Windy day and effects on dog handling and wild birds

Today was greeted with high winds at the So. KS trial.  Our first two gun dogs ran far edges in the long tree lines and both were lost early into their braces.  The first 5 braces didn’t have clean bird work.  Anyway it was fun watching my puppy ‘Tula’ run in her very first puppy stake at age 9 months.  She ran big and had fun doing it.

I think about windy wild bird hunts of past and its effects on hunting wild bobwhite quail…  The one thing about wild bobwhites is that they always seem spookier on windy days.  It’s often difficult for the dogs to get bird work due to the quail wild flushing.  A ‘wild flush’ is when the birds flush on their own with no fault due to the dog.  Dog handling becomes more difficult as well since they cannot hear your commands as well.

I suppose wild quail ’wild flush’ on windy days because they have difficulty pin pointing which direction the  danger is coming from (the dogs / us).  They find it safer to flush prematurely than risking harm.  On other days the ‘gentleman’s bird’, bobwhite quail, will hold tight for the pointing dog.

So on windy days it is best for the walking hunter to be as quiet as you can be and maybe even keep your dogs close just in anticipation of the wild flush.  That’s not a hard and fast rule but a conservative approach to finding wild quail on windy days.

That’s it for today.  Take care and give your dog a treat for me!

Dave