Below are of images of setters in the field. The first 3 are of Tina which were generously provided to me by one of my very favorite bird dog writers Tom Davis.

Next week I'm off to Idaho again…look forward to chasing my bird dogs again and visiting with family.

Setter feathers…

Here’s Gary in search of wild birds

The Big Horns in the background 

Grouse River Gretchen on a hun covey

Gary with a ST grouse

Gary with a hun

Ellie my FB English Cocker retrieving a hun

AYA and hun

Upland Idaho 2012

Enjoy the season!  Setter Feathers…

Have a great Fall and be safe!

Setter Feathers…

Check out Upland Ways for my blue grouse hunting in Colorado’s awesome grouse country.

Setter Feathers…

Grouse River Gretchen on Colorado Blue Grouse

My brother Andy and I decided to start a new blog together and concentrate on the uplands and streams of the American West…we’re excited to collaborate together, and we hope in return our readers will have a greater appreciation of the uplands here in the West.  We’re not advocating that people (become Nimrods) take up the rod and gun and move West with bird dogs a tote.  We hope you enjoy our adventures and tall-tales!  I will continue to post in Setter Feathers from time to time…but Andy and I will focus on our new endeavor Upland Ways.  Andy’s first post  THE COWBOY AND THE HIPPIE GO HUNTING  is now online for your enjoyment!  Have a great Fall season!

Setter Feathers…

Blue grouse season is upon us this Labor Day weekend. I’m heading to the uplands where the sage and aspen edges meet. Plan to work the dogs and fish the mighty Colorado River in the evenings…after the dogs are completely worn out from doing what they were bred to do. We’ve been out on a few scouting sorties and seen grouse. The broods are lower this summer than I can remember from years past. I’m grateful to have made it to another birddog/gunning season! There’ll be plenty of posts here at Setter Feathers & Groused Tales from here on out…promise!

One of the things I took up this summer (and wish I had done years before) is fly tying…it adds a whole new dimension to my fishing! For the past 3 months I’ve only fished with the flies I’ve tied…had great success and some failures too. One of my favorite hatches on the Arkansas is the yellow sally stoneflies (Isoperla mormona aka little mormon girls). I saw a fly used on the rivers in Oregon and Washington called a Chubby Sally…so, I came up with my own version…hence the title above: Chubby Mormon Girl. Below are some photos of my rendition of the Chubby Sally of which I added a ginger hackle on the thorax. The browns on the Arkansas River go crazy for it during the evening magic hours.

See ya in the uplands or out on the prairies…

Setter Feathers…

Jake and Austin outside Sterling's Kansas house

We arrived at Sterling’s place on Thursday evening to scrumptious BBQ ribs and tatters…which we scarfed down so that we could get in the field ASAP to chase some turkeys that Sterling had been patterning for the past few weeks.  Sterling took me to one spot while his friend Dallas (AKA Ishmael the turkey guide as he called himself affectionately in the 3rd person) took the Idaho boys to another.  Sterling and I arrived to the designated blind and got set up…and very nice gobbler was within 35 yards and strutting to our decoys 30 minutes after our arrival.  I got the 3-bearded gobbler with the Thompson Center Encore and the rest is turkey stew.

3-Bearded 18.5 LBS and 1.25 inch Spurs

Meanwhile back at the Idaho boys’ blind they had several strutters but no such luck and Ishmael connected on his second tom of the season in the blind across the field from the boys.

The next morning found us in the blind as the beautiful sunrise stretched out across the Kansas barley greenfield…two gorgeous gobblers strutted through with 6 hens, and it appeared that we had the perfect setup until the gobblers did an about-face and strolled off without the girls back to where they had just came from.

A view from the blind

We hunted hard all day Friday but no such luck.  Austin chased gobblers over hill-n-dale…he found the mother-lode of gobblers and witnessed something pretty special that evening as over 100 toms put themselves to bed in the trees a few ridges (ok…more like miles) from where Jake and I were setup.  Austin had his GPS and iPhone with him, so he was able to plot the grid coordinates to the location and record the gobblers’ crescendo on the Kansas prairie as he imitated a sexy hen.  It awed us when we finally found Austin that night several miles from where we thought he’d be….thank heavens for technology.  He played the recording and we drooled and dreamed of turkeys!!  Sterling was ready to call out the National Guard to find us…but all ended well.

Sterling, Austin and Jake headed out to THE SPOT at 0′dark-30 to set up a blind and wait for turkey mayhem…plans were made and stuck too.  Of course, I slept in and went to breakfast with Ishmael…I was totally there in spirit!  3 birds were collected that morning, but as they say…Roosted isn’t necessarily Roasted!  They had to work hard for the birds before the skies darkened & threats of hail and tornados came to our north central Kansas hunting grounds.

Great weekend on the Kansas prairies chasing long beards…

Setter Feathers…

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has announced a plan to shut down all sage grouse hunting in the eastern portion of the state this year. At Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, we view this as a symbolic gesture that will do little to help the dwindling grouse population in the Powder River Basin.
Instead, we’re encouraging the Game and Fish Department to focus on the real threat that is causing population declines in the first place: irresponsible types of oil, gas, and coal-bed methane extraction.
In March, the Bureau of Land Management released the results of a sage grouse Population Viability Analysis that predicted the functional extinction of sage grouse in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin upon the next major outbreak of West Nile virus, as coal-bed methane well density increases to eight wells per square mile. The study modeled sage grouse population changes in response to increasing coalbed methane development and other factors, and projected that of the 370 sage grouse leks (or strutting and breeding grounds) active today in the Powder River Basin, only six leks would remain in the wake of a West Nile epidemic.
This is dire news indeed, as the loss of the sage grouse population in northeastern Wyoming would eliminate the key link between populations in Montana, the Dakotas, and Canada with the heart of the sage grouse range in southwest Wyoming. And if this happens, endangered species listing would almost certainly follow.
The Game and Fish Department’s response has been to shut down the sage grouse hunting season. True enough, hunting kills grouse. But mortality from hunters is the least of the grouse’s problems. Sage grouse hunting in this part of Wyoming accounted for the taking of only 129 birds last year, according to WGFD records. As WGFD correctly observes in draft resolution 3-19-12.3 addressing sage grouse hunting seasons, “the proposed [hunting] closure will not result in measurable benefit to sage-grouse …” We recommend that the department expend its sage grouse conservation efforts to address the real problem facing this particular grouse population: habitat loss resulting from energy development, and the threat of West Nile virus.
First, the crippled Core Area designations in northeast Wyoming need to be fixed. When the original sage grouse Core Areas were designated, the boundaries excluded not only lands that had already become coal-bed methane fields, but also lands where drilling was anticipated in the future. As a result of this capitulation to the energy industry, a number of the Powder River Basin lek complexes with the highest sage grouse populations were excluded entirely from the Core Area system, despite the fact that they contained viable habitat at the time. And in the case of habitat that actually was designated as Core Area, in some cases the leks inside Core did not get the full five-mile protection buffer.
The Buffalo Core Area is an especially egregious example of this practice. In this Core Area, all of the sage grouse leks are right next to the boundary. As coal-bed methane crowds up to the eastern boundary, the leks inside the Core Area will be abandoned, resulting in a silent spring with no grouse drumming. What use is a Core Area with no grouse?
In many cases, there are lands next to these leks that remain undeveloped today, but for which plans are being made for high-intensity CBM drilling. The Williams West Bear Pod is a prime example. If protecting the grouse is really a state priority, the WGFD and Commission need to demand that the Core Area boundaries in eastern Wyoming be reformulated to include all lands within five miles of Core Area leks, and that development planned for these lands must comply with the terms and conditions of the Governor’s Core Area Executive Order, at the very least.
The Population Viability Analysis study also points out that West Nile virus is a major threat, a threat that is likely to increase. The WGFD and Commission should advocate for a moratorium on surface disposal of CBM wastewater, and require breaching of existing CBM wastewater ponds as a means of denying habitat to mosquitoes of the Culex genus, which are the carriers of West Nile virus. Scientific studies have shown that CBM reservoirs are a key habitat where mosquitoes breed and multiply. Wastewater should instead be injected underground, or be pipelined to water treatment plants for purification and use as a domestic water supply. The city of Gillette appears to need water sources; perhaps there is a match here.
The Game and Fish Department and Commission appear perfectly ready and willing to halt all sage grouse hunting in eastern Wyoming. Yet nobody within WGFD or the Commission is calling for a halt to oil and gas development in the same area, even though it is widely recognized that this development is the root of the problem. Why is the Game and Fish Commission so eager to shut down activities of Wyoming residents that are causing negligible impacts to grouse, while at the same time failing to advocate for the shutdown of high-impact activities by oil and gas corporations from Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas?
We encourage the Game and Fish Department to refocus their efforts where they’ll do the most good: reining in irresponsible development, which matters most to sage grouse, rather than sage grouse hunting closures, which make little difference.
Erik Molvar is a wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. Though a lifelong hunter, he has never hunted sage grouse.

Here’s a photo of Ben McKean’s setter Addie who’s a 1/2 sister to my Gretchen. Gotta love them coverdogs!!

Setter Feathers…

Grouse River Gretchen and Brenna

Here’s my latest contribution to Strideaway.com on the 2011 AAHA Vaccination Committee’s Guidelines.    Next Strideaway topics on canine medicine will include 10 top useful tips and understanding canine pyometra disease.

Setter Feathers…