Bird finding post rain this weekend:
Hunted solo Saturday morning at ~ 4000 feet. Got out there around 7 and had to sit in the truck for 40 minutes until the last shower passed. Started hunting around 8. Flushed about 4 birds when I got out of the truck. They were hunkered down in some thick stuff in a gully. Cut the dogs loose, but it was either a very small covey or a part of one that had been broken up earlier, as we did not find any more birds and I won't hunt a covey that small. Hunted for four hours without finding anymore birds in some very good looking habitat. The nice thing was that it never got above 45 degrees and the dogs never lost steam, plus there was water running in the creek bed.
Hunted again Sunday with a friend at ~ 1500 feet. About 20 degrees warmer than Saturday, and very little wind. Tough conditions for the dogs. Hiked about 45 minutes in some marginal looking habitat. Dogs were working a lot harder and coming in for water. Found a pretty fork shed. Heard some calling and headed for them. Got into a covey of 15-20 birds. Dropped a nice male on the initial flush and had some great dog work:
Pardon the crappy iPhone photos…
Pepper locked up.
Patsy locked.
Post hunt cool down.
After we pushed through that covey we went down the road to another spot with much better looking habitat. Pretty quick out of the truck the astro told me Patsy was on point. Really wasn't expecting to get into birds so quickly and I was reluctant to shoot that close to the road but walked in and flushed ~40 birds, one of the better coveys I've seen this year. Unfortunately a good amount of them flew onto private property. Still was able to hunt ~ 1/2 the covey that flew deeper onto public. Got some more good dog work and another male bird.
My findings this season are that in general, bird numbers are down. But there are isolated good numbers of birds in good habitat.