Larry Kleiner brought out his two German Shorthairs, Holly and Trigger, to get them tuned up before the opening of the wild bird season on Saturday.  Mark Meyer came along to get some practice wing shooting before the weekend.  I set out some quail in pairs in the Clubhouse field.  Holly and Trigger did their job finding nearly all and Mark followed up by knocking them down.  They should all be good to go this weekend, just hope they can find some birds.

Chris Lewis brought out his German Shorthair, Nitro, the “Live Action Dog”,  for a quail hunt with his colleagues, Tim Cincotta and Maurine Free.  I put out some small coveys of quail over at the north end of the Tinkerfarm, concentrating them mostly in the new milo strips.  Another hot, windy early season day and some of the birds wanted to run as much as fly through the thick milo.  Nitro found nearly all and a few leftovers in the fencerows and the group had a successful, enjoyable afternoon in the field.

Terry Knebel came out with his two friends Dave Schumacher and Jim Zupanci for an early season quail hunt.  Terry and Dave both needed to get their dogs on some birds before the wild bird season opens this coming weekend.  Sadie, Terry’s German Shorthair, and Dan, Dave’s Brittany, had a blast finding and pointing quail around the north end of the Tinkerfarm field.  We started early to avoid the heat from the record high temperature of 86 later in the day.  The guys even got a surprise to start out with a rooster pheasant being flushed from the first point. 

Mark Ing brought out his three sons, Joe, Jacob and Jordan for their first pheasant hunt.  They picked a warm day with temperature jumping up past 70 by 9:30.  After a little clay pigeon practice, we headed out into the clubhouse field with Curly, my German Wirehair as our guide.  The first couple of rises saw some birds that lost feathers but kept flying.  But, that didn’t last long and only one bird escaped the group the rest of the morning. 

Bill Warix redeemed himself with some nice shooting in this early season pheasant hunt.  Alan Feezel helped out on some long shots on hens, while the young German Shorthair Whip,  found all the birds in the big, thick clubhouse field. 

Chris Lewis came out with his German Shorthair, Nitro to take some friends, Tim Cincotta  and Dave Hartter on a pheasant and quail hunt.  Dave’s son, Seth, came along to take in the action and experience his first bird hunt.  I was able to get some pheasants and a couple quail coveys out in the clubhouse field between rain showers and drizzle.  The warm, rainy and windy day made it a challenging hunt, but Nitro was up for the challenge and found all the birds, but one quail. 

Kevin Diekroeger came out with his two buddies Ina and Penny for an early season quail hunt.  I put out a couple of big coveys in the Clubhouse Field and the Setter and German Wirehair pair found them.  I helped Kevin with the harvest as Karen donned the camera for the hunt.  A light to heavy drizzle muted the rises, but Kevin still had a chance at a slow motion triple. 

Greg Ireland brought out Daisy for some early season quail practice.  I put out some double sets in the Clubhouse Field, and Daisy found them all, she even found a left over pheasant.   The cover was thick and the air was thick with mist but the birds still performed nicely.  Great way to start out the season.

Bill Warix brought out his son Tony  and young German Shorthair, Whip for an early season pheasant hunt.  The birds were busting out of the thick cover and the summer rust was still on the wingshooting.  Whip found all the birds and a couple twice, the cool morning made for an enjoyable time in the field.

Zach Collins chose the last day of the season to have his first hunt of the season.  High of 48 and cloudy with a bit of wind, not bad for April 15th.  I emptied the bird cages of pheasant, chukar and quail and scattered them throughout the non-burned leftovers of the Clubhouse Field.  Yadi, the yearling Setter, got to go on his first hunt with a client along with Curly.   The seasoned wirehair and the setter pup did a fine a job and after getting through the pheasants, a couple of chukar and a quail covey, it was back to the kennels.  Sol, Mac and Doo got to play clean up and Zach shot well with only one pheasant escaping til next season.