Tod, All the birds

W

Worth Mathewson

Active member
Tod, (With an o this time) I'll post this for you, and hopefully others on this site who share your interest in hunting as many of the various species as possible. I know that I have never had more enjoyment over the years than has come from doing this. Not only being able to travel to the different bird's habitats, learning about them firsthand, but also meeting other hunters who shared information with me enabling me to be successful. I shot my first game bird in Florida in 1952. It was a mourning dove. Since that time I THINK (others please check me to see if I have missed anything) I have shot all but one of the United States' and Canadas' legal, native and introduced upland and shore birds. The one I haven't gotten is Nevada's snow partridge. I've gone down 4 times and have never had a shot. At this point my guess I will never get one, as age has put an end to much I once was able to do. Climbing up sheer cliffs at 10,000 feet is now behind me. Dave Hagerbaumer thinks I should try one more time, but take several dozen coil spring #1s and set them on the trails the birds use.
But I have bagged 48 species: Native birds: Grouse: ruffed, blue, spruce, sharptail, lesser pinnated, greater pinnated, sage, willow, rock, white tailed ptarmigan. Quail: bobwhite, valley, mountain, Gamble's, Mearns, scaled. Doves and pigeons: bandtail, mourning, white-winged, white tipped. Rails and gallinule: Virginia, sora, clapper, king, coot, purple gallinule, common gallinule. Turkey: five races. Crane: lesser sandhill. Snipe: Wilson's snipe. Woodcock: American woodcock. Crow: crow. Chachalaca: chachalaca. Introduced: chukar, grey partridge, ringneck pheasant, green pheasant, kalij pheasant, chestnut bellied sandgrouse, Eurasian collared dove, ring necked dove, lace necked dove, zebra dove, rock dove, Japanese quail, grey francolin, black francolin, and Erchel's francolin.
Many of the introduced birds are found in Hawaii. Of those that are, I shot all but the green pheasant on the Parker Ranch. I got the green on another ranch close to the Parker Ranch. And as a sidenote, those chestnut bellied sandgrouse (you shoot them at a water hole on the Parker Ranch) are without question one of the most beautiful birds one could ever hope to bag. I'll bet I looked at my first for a five solid minutes.
I can't think of anything more worthwhile for a person who appreciates birds, and hunting them, than to make an effort to "hunt them all". I wish you all the best. And really wish I could do it all over again. From the start. Best, Worth
 
Yes Worth, that is wonderful stuff. I have a lot of bird watching in my background as well as, obviously, hunting, so I do appreciate that accomplishment as a very special thing. Anyone who comes close to accumulating that list has lived a good life and seen some good stuff along the way. My long-term goal is to freelance all the native gamebirds. I have not all that many left on my list and I'm thankful for that. In the short term, I'm on a upland quest to shoot all the available upland gallinaceous birds over Pete, my lab (minus the chachalaca). It would have been a whole lot easier if the Lesser Prairie Chicken was declared threatened, then they would have been off the list of "available species".

T
 
Hey Mr. Mathewson...P.G. from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Hope all is well, did you make it to Scotland this summer? Been thinking about that, sounds like a neat trip. Brant should start showing up by Halloween here!

Cheers, P.G.
 
Worth! Good to see you posting! I can think of one odd bird that you forgot on your list!!!!!!

Hope all is well out west. Teal season is soon approaching and Mark and I will try again on the really small game slam for you. Try not to get any true doubles on deer this year though.

Best, Ira


 
P.G. and Ira,

P.G., very good to hear from you again. I still greatly appreciate the days brant hunting with you last year. And the bandtail decoy you kindly sent me is on the dinning room table. Lots of guys remark about it. I think it looks much better there than flowers etc. that Marge might choose. And yes, I did get to Scotland in late July/early August. I hunted wood pigeons for ten days. Harvest was three weeks late, so the birds were scattered. But out of the 10 days I had 7 good ones, three of the seven excellent. I place a 30 bird limit on myself. On the three excellent days I could have likely killed 60-70 had I continued shooting. But 30 dead birds is more than enough. As I told you while we were branting, wood pigeon hunting over decoys just about has to be the tops of all wingshooting. They are very wary, very fast, and the entire day is much like ducks over decoys. They are also very good to eat. I had the hotel fix pigeon for me eight of the 12 nights I was there. Hope you and Grayson have waves of brant into the decoys this year!

Ira, on my list of birds you will notice I said "legal". I don't think that includes bluejays. All the best to you and Mark this upcoming season. I am getting ready to leave for Sask. and the Fat Boy will go on top of the van. I certainly love that little boat. I start using it here in Oregon in December in the marsh below the house. After grassing it up I have ducks land within grabbling distance. And remind Mark that doubles on deer aren't in his best interest, especially with his truck. Worth
 
What about the Hymalayan Snow Cock in nothern Nevada?

I flushed one while deer hunting northwest of Elko in 1981. At first I thought it was a turkey, but as it rocketed down the canyon I could see that it was more like a grouse and then thought that maybe it was a big sage grouse well out of its habitat being at the top of a mountain. However, after we came home I looked it up in some books at the library and learned that it was a snow cock.

It held until I kicked it in the butt as I came down the canyon trying to flush some deer out of the quakies. It took me a couple of minutes to calm down and then the doe jumped up from its bed right after that. Shattered teenage nerves for the rest of the day.
 
Worth,
I've given up deer hunting!! They are talking about starting elk here so maybe I'll take up elk hunting.hehehehee
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top