Excerpt from “Amid Whirring Wings”
“Bob White” Shrill and clear, from thicket near, A song within the woodland ringing, A treble note from silver throat The siren of the fields is singing— “Bob White! Bob White!” And from the height, an answer sweet Floats gently o’er the rippling wheat— “Bob White!...
Sporting Classics 10 Years Ago – A Woman’s Place
From the November/December 2008 Woman's Place column of Sporting Classics Magazine. Augusts full moon – the “dog days” moon relating to the rising of the Dog star Sirius - has a chorus of coyotes baying at the fringes of mv suburban neighborhood. My aging Shetland...
A “Typical” Duck Hunt
Many of my non-duck hunting friends often inquire about what is so special about crawling out of bed way before the sun even thinks of spreading its golden rays, swigging down a couple of quick cups of coffee, then loading the duck boat with decoys, shotguns and all...
A Walk on the Wild Side
By two weeks into the season, I’m convinced that every pheasant in South Dakota has handily passed a Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) program worthy of any of our elite special operations units. These birds are sneaky smart by nature and, with their...
Kent Bismuth Waterfowl loads bring your classic shotguns back to the duck blind…with a wallop!
It is always a good sign when ducks are buzzing the decoys before the sun shows up. For my birthday this year, I could not think of a better place to be than hunkered down underneath flooded timber waiting on the birds to arrive. It has been a wet year in Central...
Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Honors Veterans
RIDGEFIELD, Washington — From an ADA-accessible blind at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Sal Trujillo watched as the first rays of sun peeked above the surrounding hills. Flocks of mallards, pintails and tundra swans soon filled the sky. Trujillo and 10 other...
A Purple Heart Hunt
At first glance, it was a scene no different than one that is repeated many times each year throughout the Midwest: Six or so hunters in line working their way through the corn or milo while other hunters block at the end of the field. The shout of “rooster!” is heard...
Ecollar Ban in the UK: There are no shortcuts for a well-trained dog.
There is a trickling effect of foreign ecollar legislation to American organizations. On August 27, 2018, Michael Gove, the British Environment Secretary, announced the intention to ban electric training collars for dogs in England. Gove follows the lead of other...
Yellowbills at Dawn
When upland bird hunters think of Argentina, they dream of no-limit dove hunts. Waterfowlers on the other hand dream of South American duck and twenty five-bird limits -- limits not seen in the United States since Nash Buckingham was a young man. I’d read Mr. Buck’s...
A Relaxing Weekend at River Bend
Sometimes, you need a "work stoppage." Shut down the damned computer, turn off the phone, and bolt. Spend an afternoon watching dogs hunt 'em up, shooting shotguns at fast flying quail, chukar and pheasant, breathing the cool air of an October afternoon under clear...