Keith Criner, Tyler Ginn and JW Catt stopped by on their way to their annual duck hunting trip in central Illinois.  They left home a day earlier to enjoy some upland bird hunting and a night’s lodging at Sandy Run.  I stocked a mixture of pheasant, chukar and quail in the Clubhouse field and headed out with Curly to hunt them up.   They picked a beautiful warm and sunny day, so the birds were up and on the move.  Curly along with Mac and Sol found them all and a couple extra pheasant, some good shooting and the boys had a benchful of birds at the end of the hunt.

Mike and Al Tokoly with Rob Rothermel took a break from wild bird hunting to come out for a pheasant hunt on the Clubhouse Field.  .  The day became warm and windy and the birds got on the move. We started out with Curly, my German Wirehair Pointer, hunting the birds.  After finding most, English Setter, Mac and mutt, Sol, came out to find the leftovers.  The dogs did their job and we are able to get a lot of opportunities for the trio.

Phil Hocher put a chukar hunt together for his buddies, Mark Meyers, Bryan Douglass, and Rob Goodrich.  Phil’s Springer Spaniel, Mike, got the chance to flush the birds out of the milo strips at the north end of the Tinkerfarm Field.  My lab, Ty got a chance to help Mike at the end of the hunt as the warm morning and hard hunting started to wear the spaniel down.  This group had a blast chasing the birds on beautiful, fall day and came back with a pile of birds for dinner.

The newlyweds, Kevin and Karen Diekroeger, ended their honeymoon week with a quail hunt.  I placed some small quail coveys in the Tinkerfarm Field, mixed between the prairie edges and milo strips.  Penny and Ina, English Setter and German Wirehair, worked the strips and found the birds.  Kevin was able to knock down a couple of doubles, but the birds just wouldn’t cooperate to offer a chance at a triple.

Charlie Diecker came out with his brother Ron, son Brad, and friend Soap Chan for a pheasant and chukar hunt.  Brittany, Reagan and English Pointer, Lincoln worked the north end of the Tinkerfarm field hunting the birds.  The first freeze of the year burned off early and the day turned warmer and windy, keeping the birds on the run.  The dogs hunted the prairie and milo strips hard and found nearly the birds as well as a few quail. This was Soap’s first pheasant hunt and he was able to knock down his first pheasant as well as some chukar.

Bill Warix, son Tony, Alan Feezel and Randy Gray came out for a pheasant hunt with their German Shorthair, Whip.  A cool morning turned into a breezy, bluebird day which got the birds on the move in the Clubhouse Field.  Whip was able to pinpoint the birds on a tough day and hunters had their opportunities to knock ’em down.  Hannah helped guide and film this hunt, still working on getting the camera angles down.

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.