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After 35 years of bird hunting, I have been fortunate enough to harvest nearly 90 percent of the readily huntable gamebird species in the lower 48 (please don’t @ me, Himalayan snowcock hunters). While each species is special, one bird in particular holds a special place in my heart, a bird I hold above all others: the greater prairie chicken. 

A lot of this comes from studying prairie chickens in the Kansas Flint Hills for my Masters degree. I also spent seven years trapping and translocating greater prairie chickens for my job as a wildlife biologist. But there’s more to it than that; the bird itself is something of an enigma. They are actively retreating from their original strongholds of Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa and making a stand in the far western fringe of their once vast range. In these fringes, they eschew trees and humans. It seems like they just want to be left alone.

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There are three species of teal in North America: the blue-winged teal, the green-winged teal, and the cinnamon teal. Telling them apart is pretty easy because, long ago, someone was smart enough to name them based on their looks. 

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Dove hunting is a popular and fun way to celebrate the beginning of the hunting season. One of the earliest upland bird seasons to open across the United States each year, many hunters head for public lands to chase doves, break in their hunting gear, and practice their wingshooting skills. However, when it comes to enjoying fresh dove meat, most hunters wrap skinless dove breasts in bacon or stuff them into a jalapeño.

Honestly, bacon-wrapped wild game and dove poppers are overrated. Isn’t it high time we popularized tasteful ways of preparing dove?

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I’m finishing this story on the eve of Montana’s 2023 bird opener, and I’m feeling very strange about the birds I’m about to start chasing. Over the past month, I’ve had dozens of conversations with some of the most passionate bird hunters and dog trainers about Senate Bill 280, Montana’s new bird dog training regulation. In summary, many believe this is an important regulation to get on the books, but it has a lot of downfalls and unforeseen impacts. 

At the root of this new regulation is an attempt to manage the different values people have when it comes to wild birds. For some, training dogs on wild birds is a part of their business. For others, well-trained bird dogs mean bag limits and a snap for the ‘gram. For many, it’s about the experience of a place and sharing it with the birds, the dogs, and the people. Every one of these activities has a negative impact or some measurable form of take. But every bird hunter and dog handler is left to decide how to moderate their impact and live within their private code of ethics. As we enter the most glorious time of year, I hope you also dwell on your code of ethics.

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Most of us become familiar with North America’s plains while reading accounts of Lewis and Clark’s voyage west or Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie. For some, this is where their curiosity about the grasslands stopped. My journey, however, continued well beyond that initial exposure. Growing up in the plains, I was surrounded by true naturalists—folks in tune with the ebbs and flows that the seasons provide on this landscape. These naturalists, along with my own experience and education, taught me that the very nature of this vegetation dictates where upland bird species can be found within our Great Plains.

North America’s sea of grass once covered an area from Illinois to Wyoming and Canada to Texas, touching or encompassing around seventeen states. This “Great Plains” grassland ecosystem is most simply divided into three ecotones: tallgrass, mixed grass, and shortgrass. Within these ecotones there are many ecosites, such as the Sandhills of Nebraska or the Flint Hills of Kansas. These ecosites occur on gradients of longitude, precipitation, and soil.

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When I first started cooking, I had no idea what a bird tenderloin was, let alone where to find it. Then I thought it was along the back—but every big game hunter knows that’s where you find the loin, not the tenderloin. But after several years of butchering birds, I have come to believe that not only is a bird’s tenderloin very easy to locate and remove, but it’s something worth doing every time you breast out a bird.

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Do you think of yourself as fashionable? Probably not, and most of the bird hunters I know would agree with you. For us, fashion is a four-letter word and as appealing as watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

But that doesn’t mean we’re immune to fashion-like whims.

Like any group, we have things that are in (Gunner Kennels), things that are out (beeper collars), and things that were out but are now kind of in (smoking a pipe—I guess). We have hip gadgets (Garmin fēnix watches), trendy dogs (Wirehaired Pointing Griffons), and fads (34-inch barrels). For several decades now, the over-under has been the double-barrel for us to carry. In fact, O/Us are so popular that until about a decade ago, new, affordable side-by-sides ceased to be sold in the United States. Today, a few are around; but compared to over-unders, the total numbers hardly matter. In the grouse woods, on skeet fields, and across sporting-clay courses, if you’re shooting a double, you’re shooting an O/U. As one gunmaker told me  in 2019, “the side-by-side is dead.”

Now is the time to break in your boots for the season ahead. Learn more at IrishSetter.com, or try on a pair of Irish Setter's Wingshooters at your favorite retailer today.

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Small Munsterlanders, fortunately for me, are one of the pointing dog breeds I’ve gotten to know in person. Feisty, handsome, and highly energetic, this breed is the tenth most popular bird dog breed in the Project Upland community, according to our annual survey. It’s also the third most popular versatile hunting dog breed in Europe. This is likely due to their broad skillset that includes searching, pointing, flushing, retrieving, tracking, and water work.

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There are a few things that serve as reminders that fall has officially arrived – and dove season is one of them. Taking the time to plan a successful dove hunt can be easy if hunters do a few simple things when they locate the ideal dove field.

Here are three dove hunting hacks that can be utilized in the early season when doves are naïve and easier to shoot, as well as for hunters who venture out in the late season when doves are skittish.

New to dove hunting? Read: A Complete Guide to Dove Hunting

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It wasn’t quite noon on the prairie and the light northwest breeze made the early season hunt seem almost cool. Usually on these early September prairie grouse hunts I would call it quits by noon, but after a rough summer at work and this being my first outing of the season, I decided Emma and I could make one more loop.

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