November 3rd, 2021: The pheasant and duck kickoff began on a beautiful November day with a hike into a new area. Things started off slow but this turned into a one of those days that was everything you could ask for - a variety of critters, some weight in the game bag, and lots of scenic miles. A couple miles in things got started with an opportunity at some rock doves (city pigeons) that were hiding under an abandoned canal bridge but their dodging skills far exceeded my rusty aim. Definitely heading back to the bridge this year for a rematch because I don't know where else I will find access to organic pigeon. 
Just a little further upstream I got lucky stepping up to the mud flat below and surprising some mallards. I got a rare double with the over/under, both a hen and drake. The hen was a banded bird (small metal ID band on a leg) which is a first for me. After reporting the tag, I got a certificate back that told me it had been tagged near Tulita, Northwest Territories in 2018 which is a good 1,250 miles from the mud flat and a pretty impressive yearly commute. If I wasn't eight months behind in my reporting I would get into some of the cool data about how far ducks are migrating and how old they get but for now I'll just note that there are ducks flying around out there that are over 15 years old (the oldest mallard on record was banded 26 years).
We ended up getting three more ducks into the water but only found another mallard and a teal. Four ducks in 7.5 miles is a personal best but we only found a single hen pheasant and a single covey of quail. I would guess that means I picked a spot a little too close to a major road but looking forward to trying again soon. Might even pack in some hip waders which would have let me push past a swamp and into territory that probably never sees a hunter.
And all that excitement was just the morning walk, for the afternoon I went to a couple of old favorites for another 5.5 miles that resulted in zero birds... I missed a rooster and a teal and got to see some cranes but most of the ducks were jumping early or russian olive trees were in the way. The most interesting incident came right at the end of the day when we were squeezing between olives and a wall of cattails. Its almost always a futile effort as a rooster needs to fly just right to get a shot and he needs to fall stone dead to not disappear into the swamp... but anyways I was hopeful and it almost worked as Oak kicked a rooster right into my feet. Yet, that rooster was too smart for us and would not fly, he just kept right on trucking into the cattails to tell his cousins about a really close call.
November 12th, 2021: Round two was specifically an attempt to make it to Potholes Reservoir and island hop as far into the lake as possible. I wasn't really expecting pheasants in the first 6-7 miles but Oak flushed three young ones that were loafing under an olive tree and I had another double (and immediately started dreaming about getting a semi-auto so I could have tried for the triple).
It was just a little further to the lake and the first puddle held 30+ teal that jumped just out of range. As the surface settled down, Oak spotted what looked like an upside down duck but when he made it back, he had carried a half rotten carp all the way to the bank. Such dedication to his craft, I'm sure he was tasting that carp for days!
The lake plan itself turned out to be a big mistake as boats had dropped off at least three groups of guys in blinds with decoy spreads blocking any path out further into the lake and they were burning through a lot of ammo which didn't bode well for finding any ducks nearby.
Took about three miles along the lake's edge to get on another stream and only got one duck shot in that span. It went down but despite committing to soggy boots/pants for the rest of the day and wading all around the flooded brush, we couldn't find it. On the plus side, it did buy me a little credit with hound who finally felt like it was a team effort. Right before leaving the lake we did get to jump up 100+ ducks coming around one of the dunes but they were just out of range for even the most optimistic or desperate attempts.
On the stream, things went really quiet... four miles and mostly I was finding corpses:
The mule deer would have been a really good find for making dog chews if he had lived another month but his antlers were still a little squishy... No clue on what was dropping fish all over but these were just a couple of the offerings we found. No duck or rooster opportunities but saw coyotes, deer, cranes, etc so it was an afternoon well wasted.
I thought about punishing the faithful readers with our return on Thanksgiving week but I need a break too. Hopefully, I have that recap out within the week and start catching up on my backlog. On the plus side, I'm probably forgetting most of the little stories that I find interesting but bore everyone else!