Well, I think the last time I posted I asked for some nasty weather to get some of the sunny weather hunters back on the couch. I guess my wish came true! I sure would not have asked for this nasty stuff, the birds are going to have a difficult winter, only the strong survive!
My last few weeks of hunting went well. First came the bitter cold with birds holding in the pines and hunting over in 5 minutes. Next came bitter cold and snowy conditions, which led to long walks and spooky birds, it also led to what I think was my only skunked day of the year (still a blast). After I figured out how to hunt these late season birds it was time to work hard, sweat a ton and be rewarded for the hard work.
I got out Christmas morning close to home and to my surprise I was greeted with deep snow and birds holding tight. I managed to get three birds in about an hours walk and still plenty of time to make it to Christmas with family. I waited for the rest of the snow to dump down and went again on Monday. Snow shoes were a must and that still led to some very difficult hunts. Monday the 28th left me with nailing down one small rooster and a short days hunt. I fell through the ice up to my waist with snow shoes on and had to call it day, I was cold and to be honest a little freaked out. The next day I was back at it again, birds holding tight and the dog getting lost in the snow. Zeke caught his first rooster ever and I am glad to say he survived to fly off, he also caught two other hens on this day. With the thick snow these birds would not get up unless the dog got on top of them. we hunted a small patch of willows and cattails for an hr and I did not move more than 5 ft. I just let Zeke work the snow and get the birds up. I shot my two birds in this spot about half hr apart and again I never moved from where I was (odd). We headed out of the cattails and I lost sight of Zeke, I gave him several toots on the whistle and all of sudden he came charging through the middle of about a 6ft snow drift that was on the edge of this wpa. It was really something to see him work in this snow. I wish I had a camera in the field this last day, the sight of him charging through the center of a drift and also watching him bring back the two birds was sure a sight to see. On both retrieves all you could see was the bird above the snow in his mouth and a wake of snow behind him 
it was awesome! Anyways, I again was cut short of hunting on this day after another trip through the ice. I have come to the conclusion that I need to pick some different areas to hunt when it is so cold 
, but you got to go where the birds are 
.
Overall it was a great year and great times spent in the field with friends and best of all my dog.
I take a feather from every pheasant I shoot over my dog and this year I ended up with 37 birds and the longest tail feather coming on my last bird of the year. It was just shy of 27 inches after being plucked. I didn’t get out as much as last year where I bagged over 50 birds but the dog work this year left me in awe and with the biggest smile on my face more than I can count 
. Until next year 
