70 in February??

So what's a guy to do on a February afternoon when the temp hits nearly 70 degrees?  Well, this guy took the opportunity to shoot his first rooster over his new pup, Trigger.  It wasn't pretty, or perfect, but he got the job done, and most important of all, hardly batted an eye at the sound of the shotgun.  I hesitated somewhat as we sauntered across the soggy ground and the rooster flushed from my right crossing to my left.  I had previously wondered how I would shoot a bird without doing it directly over Trigger's head.  As soon as Trigger seemed thoroughly intrigued by the bird I laid down the hammer.  The bird crumpled and plopped in the snow melt.  Trigger paused briefly and gave me a glance, and then proceeded to run to the bird and investigate.  He hesitated a little since he's only been tossed dead birds in the parking lot, but soon caught scent and sight of the kicking bird.  He wasn't entirely sure about picking up the moving bird, but soon enough it held still and he fought for a hold, and brought it to hand.  With plenty of birds left, and some of the cover being uncovered, we should get to do this more before the preserve season closes at the end of March.



We, along with the pheasants and other wildlife, have been blessed this week with temps in the 50's and 60's.  This afternoon my pickup showed 70 degrees as I headed to the country.  The snow is disappearing fast, but winter is certainly not over.  We shouldn't expect that until sometime after March.  This warm up definitely helps ease the pain of winter's grasp.  The creek is running full, which I don't think I've ever seen in February.  It will make the spring transition a little easier when it finally rolls around, but harder to go back to more normal temps which are forecasted for this weekend, along with the inevitable snow which will fall sometime before we are done.

A quick update on the SD mountain lion season. As of Wednesday afternoon, two cats are needed to reach the harvest quota of 45 lions.  Brandon and I gave it our best last week as we spent two days tracking one down.  The tracks were fresh, but what seemed to be a male marking his territory was intent on covering some ground.  If it weren't for the warm weather the season would have most likely ended this past weekend.  Even with the poor conditions it would be a surprise to see it last through another weekend.  So far, 25 females and 18 males have been harvested, with the largest being a 177 pound male.