Future Setter Man

My grandson Liam with his new setter dog from Northwoods Bird Dogs

Follow'n My Folly

Avoiding black ice and traffic the other day while listening to the drone & thumps from the interstate cracks, I saw a New Belgium Brewing Company truck. The makers of Fat Tire had plastered the catchphrase of Follow Your Folly. Ours is Beer. obtrusively upon their beer carriage.


Well, my folly isn't beer, but bird dogs and the wide open spaces they've taken me. Yes, it's true that throughout my life I've rodeoed in many foolish endeavors...bounced out of airplanes with the 82nd Airborne Division (landed on my head once too many times...that's my story and I'm sticking to it), far far too many more to share...but never my bird dogs.



My bird dogs have taken me from the Montana prairies to the heavily-US-Border-patrolled-Mearn's-country. We've breathed in the air of the dry Palo Duro country of the Texas panhandle and the Kansas sand sage and plum thickets. We brought home sand burs of the Cimarron and seen the photographs of the dust bowl years of the 1930's on the walls at Jim-N-I's in Elkhart Kansas. We've tromped in Hemingway's Sun Valley and the cholla choked Colorado prairie. We've suffered from hypoxia at 14,000 ft above sea level desperately searching for ptarmigan and seen sage chickens cast shadows on Colorado's North Park country.

Through it all, it's been a great folly...explosive 50 bird coveys with setters feathering the wind.


Big Sky Country

Mearn's Country


Palo Dura Country: JA Ranch HQ


Elkhart Kansas


Idaho


Colorado Scaled Quail Country


Colorado Sub Alpine Tundra 14,000 ft


Sage Chickens and a Smile

You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!

--Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You'll Go!)


Instead of chiseled dignity, for example, a pointer of blue quail, regardless of breed, tends to have a cheerfully scheming and furtive air about him, and when he first points he seems to indicate: "This is just the beginning of the program, buster. If you pay attention we might get you a shot at some birds."

--Charley Waterman (Upland Sprinters)






Setter Feathers...

A Tale of Two Temperatures

My brother Andy (the poet) and I spent the last weekend of the bird season on the Kansas prairie in the company of bobwhite quail. The weather was great...great...great, if you want to hit 18 holes. It was too warm for bird dogs in pursuit of our favorite game bird (or at least mine). We moved some cubby coveys but had a difficult time relocating the birds for singles work. We dined on some incredible Mexican food (to die for) and listen to some great tunes while we roamed across the Sunflower State. We were informed while visiting that it was Kansas' 150th year anniversary from gaining statehood...what an appropriate way to celebrate Kansas by chasing birds with birddogs...with setter feathers!















The ol' saying of be careful for what you wish for came true on the very last day of the season. Gary, Scott and myself traveled at o'Dark-30 to one of my favorite spots on the Colorado prairie to see if we could enjoy one more covey rise. Scaled quail in some of the most beautiful habitat is where we found ourselves and our amped up bird dogs. However, the temperature tides had changed. It was COLD! Wind chill in the minus numbers and a white knuckled drive back to Denver...but Man was it worth it! We found 3 very nice coveys after 4 hours of brutal wind. Great dogs and better companions!








I'm heart broken to see it come to a halt...what a season it was! For the next few months, I have to redeem myself and renew my acquaintances! I'm sorry for being gone so much!

My fly gear has been missing me!

Setter Feathers...