Thanksgiving Pheasant Hunt

Photo by Holly Higgins

We hunted pheasant Thanksgiving day hoping to harvest a rooster for the table that evening, but at the end of the day were glad we had thrown a chicken in the cart (just in case) while shopping the previous evening. That morning there was a skiff of snow on the ground and tracks were noticeable everywhere in the cover; criss-crossing through the sage and native grasses, down fencelines, in and out of the willows. There was a chill in the air all day and the frost never left the cover except when one of us, or a dog, brushed it off while hunting through it. When the wind came up you felt it anywhere there was bare skin or wet clothing. The dogs were the heroes of the day, hunting hard in the cold and wet persistently. We managed to put a few birds in the air but pinning a bird down was tough....