Grouse hunting in Vermont

J

JimO

Member
I spent this past weekend Grouse and Woodcock hunting in Vermont. My brother in-laws wifes family owns a 235 acre farm in Belmont Vermont. I is absolutely a stunning piece of property with a great farmhouse, barn, man made pond (2 acres), etc etc. We were lucky to get the invite!

Hunted Saturday with my youngest son (17) and my brother in law. Since my son and brother in law were a bit rusty with guns and hunting, I decided not to carry a gun but work my lab and make sure everyone was safe. My lab flushed a grouse on Saturday morning a bit to far for a good shot, so no one shot. She flushed a nice woodcock right in front of my brother in law, who was so shocked, he did not shoot. She then flushed what I am 90 percent sure were bobwhite quail (about a covey of 10) which both shot at, and missed. Hunted for another hour or so and did not flush another bird. Holly is 9 and was limping a bit on her right paw, so I called it quits and we walked back to the house for a HUGE breakfast that our wives had made!

What a great weekend. We did not shoot a bird, but I do not care, a great day outdoors with one of my sons and my brother in-law was awesome, spent the rest of the weekend hiking, dog training, picking apples, riding a four wheeler they have, and cooking/eating great food. The TV never came on, my cell phone did not work, computers were OFF and it was AWESOME!

Quick quetion for you Vermont guys.. I am 90% sure that last flush was bobwhite quail but I don' think there are quail in Vermont? right? maybe they were from somebody stocking on a nearby farm? Thoughts?

I will try to post pictures when I get them from my wifes camera.

Jim O
 
Great Story. Esp the part about the phone and computer not working.


Glad you had fun in the fall color.
 
Sounds great Jim. I keep having a little voice in my head say "do a north woods grouse hunt", your story didn't help me resist.

T
 
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Hello Jim O. In answer to your question about native quail in Vt. There's between damn few and none at all. Winters up here are just too cold to support a year round population. Now, having said that, about 6 or 7 years ago, I had quail on my property in late summer and early fall. I've no idea where they came from, and come the following spring, there weren't any, ever again. The people who ran the local farm store speculated that they were somebody's release birds. Makes sense to me.

John in Vt
 
Hi Jim,

I am sure at one time, there probably were quail in VT. I would say that what you encountered were probably planted/released birds. The winters are tough up there with lots of snow. I don't think a quail covey to withstand the cold temps and snow cover.

Glad you found some birds. We've been hitting the woods down here pretty hard. My britt loves those woodcock and has a knack for finding them, especially in the thick stuff. I took her out yesterday with my 7 year old son, and she found four, three of which were in a 25 yard circle. Caleb got to see her point a bird, and I walked in and flushed it and it went right over his head. He thought that was the coolest. She also found a big old cock pheasant from the hunt club on the other side of Dogtown. Had a fun walk, even if it was just a Sunday.


Hope you are doing well.


Nate Grace
 
Thanks for the replies everyone! Yes it was a fun weekend with the family. I did miss my oldest son and daughter who are away at school. Interestingly my son is at school in NH and my daughter in VT but neither could break away from school schedules and get to the farm in Belmont. For all of you with young kids, get them out in the field and/or on the water as often as possible. It is this kind of activities that hold families together and makes the kids want to be with their parents!

Yup, I think the Quail must have been released from a neighboring farm or hunt area.

Does anyone know how hard it would be or what regulations apply if I wanted to purchase Pheasant and/or quail eggs or young birds, and release them at this farm? The cover is absolutely perfect for these birds with about 50 or 60 fallow apple trees, and other food sources spread throughout the acreage. The area also has plenty of water sources. I saw that there is a Pheasant and Quail farm in Springfield VT, not far from Belmont but it looked like they raise the birds for food, not hunting.

Thanks for any info in advance.

Jim O'Brien
 
Jim,

Great to hear from you. It has been a few years since we have duck hunted. It is hard to believe you have kids in college.
My two children just recently got married. Where has the time gone.

Best Wishes, Tom
 
Tom:

How the heck are you? I hope all is well with you and your family. I remember hunting together, it was a good time. Are you still breeding Chessie's?

Jim O'Brien
 
Jim:

I have two nice male chessies that I hunt over now and co-own a female chessie with a friend of mine
that we plan on breeding to. Your hunt up in Vermont sounded very enjoyable. What was even better you got to share the day with your son out in the field. It was great hearing from you Jim.

Take care Tom
 
Hello Jim. When fellow board member Dave Diefenderfer lived here in Vt, we used to raise birds occasionally. We found out the hard way that you have to have your set up right before you buy the day old chicks. Day old chicks are a lot easier than messing with eggs and most any farm store can order them for you.

Quail, like most birds do not like to be crowded. As they grow, they will need a rapidly expanded, heated box to keep them in, especially the first couple of weeks. At that point that they need room, otherwise they commence to picking at each other, which will lead to a bloody bird(s) that the others will pick at.

You have to expect a certain level of mortality in each species, and the farm store can clue you in on what level, so you can adjust the purchase qty. I can't remember whether we raised the quail in my basement or his, but I do remember raising baby ducks in my basement. It didn't take long for the box to start to smell, and for the wife to notice.

As far as releasing quail or pheasants in Vt, I don't recall isses with those 2 species. I do recall issues if you wanted to release turkeys. If you don't shoot the quail, cold weather and predators will get them. Pheasants might make it through the winter depending on how much cover they find. I used to enter gamebirds in the Champlain Valley Fair each year. I would advertise them for sale, and guys would always buy them to use in dog training.

I don't have my atlas in front of me, how far north is Belmont?

Hopefully Dave will see this and comment as our bird raising ventures were a long time ago and memory is not my forte.

John Bourbon
 
Former Champlain Valley boy here. There are a good number of pheasants released in the Champlain Valley. I had birds on my property in Cornwall that were breeding. There also was a place down in Shoreham( I forget the name) that raised terrific flight birds. There was an early snow that collapsed the flying cage and all ofthe sudden we had roosters everywhere.

Several guys I hunted with bought farm raised quail to train their pointing dogs- therse would sometimes winter-over.
 
John:

Thanks for the reply. Belmont is right next to Ludlow. Intrestingly my grandmother was born in one of the houses on the main street in Ludlow, about a mile from where this farm is located. They then moved to Springfield VT where they owned a fruit store and worked in the factory there. Some of my Great Aunts became teachers etc and one married Albin J. Parker who was became the State Attorney General.

Regarding raising birds.. Sounds like I will likely try to buy game birds and just release a few days before I want to hunt, rather than trying to raise them.

Jim O
 
Hi John. Its funny you should mention Shoreham...I think it was State Waterfowl Biologist Bill Crenshaw that once told me that he'd heard that released pheasants seem to migrate towards the lake as the winters in the lake region are less severe. If quail and pheasants are going to make it anywhere in Vt, it'll be in the lake area where total snowfall is less that inland.

John
 
Hi John. Its funny you should mention Shoreham...I think it was State Waterfowl Biologist Bill Crenshaw that once told me that he'd heard that released pheasants seem to migrate towards the lake as the winters in the lake region are less severe. If quail and pheasants are going to make it anywhere in Vt, it'll be in the lake area where total snowfall is less that inland.

John
Click to expand...


Yep- Addison County, the banana belt. If you see Bill tell him I said hey- I hunted with him a couple of times and did a bunch of DU stuff with him as well. I miss hunting the lake- where I hunt here is very similar, but with a 12 foot tide- kind of a PITA....
 
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