Monday, November 12, 2012

My last few weeks of upland hunting in North Dakota and Movember

It has been a few weeks since I have last posted and I have been up to quite a bit.  I went hunting one day every weekend since then for upland birds and I was not very successful.  You can't expect to much though it is Eastern North Dakota and I was hunting without a dog.  Anyway, I didn't see a single thing in the way of birds until my last day out hunting.  I was driving along a road between some public land and what I could only describe as a massive number of grouse flush from the ditch on the side of the road.  It was actually around probably 30 grouse which I considered a big number.  I quickly found a spot to park the car and go attempt to chase after them.  It just snowed the day before, and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground which made walking difficult.  The grouse were nothing but annoying after that.  I could hear them making their noises so I would head their direction and they would either flush over 100 yards ahead of me or just keep running on the ground and staying around 100 yards in front of me.  I tried every tactic I could think of to try to fix that.  I would try to sneak up to them, run up to them, try from different angles relative to the wind, nothing changed the way they acted I could not get a shot at all.  Finally after following them around for an hour and being quite far away from the vehicle at this time they all decided to fly onto some posted private land and that was the end of me chasing grouse for the season I guess.  I did hunt a different location after that, but to no avail there.  My grouse and pheasant season in North Dakota before their deer opener ended in 0 birds and 1 jackrabbit.  This is more than previous years, but still less than hunting only one afternoon in Wisconsin.

My hunting these past few weekends has not been in vain though.  First off I really enjoyed being out of the city and enjoying mother nature.  You really can't beat that, because even if you don't get any food for the table you still enjoyed the day.  Second, I found quite a few signs of fur bearers.  There was one spot of public land where this one truck always was every time I went out hunting.  Finally one time when I went out there the truck wasn't there so I decided to check it out.  Little did I know after walking through the some of the extremely rare wooded areas in this part of North Dakota that I would come to a creek.  I was surprised and happy to find something besides the same fields over and over again.  I found a tree stand which I assume was the guy's with the truck who had always been there.  In the part of public land by this creek I found tons of gnawed trees and beaver slides.  This got me excited as I was starting to wondering if trapping was really going to be worth getting my car stuck in the snow tons of times this winter.  I also found what looked to be the makings of a beaver dam but that was on private property so I could not get to close of a look at it.  I think I found at least one spot to possibly trap this Winter which excites me.  To add onto this topic Eric and I decided to go combine our efforts in getting trapping stuff this year as we both have been challenged by someone we know in an outdoor contest.  Eric traded a bow for about a few dozen traps all size 1 through 3 coil spring and long spring.  I ordered things for the traps like swivels, in line springs, and stakes to put his traps in better working order for the coyote and fox he wants.  Eric still needs a catch pole and if he's reading this I would like to remind him to get one or we may have a bad time.  I want to try to trap a little more than just fox and coyote, so I got some dog proof coon traps, some weasel boxes, weasel lure, coon lure, and some muskrat colony traps.  I already own a #1 long spring, and #110 conibear as everyone has seen from my videos.  I have already ordered all my stuff, and it is currently sitting in Wisconsin waiting for me to come get it.  I will see it soon as I go home to celebrate the greatest national holiday known as Wisconsin Deer Season.  I won't be there for the while time, but I will get at least 4 days in of hunting.  So, lots of excitement is coming up for me.

Here are the pictures I took while I was out hunting these last few weekends.

Beaver run

Beaver run there were a lot of them

chewed on tree

same chewed on tree

chewed on tree next to a run

More runs


Treestand I found there

chewing

dam in progress

The dam again

another run

More beaver work

Rusting old farm equpiment


Sitting on one of the few hills taking a short break from chasing the grouse around

Cows staring at me

Finally the last part of the post for everyone who is sick of reading.  Quad Survival has, as you know, grown mustaches for Movember to support awareness for men's cancers.  Well this year we have decided to participate in it some more by having a Movember team.  Our team address is http://us.movember.com/team/893129 if you want to donate.  Also if you want to donate on my behalf which also goes towards the team as well you can donate at this address http://mobro.co/quadsurvival.  Either way works except donating on my behalf puts me up higher in the team rankings.  I encourage everyone to donate for Movember as it goes to a good cause, and showing the world it is not only women who get cancer.  You may also join our team if you would like and help on behalf of Quad Survival.  As  many of you know I recently lost my father to cancer and I thank everyone who will contribute to Movember in advance it means a lot to me in many ways.  Stay updated as we will have more posts coming soon especially with deer season coming.

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