On The Wing Podcast

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Ryan Sparks during his first week as the new editor of Quail Forever Journal. Sparks talks about growing up in Nebraska and how quail have played an important role in every stage of his life leading to his dream job with Quail Forever. In fact, Sparks’ master’s thesis was titled, “Feathers and Farmers: A Cultural Ecology of Bobwhite Quail in Nebraska’s Platte River Valley.”

Episode Highlights:

• Sparks discusses his passion for Elhew English pointers, wild game cooking, and classic outdoors writing. He also floats the idea of a future quail hunting and bonefish cast & blast adventure to the Bahamas.

• The guys also discuss Sparks’ vision for where he’d like to take the Quail Forever Journal and his interest in sourcing more stories from QF members. In fact, if you’ve got a story idea, please email Ryan at [email protected].

Become a Quail Forever member so you can start receiving the Quail Forever Journal and read Ryan Sparks’ work.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever President and CEO Marilyn Vetter for an in-depth conversation with Donnie Vincent, a biologist, explorer, conservationist, hunter, and filmmaker. Vincent will serve as the keynote speaker at the organization’s Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic National Banquet on March 2nd in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Episode Highlights:

• Vincent explains the origin of his favorite quote, “To experience fantastic things, you have to put yourself in fantastic places” and how that ethos fits into his approach to life and filmmaking.

• Vetter tells the funny and winding story of connecting with Donnie Vincent through a friend from Alaska, Ken Gates, that resulted in her husband having an impromptu hour and a half long conversation with Donnie in the fishing aisle of a Wisconsin sporting goods store.

• Vincent also gives a taste of the habitat and hunting thoughts he’s building his keynote address around.

Tickets to the National Banquet are sold out, but we are taking names on a waiting list at https://pfqf.myeventscenter.com/event/2024-National-Pheasant-Fest-Quail-Classic-84173

Learn more about Donnie Vincent at www.DonnieVincent.com and check out his signature film about what hunting means to him, Who We Are.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever member Vincent Martino to share Idaho’s secrets as a top-tier upland bird hunting state. Marino, a former Marine Corps officer who recently was able to retire after selling his software company, recaps his recently completed adventure to hunt and bag all nine of Idaho’s upland bird species in a single season.

Episode Highlights:

Martino runs through his hunts for each of the nine species, which he successfully took over points by one of his two Brittany pups all on public land over the last four months. This includes ruffed grouse, blue grouse, Hungarian partridge, sharp-tailed grouse, California quail, sage grouse, pheasants, chukar, and spruce grouse!

This is the fifth episode of Pheasants Forever’s 14th annual Rooster Road Trip. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF & QF’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Design Director Logan Hinners, and Video Production Specialist Jordan Darley to recap this year’s Rooster Road Trip. The featured element is the group answering questions crowdsourced from PF & QF’s social media channels.

Episode Highlights:

· Darley explains his rational for leaving paradise in Hawaii to pursue his dream in North Dakota of becoming a wildlife biologist. He then talks about the importance of telling the story of our natural world through film as the impetus for his career pivot from a biologist to a video production specialist.

· Each participant also talks about their favorite pieces of hunting gear, shotgun/ammo/choke preferences, and traveling hacks for living with bird dogs on the road.

· Vavra also makes an impassioned plea for all the upland hunters complaining about a lack of public hunting access to get involved with a non-profit organizations and political efforts to move conservation policy forward in state capitols and in Washington, D.C.

Check out all of this year’s Rooster Road Trip content at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org. While there, enter to win a Browning Citori 725 shotgun and join/renew/extend your Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever membership featuring the PF or QF Browning Blackout Knife. Don’t delay, the deadline to enter is December 20, 2023.

And special thanks to our Rooster Road Trip 2023 sponsors:

• Browning

• SoundGear

• Ruff Land Kennels

• Federal Ammunition

• Garmin

• Apple Autos

• YETI

• Irish Setter

• Leupold

This is the fourth episode of PF’s 14th annual Rooster Road Trip. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF & QF’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Design Director Logan Hinners, and Social Media Strategist Nate Akey to recap the final day of this year’s adventure in Nebraska.

Episode Highlights:

The conversation starts with the group reminiscing around Rooster Road Trip’s origin story as an experiment for social media that has burgeoned into the PF’s largest online event and a driver of significant unrestricted revenue for the organization’s wildlife habitat mission. The crew also have some fun talking about the Threads social media mash-up around the launch of the films Barbie and Oppenheimer earlier this summer.

Hinners and Akey talk about their young pup’s evolution as bird dogs over the course of the weeklong Rooster Road Trip and how wild birds are invaluable to their progression.

And Vavra, the only person to have participated in all 14 Rooster Road Trip adventures, declares this year the “birdiest” Rooster Road Trip of all.

Check out the companion video accompanying this podcast episode at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org. While there, enter to win a Browning Citori 725 shotgun and join/renew/extend your Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever membership featuring the PF Browning Blackout Knife.

And special thanks to our Rooster Road Trip 2023 sponsors:

• Browning

• SoundGear

• Ruff Land Kennels

• Federal Ammunition

• Garmin

• Apple Autos

• YETI

• Irish Setter

• Leupold

This is the third episode of Pheasants Forever’s 14th annual Rooster Road Trip. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF & QF’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Iowa Regional Field Representative Lexi Ashbrook, and Nebraska Coordinating Wildlife Biologist Ben Wheeler as the group recaps hunting public lands in Iowa and Nebraska for pheasants and bobwhite quail.

Episode Highlights:

Ashbrook explains bonding with her dad while growing up pheasant hunting without a dog and how excited she is to have her own first bird dog, “Timber” a German shorthaired pointer, who is figuring things out on this trip.

Vavra talks about his affinity for Iowa’s IHAP and Nebraska’s Open Fields & Waters, which are both programs creating public access to private land with wildlife habitat improvements being made in the process.

Wheeler reminisces about the highlights, lowlights, and funny stories of his veteran bird dog, “Annie,” an 11-year old German shorthaired pointer.

Check out the companion video accompanying this podcast episode at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org. While there, enter to win a Browning Citori 725 shotgun and join/renew/extend your Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever membership featuring the PF Browning Blackout Knife.

And special thanks to our Rooster Road Trip 2023 sponsors:

• Browning

• SoundGear

• Ruff Land Kennels

• Federal Ammunition

• Garmin

• Apple Autos

• YETI

• Irish Setter

• Leupold

This is the second episode of Pheasants Forever’s 14th annual Rooster Road Trip. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Corporate Partnerships & Product Development Coordinator Erica Divan, and Iowa State Coordinator Josh Divan for opening day of pheasant hunting season in Iowa.

Episode Highlights:

· The Divan’s share their special opening day traditions as a young married couple and Erica Divan talks about feeling great at 5 ½ months pregnant while bird hunting on the trip.

· Andrew expresses his love for watching pointing dogs work running roosters even though he admits to being a devoted Lab lover.

· Josh Divan provides play-by-play to bagging his three-bird Iowa limit in the span of 90 seconds after missing a relatively easy opportunity earlier in the day.

Check out the companion video accompanying this podcast episode at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org. While there, enter to win a Browning Citori 725 shotgun and join/renew/extend your Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever membership featuring the PF Browning Blackout Knife.

And special thanks to our Rooster Road Trip 2023 sponsors:

• Browning

• SoundGear

• Ruff Land Kennels

• Federal Ammunition

• Garmin

• Apple Autos

• YETI

• Irish Setter

• Leupold

This is the first episode of Pheasants Forever’s 14th annual Rooster Road Trip. True to Rooster Road Trip’s ethos, this year’s “Hunting the Heartland” edition takes place exclusively on publicly accessible lands. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Senior Regional Representative Will Clayton, and Regional Representative Chance Steward to recap the trip’s first day of public land hunting on wildlife areas in south central Minnesota.

Episode Highlights:

· Vavra kicks off the conversation with the Rooster Road Trip’s origin story and talks about this year’s plan to hunt Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska.

· Clayton describes the importance of early successional grassland habitat for pheasants and what it looks like to a hunter’s eye.

· The group exchange barbs over bird dogs, water retrieves, shooting prowess, and St.Pierre’s propensity to separate from the group for a “walkabout” hunt by himself without cameras.

Check out the companion video accompanying this podcast episode at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org. While there, enter to win a Browning Citori 725 shotgun and join/renew/extend your Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever membership featuring the PF Browning Blackout Knife.

And special thanks to our Rooster Road Trip 2023 sponsors:

• Browning

• SoundGear

• Ruff Land Kennels

• Federal Ammunition

• Garmin

• Apple Autos

• YETI

• Irish Setter

• Leupold

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Quail Forever’s Program Manager Andy Edwards for a conversation focused on the upcoming bobwhite quail hunting season in the Southeast. Michael Hook, small game program coordinator for South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and chair of the National Bobwhite and Grasslands Initiative – Technical Committee and Tim Caughran, PF & QF’s director of field operations in the South Region, roll through a highlight reel of hunting opportunities across southern bobwhite quail states.

Episode Highlights:

• Hook covers his home state of South Carolina, along with Alabama and Texas. He also explains his day-to-day responsibilities as a small game program coordinator.

• Caughran touches on Virginia, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana, while stressing the importance of being willing to venture deeper into the places other folks aren’t willing to go when in search of public land bobwhites.

• Edwards highlights Georgia and touches on ways to use onX Hunt and your knowledge of quail habitat to seek out new areas to hunt this season.

Check out Quail Forever’s full state-by-state quail hunting forecast for more details.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Quail Forever’s Program Manager Andy Edwards for a conversation focused on guests Casey Cardinal, resident game bird biologist for the New Mexico Game & Fish Department and chair of the Western Quail Working Group, and Lauren Stamm, Quail Forever’s regional representative for the southwestern U.S. The group provide an upland bird hunting forecast covering quail species across the western states starting in the southwest desert up to the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Episode Highlights:

• Cardinal gets the conversation started by targeting scaled quail in west Texas and rolls across New Mexico and Arizona with positive prospects for bobwhite, Gambel’s, and Montezuma quail.

• Stamm covers Nevada and California for valley quail, Gambel’s quail, and chukar.

• Cardinal closes the conversation with a wide array of hunting forecasts for valley quail, mountain quail, sharp-tail grouse, dusky grouse, and chukars across the Pacific Northwest.

• Edwards and St.Pierre add their perspectives as Midwest-based bird hunters traveling to the West where rattlesnakes, mountain cliffs, and cactus are intimidating factors for the first-timers.

Check out Quail Forever’s full state-by-state quail hunting forecast for more details.