Target: The USDA has said there is no current acre target for this signup, so it’s critical that all landowners with an interest in enrollment check out their options at their local USDA Service Center.
• Technical Assistance: Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Biologists are eager to assist landowners make the most competitive offers possible.  Contact your local Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Biologist.
• National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic 2012: All attendees to this year’s event in Kansas City can sit down with a biologist and receive one-on-one expert advice on their CRP offer or any other federal conservation program.  Stop by the Landowner Habitat Help Room at the show to learn more.

At last year’s National Pheasant Fest in Omaha, USDA Secretary addressed our attendees, “Over the past 25 years, support for CRP has grown thanks to strong backing from partners like Pheasants Forever, farmers, ranchers, conservationists, hunters, fishermen and other outdoor sports enthusiasts.  Not only has CRP contributed to the national effort to  improve water and  air quality, it has preserved habitat for wildlife, and prevented soil erosion by protecting the most sensitive areas including those prone to flash flooding and runoff.”

If you know a landowner interested in CRP, make the call and get them informed on the new CRP General Signup.  The clock on 6.5 million acres is ticking.  The pheasants and quail that call those acres home are depending on us.

The D.C. Minute is written by Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Government Relations.

Habitat is the key for pheasants in winter and all year long.

During the coldest month of the year, January, pheasants require twice the energy they burned in October. Yet with adequate habitat, their body fat content can be at its highest in January.

Pheasant bio-energetics requires the birds have three cover types to help survive the coldest of winters. The cover types are roosting, loafing, and food cover. Winter habitat includes grass cover for roosting at night, trees and shrubs to loaf in during the day, and food.

The purpose of each is to reduce the pheasants’ vulnerability to predators, to reduce the birds’ energy requirements, and to increase the body fat content of hens for spring nesting. For each 160 acres, 5 acres should be set aside to provide each of these covers. The relationship of theses covers to each other is also important. Ideally, each cover requirement should be located next to the other, or at most, one quarter mile apart.

With the first deep snow or ice storm, people start to worry about pheasants starving. Keep in mind though, that death due to starving during inclement weather is extremely rare if they have adequate winter habitat. The importance of habitat year-round is paramount to pheasants.

The Big Spur Blog is written by Jesse Beckers, Pheasants Forever’s Regional Wildlife Biologist for North Dakota. If you have a pheasant habitat or pheasant biology question for Jesse, email him at JBeckers@pheasantsforever.org.

While “Sprig,” my now 3-month-old English cocker pup, has been getting healthy doses of basic obedience and plenty of play time, I’ve been looking for signs that I’ll have a legitimate hunting dog on my hands. I like her energy, willingness to explore new environments and a nose that’s constantly “on.” When I picked her up, the breeder – who also trains, trials and hunts extensively – gave me one piece of advice that I’ve held above all else: “Make retrieving an addiction.”

Starting with a glove in the apartment and graduating to a tennis ball, Sprig has shown natural retrieving instincts and, most importantly, seems to enjoy it. Next we’ll move outside with a dummy and, since it’s been an unseasonably warm winter in the upper Midwest, some light grass.

What did you see in your pup early on that got you excited about your future hunting buddy?

Previous “My First Bird Dog” posts:

• Puppies: What the Training Manuals Don’t Say
• Introducing “My First Bird Dog”
• What I’m Looking For
• Gun Dog Experts’ #1 Piece of Advice
• Just Show Me the DOGFAX
• Why Attend a Hunt Test or Field Trial?
• What Was Your First Bird Dog?
• Stuck Between Two Litters
• Rationalizing the Sticker Shock
• Best Bird Dogs for an Apartment
• When everyone’s a Dog Expert
• Meet My First Bird Dog!

Anthony’s Antics Afield is written by Anthony Hauck, Pheasants Forever’s Online Editor. Email Anthony at AHauck@pheasantsforever.org and follow him on Twitter @AnthonyHauckPF.

Somebody opened a treat jar somewhere!

• I believe bird dogs take on personality traits of their owners.

• I believe bird dogs “recognize” individual dogs they’ve “met” before.

• I believe my bird dog can hear the lid of her treat jar from distances greater than sound should be able to travel.

• I believe my bird dog knows if we’re hunting for pheasants versus ruffed grouse when she leaves her truck kennel by assessing the habitat around her.  A forest equals ruffed grouse, while grasses equal pheasants.

• I believe bird dogs recognize their own kind.  Released into a group of other bird dogs, I’ve watched golden retrievers sniff other goldens first, Labs sniff Labs first . . . same goes for shorthairs, Brittanys, and springers.

• I believe bird dogs are the key ingredient to getting a new generation interested in bird hunting and wildlife habitat conservation.

• I believe bird dogs equate blaze orange with “it’s time to go hunting,” even if they don’t see colors the same way their human hunting counterparts see colors.

• I believe bird dogs enjoy fireplaces, sleeping in on Sundays and quality habitat as much as his/her hunting master.

• I believe if you name your bird dog “Trouble,” “Tank,” “Precious,” or “Crash,” then that dog is going to live up to their dubious name.

What about you?  Are there things you believe about your bird dog that may be considered a little left of center?

The Pointer is written by Bob St.Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing.  Follow Bob on Twitter @BobStPierre.

(left to right) Bob St.Pierre, Howard Vincent, Kim Price and Dave Nomsen in 2008

I remember the first time I ever met Kim Price.  It was at SHOT Show in 2005.  Pheasants Forever was investigating the formation of Quail Forever and Kim owned Covey Rise, the nation’s only monthly publication dedicated exclusively to the bobwhite quail.

“I bet you couldn’t even hit a quail over a pointed covey,” Kim poked me.  “Son, after shooting those basketball-sized pheasants all fall long, a covey of quail would eat you alive.”

It turns out Kim was right about my shooting prowess, but he grossly underestimated the survival instincts of a flushing rooster.

“B Saint P, that basketball was hummin’,” Kim giggled after a rooster flushed behind two empty barrels of his over/under a few years later on a South Dakota prairie.

Kim was a man who favored over/under shotguns, laughed easily, recognized good habitat, loved bird dogs, enjoyed writing and appreciated solid journalism; which is to say we were fast friends.

Around the marketing department, my team affectionately referred to Kim as “Sweet Home” referencing his Alabama roots, southern drawl and steadfast support for our PR efforts.  As you probably heard, or inferred by now, Kim passed away last week after a lengthy battle against cancer.  He was a champion for quail and for pheasants, he was the epitome of a professional, and he is a friend I will miss forever.

I conducted the following Q&A for a blog post last year.  I thought it appropriate for all of you to learn a little more about my friend Kim from his own words.

Kim N. Price

Born in what town:  Alexander City, Alabama

Current Town of Residence: Alexander City, Alabama

Family: Wife, Janet; Chilluns, Whitney, Matt, Chase, & Griffin

Occupation: Owner and President of Price Publications, Inc. , publishers of three weekly newspapers and Covey Rise, national quail hunting publication

Dogs:  Baxter, a Boykin Spaniel and Herkimer, Collie/lab mix

Favorite place to pheasant hunt: South Dakota

Favorite place to quail hunt: Thomasville, Georgia

Favorite pheasant hunting shotgun: Beretta Lightweight 12- gauge

Favorite quail hunting shotgun: Browning Citori 28-gauge

Best pheasant hunt of your life was: My first time six years ago in Clark, South Dakota, and my last time in Kansas.

Best quail hunt of your life was:  Albany, Texas at the Stasney Cook Ranch. We saw probably 60 coveys on the roads driving into the ranch, and over the next two days the dogs found about 70 coveys.

How did you first get involved with Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever? I was asked to serve on the national board to help institute Quail Forever as part of a national organization seeking to restore quail populations across the Northern Bobwhite’s landscape. I also serve as treasurer now. 

What is your favorite aspect about serving on the National Board? Conservation is my life and PF/QF is truly all about conservation. Our board is made up of dedicated conservationists who give of their time to work on important conservation issues whether locally at a chapter meeting, at a quarterly national board meeting, a committee meeting or working on pushing conservation issues in Washington, D.C.

What is the single biggest challenge facing Pheasants Forever in the future?

My biggest concern not just for PF/QF, but for all conservation organizations is the loss of critical conservation programs in the 2012 Farm Bill. That one issue is the great challenge for Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever. Fortunately, PF/QF is the hands-down leader in conservation work in Washington on the Farm Bill and PF/QF has an awesome respect among the decision-makers – I know because I’ve seen it in person. It’s about habitat. The loss of sensitive brood rearing habitat and food cover areas that could get plowed under due to a lack of Farm Bill program funding could be disastrous. The Conservation Reserve Program alone helped return pheasant populations to the landscape and without CRP and other conservation-friendly programs, pheasants, quail and other upland species are in for a rough time down the road.

Times are bleak for America’s bobwhite quail.  What is it going to take to turn the tide?

Habitat restoration. I know that sounds basic, but it is. States with on-the-ground programs are making a difference using federal and state programs available to landowners. That is key. Since the 1980s bobwhite quail have lost much of their reproductive and successional habitat. Farming practices changed, timber practices changed and fire was removed from the habitat for too long. That closed the timber canopy – ever heard of Kudzu – and quail had no place to live under the tall Southern pine forests. Predators began dominating the shadows and populations started declining in the 70s. By the 1980s, some states, like my own Alabama, had seen as much as 80 percent to 90 percent loss of bobwhite populations. That is significant. Quail Forever’s goal is to get as many on-the-ground chapters working with as many individual landowners on a contiguous basis to promulgate quail restoration. Along with state wildlife quail biologists – many who serve on the National Bobwhite Technical Committee – and federal agencies like the Farm Service Agency, we can work together to make this happen. In a perfect world, the “Deep South” would have just as many Farm Bill biologists helping landowners plan, plant and burn so the landscape benefits Mr. Bob. I asked FSA Administrator Jonathan Coppess at the recent Pheasant Fest in Omaha if it is possible for states and FSA to team up with QF chapters to get these Farm Bill biologists on the ground. He said he would work to help us notify his state managers in the south. That cooperation is what it will take because it represents the biggest opportunity for faster landscape change. Then, we will see bobwhite populations return. They may never get back to the 1960s, but they’ll be back to a point you can go on the back porch and hear that ole man whistle again.

I’ll miss you Sweet Home.  I’ll rejoin you down the road for a hunt, so remember to leave a few birds in those coveys for seed.

The Pointer is written by Bob St.Pierre, Quail Forever’s Vice President of Marketing.  Follow Bob on Twitter @BobStPierre.

Part of the Benelli family, all Franchi shotguns are Italian made and will be on display in Kansas City at National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic coming up next month.

Check out this fantastic video of the new Instinct L:

The Pointer is written by Bob St.Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing.  Follow Bob on Twitter @BobStPierre.

Over the last decade, Pheasants Forever’s Visa card, brought to you by U.S. Bank, has helped to raise more than $500,000 for Pheasants Forever’s wildlife habitat conservation efforts. Local Pheasants Forever chapters* use the gun as a raffle prize for members who apply for the card at the banquet.

The TriStar Setter S/T 12 Gauge Over/Under will be appearing at Pheasants Forever banquets in 2012. For your chance to win:

• Attend your local Pheasants Forever banquet
• And apply for the Pheasants Forever Visa  card at that local banquet – absolutely free

You’ll be entered to win the TriStar Setter S/T to be given away that night. It’ll be the cheapest raffle you enter, and even if you don’t win, feel good about the fact that all cards give a percentage of every net purchase back to Pheasants Forever.

The TriStar Setter S/T 12 Gauge Over/Under.

*Participation in the Pheasants Forever Visa Program is optional for Pheasants Forever chapters.

Field Notes are written and compiled by Anthony Hauck Pheasants Forever’s Online Editor. Email Anthony at AHauck@pheasantsforever.org and follow him on Twitter @AnthonyHauckPF.

We are very much looking forward to working with Senator Klobuchar in crafting a strong conservation title in the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill.

Here is Senator Klobuchar addressing Pheasants Forever’s 2012 Minnesota State Convention in a video message:

The D.C. Minute is written by Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Government Relations.