Choices
Of Interest
|
Wild Bobwhite Quail and PheasantBobwhite Quail is the primary Missouri upland bird pursued by most of our hunters. While Missouri does have an overlapping range of two upland birds, the second being the pheasant across its northern tier counties, the bird hunter is there due to Missouri's superior quail hunting. The converse is true for the Missouri pheasant that while it has an overlapping range it is limited in density with the better pheasant habitat is to be found in Kansas and Iowa. For the most part hunters find Missouri's upland bird region to have the ideal combination of lightly wooded fence rows, weed patches along with scrub and in general soft edge row crop fields that create the most effective Bobwhite Quail holding habitat of cover and wintertime food with the best seasonal hunting. The large fields of pheasant cover ringnecks like so much such as tall prairie grass is not as abundant in Missouri as compared to Kansas. Similarly the primary Missouri upland bird hunting cover, the drain or creek bottom is more likely to be wooded rather than brushed in further discouraging pheasant populations while aiding quail survival. Knowing this distinction of Missouri's upland bird habitat takes some of the mystery out of why we have varying populations and hunt quality by state and region within a state. The driving topography for Missouri upland bird hunting habitat and its quail is that northern part of the state is heavily cut by the Grand River Watershed and rolling terrain to the point of inhibiting human impact on the deeper creek and river bottoms than elsewhere leaving the trees to grow large. That combined with the heavier yearly rainfall as compared to Kansas makes for more of the water dependent large grain agriculture with a profit margin greater than that which can be absorbed by the tall grass CRP contracts.
ComparisonOur self guided Missouri upland bird hunting along these cut grain fields makes for easy walking conditions and for much more eyes on the dogs than compared to Kansas' tall prairie grass pheasant hunts. For the most part the upland bird hunter will find a covey when his dog goes on point and the occasional pheasant a some time surprise. For the solitary bird hunter the linear nature of much of Missouri's quail habitat will create a shooting challenge as the quail do seem to have evolved to always flush to the opposite side of the hunter. Upland bird hunting partners that split such cover will find many times the slow to rise coveys offer the easy straight away shots in the open that also allow for a quick camera picture opportunity of a retrieve. This linear cover gives the upland bird hunter that has dogs that will cast out along a fence or wood line even less walking as a good dog will circumvent many of the small fields and the un-pressured nature of the coveys will allow them to hold until the hunter's flush. Occasionally, the lucky Missouri hunter will find his bird dog on point inside of the crop field that frequently allows for the ideal blue sky quail shooting conditions that just as easily lends to one in the bag or a double as it does chuckles as the hunter wonders how such an easy shot was missed. Such is the nature of our Missouri upland bird hunting. |
