The last day in Kansas…

The day started out in the fields with flocks of snow geese flying over. (You may have to click on the picture to make it bigger but you should be able to see them in the upper right corner.)  They were so low and brilliant as the bright sun reflected off them I had to stay and marvel awhile as Tyler walked off, unimpressed for too long by something un-shoot-able. Moments later he spooked “one of the biggest eight-pointers he’s ever seen in his life” and a doe out of the treeline and became suitable impressed by non-shoot-able wildlife.  Not too long after that Tyler had found a pheasant in a brush pile, and a covey of quail.  My Mom and I saw a lot of quail, got a lot of the “flutters” and left Kansas without getting one of our own, but we did see a barn owl that morning and that’s a trade I’m willing to make!

That was just the first hunt of the day. As Tyler said,”You just never know what you are going to find when you get out of the truck.”

Mom very nicely offered to pack up back at the campsite while we kept hunting and when we dropped her off we finally saw the prairie dogs of Prairie Dog State Park. I will admit, it’s entirely possible that I find prairie dogs far more amusing than I should. Remember the flock of blackbirds? They were a bad time waster, if I had prairie dogs out my window I’d be useless!

Tyler pulled me away from the prairie dogs back to the birds where we not so very nicely repaid my Mom’s kindness by shooting all the birds while she was gone.

Admittedly all the birds is an overstatement. There was a covey of quail that confused us, gave us the flutters, and made me drop the apple I was eating. I still didn’t managed to hit one. Tyler did, but he’s sort of disgusting like that.

I’m OK with him being a disgustingly good hunter though because I got one more pheasant the last day. Not just any pheasant,  it was a bird Tyler shot at first and missed! HA!

Mom joined back up with us in time to see me fall in two more gigantic holes, but missed all the good shooting.

Aside from getting a pheasant that Tyler didn’t, my other highlight of the day was when Buzz and I were off on our own hunting. We found a strip of grass between a bit of woods and a lake.  As we walked into it, about three million ducks and geese came off the water, three deer ran out of the woods and Buzz pointed a hen pheasant in the grass. (Ducks above Buzz on the left)

You truly just never know what you’re going to find when you get out of the truck!

We ended the day in a field recommended by the guide we met (looks like his website is still in the works, I’ll link to it when it’s up and running), and it was a good one!  Unfortunately our overtired dogs were wild and crazy as they ran nose into the wind and managed to bump most of the 100 or so pheasants that were in the field out of range or run them out the backside of the field! It didn’t put any more birds in our game vest but it sure was a fun field to end the trip on!

I’m going to continue to attempt to block the 13 1/2 hour all night drive back home, complete with getting pulled over by the cops from my memory, and then I’ll be ready to start planning the next trip!