Upland Bird Dog: Upland Bird Hunting with bird dogs

Upland Birds

See more image pages; 1, 2, 4 and 5

The 2001-2002 General and Archery Pheasant Season in Southern California.

This page is dedicated to my friend and sportsman, Gary Gentile. Gary is a teacher at a middle school. However, his love and passion for the outdoors are evident by the many images of Gary in the Upland Bird web pages. He symbolizes the true sense of a hunter. His determination, study, knowledge and understanding of his quarries are outstanding. I have been fortunate throughout these many years to have 'studied' under his guidance. With Gary's help I have made tremendously growth in being a woodsman and a sense of being closer to nature. Together we hunt the archery season for deer and turkey. We also hunt pheasants and other upland birds during the general and archery seasons. Ducks are often taken over decoys with Gary calling. There has been many times during the archery season that we go home without a harvest, however our friendship and outdoor experiences are priceless.

Gary loves to fly fish and tries his own flies. Mostly, Gary practices the 'catch and release' method of fishing. During the spring and summer he is often ocean fishing for big eye tuna, Dorado, yellow fin, albacore as well as other fighting fish. Gary is also an avid bass fisherman and fish the local lakes as well lakes in Mexico.

Gary holds a pheasant suggesting a longer than normal tail feathers. The two trophy pheasants were taken over his outstanding bird dogs. Watching good Pointers work and pin wild pheasants are thrills that seem to be forever embedded in a hunter's memories. Such is the case here where Gary's Pointers (Grace and Max) rely on their breeding and training to hold pheasants for Gary to flush and harvest these excellent upland birds.

Gary readies a flu flu arrow during the archery season. Pheasant tracks were clearly seen going into the thick brush and a cock bird vocalized just moments before. Unfortunately, it did not get up for us to shoot an arrow. The bird probably felt safe in the thick brush along the ditch bank.

As the sun began to set low in the horizon, Grace makes a point. The warm yellow color from the setting sun provides just enough light to identify the cock bird that flushed out moments later. Gary doesn't miss often and a cock bird was harvested for a meal.

Grace in another field points and holds a bird for Gary to flush out a bird. Grace has tremendous stamina and runs with a crackling tail and animation that most hunters would love to have in their bird dogs. It takes time to develop a wild bird dog and Grace has the makings of being a good one.

Some hunters don't like to hunt birds in alfalfa fields because the field lacks the typical objectives that bird dogs are accustom too. However, in alfalfa bird dogs must use their nose to detect the slightest bird scent. A bird dog that uses the wind with its nose high in the air and doesn't trail pheasants but sweeps back and forth quickly can pin and hold birds for the hunter to flush out.

Grace pointed out in the distance while running in a big alfalfa field. She locked up solid allowing Gary to get in front of her. In Southern California, wild pheasants are few and most hunters don't get an opportunity to harvest a bird. While Gary walked towards Grace who was as rigid as a statue, two cock birds flushed almost instantaneously in front of Grace. Gray took aim on the first bird and it quickly fell. Just seconds later the other rooster was already some distance away and Gray's 12 gauge pump shotgun was again on the swing and this bird was also harvested. Two wild pheasants taken over a young dog provided a wonderful experience not often seen especially in Southern California.