On The Wing Podcast

Host Bob St.Pierre welcomes Tim Springer, professional dog trainer and owner of Dynamic Retrievers, for a conversation about understanding a dog’s mental state. Joining the conversation are PF & QF’s membership marketing manager Emy Marier and public relations specialist Casey Sill who’ve both been training their young black Labrador retrievers with Springer this summer. Following a quick training session, St. Pierre and his guests break down the ins-and-outs of DIY retriever training, from blind retrieves and marking, to basic obedience in the house — all centered around the importance of understanding your dog’s mental perspective.

Episode Highlights:

· Marier talks about how Springer’s background in behavioral science resonated with her as she embarks on training her second bird dog, a one-year-old Lab named Lou.

· Sill explains how his four-year-old Lab, Bruly, recently came up short on a hunt test and Springer walks through the training steps to help Bruly succeed the next time.

Learn more about Tim’s training methods at www.DynamicRetrievers.com

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s Director of Conservation Education Programs Colby Kerber and Hunting Heritage Program Manager Ashley Chance to talk about the organization’s brand new and FREE online educational video series. The How to Hunt Upland Birds online course features the stories of five hunters chasing a wide array of upland bird species in five different geographic regions. Videos include a mix of compelling personal narrative films and short how-to videos.

Check out the video series trailer at www.howtohuntuplandbirds.org

Thanks to our partners making this project a reality:

• Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program

• Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

• Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

• Becoming an Outdoors Woman

• Midwest Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

• Minority Outdoor Alliance

• North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association

• Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society

• Modern Carnivore

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s Chief Conservation Officer and biologist Ron Leathers to discuss the basics of pheasant and quail nesting season, while debunking some common myths. The guys also chat about what this year’s spring and summer conditions could mean for upland birds as state natural resource agencies head into August roadside counting.

Episode Highlights:

• Leathers explains the differences in what happens when a hen pheasant loses a NEST to factors such as predation, weather or haying versus what happens when a hen pheasant loses a BROOD that was successfully hatched. Then, Leathers runs through the similarities and differences in the quail nesting and reproduction biology.

• Leathers closes the conversation emphasizing the need for more grassland habitat. In fact, he explains America’s Great Plains are the fastest disappearing ecosystem on the planet and our continent’s version of the rain forest.

Host Bob St.Pierre visits with Luc Ramthun, PF & QF’s senior corporate partnerships account executive, about the journey he’s been on with his first bird dog. The guys talk about Ramthun’s breed selection of a large Münsterländer, picking a puppy out of a litter, and training his pup for the upcoming hunting season.

Episode Highlights:

• Ramthun, a diehard fly angler, equates training his own bird dog to catching trout on a fly he has tied himself and explains how the Upland Institute, an online video-based training series, has been particularly helpful in training his bird dog independently.

• St.Pierre also shares the stories of each of his first four bird dogs’ wild roosters and the serendipitous connection between them all.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF & QF’s Director of Sustainability Brent Rudolph for a conversation with Peter Byck, a filmmaker and professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability. The discussion focuses upon Byck’s new four-part documentary, “Roots So Deep (You Can See the Devil Down There).” The film’s trailer articulates its premise as “a big ole research project about farmers and scientists who are figuring out if the way cattle are being grazed can actually help solve climate change. In the process of looking for common ground between farming and science, the common ground is the dirt right beneath their feet.”

SPOILER ALERT: Bobwhite quail play a surprising starring role throughout the documentary.

Episode Highlights:

• The film chronicles ten neighbors in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky who are managing their cattle operations through two distinctly different methods of grazing over a ten-year period. A team of scientists measure the differences these two grazing methods have on soil, water, insects, birds, biodiversity, climate resiliency, and carbon sequestration.

• Two members of the famous country music band, Alabama, participate in the documentary as cattle ranchers and bobwhite quail lovers.

Check out the trailer for “Roots So Deep (You Can See the Devil Down There)” at www.CarbonCowboys.org

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Travis Frank, host of The Flush, and Mitch Petrie, vice president of programing at Outdoor Channel, to preview the television show’s new 2023 season of adventures. The guys also talk about the evolving world of hunting television in the face of a culture cutting the chord on cable and satellite services.

Episode Highlights:

• Petrie tells the story of meeting Frank for the first time at a Pheasants Forever banquet and offering him a job the following day.

• Frank breaks down some of his favorite episodes of the coming season that includes an Alaskan adventure chasing three species of ptarmigan and a hunt with Trampled by Turtles’ frontman Dave Simonett that included ruffed grouse, woodcock, and pheasants.

• Petrie also talks about the hot streak Outdoor Channel owner Stan Kroenke is on as owner of the St. Louis Rams, Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, and Premier League’s Arsenal.

The Flush airs on Outdoor Channel at the following times (all times Eastern):

• Mondays at 9:30am

• Wednesdays at 12:30pm

• Fridays at 3:30pm

• Saturdays at 8:30am

• Sundays at 6:30am

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF & QF’s Habitat Education Program Manager Anna Swerczek and Monarch Joint Venture’s Executive Director Wendy Caldwell for a special Pollinator Week episode. The group’s conversation centers upon the habitat intersection between pheasants, quail, and pollinating insects with special attention focused on the monarch butterfly.

Episode Highlights:

• Swerzcek compares pollinator habitat plantings to food plots for pheasant and quail chicks who feast on the insects these pollinator plants nurture.

• Caldwell explains the fascinating migration and life cycle of monarch butterflies. She also heralds the benefits of PF & QF’s habitat mission for pheasants and quail, and highlights that habitat work’s benefits to monarchs and a wide array of pollinating species.

• Swerzcek also breaks down this year’s special Pollinator Week offer which includes a PF or QF membership, a Pollinator Week sticker, and six pollinator plant plugs that are geographically-appropriate based upon the purchaser’s location.

Learn more at PheasantsForever.org/PollinatorWeek or QuailForever.org/Pollinator Week.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by a group of folks who have trained their bird dogs together every Wednesday night for the last four years under the tutelage of amateur dog trainer John Zeman. In a change-up in formats, St.Pierre starts and ends the episode talking to John Zeman with six rounds of conversations in between.

Episode Highlights:

• David Abel talks about his two wirehaired pointing griffons and his plans to bird hunt on horseback while camping this coming hunting season.

• Callie Brown talks about the fun process of introducing her husband, Chris, to bird hunting and bird dogs through her long friendship with the Zeman family.

• Xoua Shower Xiong & Andre Xiong talk about becoming adult-onset bird hunters as a young married couple, and the importance their shorthairs now occupy in their lives. They also talk about their love for chasing prairie grouse in the Nebraska Sandhills.

• Julia Schrenkler returns to our podcast reminiscing about how her first shorthair, Wren, lead her to become a bird hunter ten years ago, and the importance of Wednesday evenings with the Zeman group for training her new pup, Nixie.

• Richard Hansen explains the circumstances leading him to getting a German shorthair as the COVID pandemic started and how his pup, Debbie, has pushed him headfirst into training, bird hunting, and wildlife habitat conservation.

• Paul Godfrey offers a variety of “dad” jokes as he explains his reactivation back into hunting through the addition of a Brittany puppy after coaching youth hockey during the last thirty years.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Keng Yang and Matt Addington, a professional photographer turned filmmaker, for a conversation about the creation of the film, “A Bird Dog Named Kaiya,” which is the story of Yang’s introduction to bird hunting. Growing up in urban America as a first-generation child of parents who immigrated from Laos, Yang found himself conflicted with his culture’s history of subsistence hunting. It was a bird dog that changed Yang’s perspective on hunting, while also mending a fractured relationship with his father.

Episode Highlights:

• Yang also joined St.Pierre for episode 200 following a cold Minnesota pheasant hunt. During that January episode at the beginning of the NFL Playoffs, Yang predicted the Minnesota Vikings would win the Super Bowl, so the group has fun reminiscing about that bold prediction.

• Addington discusses how photography has added a sixth stage of his evolution as a hunter where he sees dogs, habitat, and hunting in a unique angle through a camera lens.

Watch the “A Bird Dog Named Kaiya” at www.PheasantsForever.org/Kaiya with special thanks to the film’s presenting partners at Purina Pro Plan, Toyota, and Benelli.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Dr. Jessica McGuire, a wildlife biologist and Quail Forever’s Working Lands for Bobwhite Quail Framework Coordinator, and Joe Burnam, Georgia DNR’s red-cockaded woodpecker biologist who also has an extensive background in bobwhite quail biology. Burnam and McGuire discuss how focusing on creating great red cockaded-woodpecker habitat using prescribed fire on the southeastern United States’ open pine woodlands also can help create a bobwhite quail population explosion.

Episode Highlights:

• McGuire explains the shared habitat need for an open pine forest between the red-cockaded woodpeckers living near the canopy to the gopher tortoises living at ground level (and sometimes underground), and bobwhite quail living on the ground and in between.

• Burnam explains the “Safe Harbor” program that incentivizes landowners to create habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker by removing the fear around the Endangered Species Act.

• McGuire points landowners to learn more about conservation programs available for improving wildlife habitat in the southeastern bobwhite quail range by visiting with a Quail Forever biologist. Find a QF Biologist near you.

Reminder: Document the bobwhite quail you encounter to help us measure their nationwide population by using the new Bobscapes mobile app.