Well, a week into the season, I'm not impressed. There seem to be pockets of birds and other areas of excellent habitat practically devoid of birds. If a guy expects an opportunity at a limit of birds in a full day of hunting, this is going to be a tough, disappointing, season.
The pups and I limited out on opening day in western Iowa but it was tough hunting in head high switch grass and we only missed one shot opportunity in 5 hours of hunting. I then hunted for another five hours with a dogless buddy nearer home and though we saw a lot more birds than I did in western Iowa, the shot opportunities were few. We each knocked down a bird that the dogs couldn't find. A day doesn't get much worse than that.
I'm heading out in a few hours to hit some new ground for pheasants and maybe try to find a woodcock. I haven't shot a woodcock in Iowa in a long time.
I'll be back.
On one day, I did take a limit of roosters, but that wasn't the norm. My other pheasant hunts were just one or two birds. I know there were areas of Iowa that I could have done well, but with developing this business I couldn't rationalize too many near home hunts as I was also planning nearly two weeks of December in Idaho.