RGS

Healthy Forests, Abundant Wildlife, Conservation Ethic

You are here: Home / Archives for Covers Magazine

Covers Magazine

Mid-Winter Woodcock Nesting

by

by Gary G. Youngblood  In late February of 2019, I was driving west on Interstate-64 with my young English setter Patches. We were traveling to West Virginia to grouse hunt the last couple of days of the season. My daughter Jody called me in-transit. “Daddy, you aren’t going to believe this … Parker just found a quail egg in the woods,” she said.  “Jody, it’s way too early for quail to be nesting and laying eggs. It’s probably a woodcock egg. That’s the only ground-nesting bird I know that would be laying here in February. Yep, I’ll bet Parker found a woodcock...

Read More

Cold Weather Strategies That Will Keep Your Dogs Safe

by

by Seth Bynum, DVM The sting of a strong prairie wind bored through heavy nylon, nipped across the tightly-woven fibers of merino wool and threatened to snuff out what little flame of enthusiasm I had left for this late-season upland hunt. Like the pangs of childbirth or chukar hunting, the mind has a way of purging physically traumatic events from memory, and the gale whipping over crusty snow and across my face served as a harsh reminder of how the wind influences life on the American plains. I spent four long winters here, I should know. But when I moved away for...

Read More

When Snow Falls

by

by Tom Keer Photography by Tim Flanigan The rain poured down for three straight days, and it wasn’t a mist or a pitter-patter on the tin roof. It was consistent, like the rinse cycle at a carwash, and the noise from a fire hose-worth of water on the metal echoed throughout the cabin. A faucet drip can be irritating, but the drone was maddening. Mercury hovered in the high 30s, and that was the only saving grace. But the winds were shifting, and that meant the temperatures would drop soon. When they went below freezing, there would be snow in the...

Read More

Purely Dogs – Prepare for the Worst

by

by Lisa Price Never before did I prepare for the worst things to happen, but then a couple of them did, and I upped my game. There are oodles of articles about safety for dogs in the field, accompanied by pictures of dogs riddled with porcupine quills, slashed by barbed wire and similar disastrous encounters. And lots of people who pursue grouse and woodcock with dogs can head to a local woodland. But lots of us must knuckle down for a long drive. If you’re headed out for a dream hunt with your dogs, make sure the trip there is not a part...

Read More

Out of Balance

by

by Tim Flanigan The Ruffed Grouse Society was just 15 years old in 1976 when I attended the Society’s annual meeting in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The audience included the “whose-who” of the grouse-hunting community, and the keynote speaker for the meeting was the highly-regarded, Dr. Roger Latham, Ph.D. His word was gospel to outdoor enthusiasts of the time, and rightfully so. Dr. Latham was the Director of Wildlife Management for the Pennsylvania Game Commission and a widely-published outdoor writer. As the latter, he enjoyed great credibility due to his vast knowledge and field experience. The readers of his Sunday column in the...

Read More

Training Tips from NAVHDA Dog Handlers

by

LET NO GAME GO UNRETRIEVED by Nancy Anisfield and Rob Shaw Every bird-dog-owning grouse and woodcock hunter knows that finding a downed bird in thick cover is no easy task. Autumn leaves, tangled blowdowns, air-washed scent, swirling winds, depth distorting conifers, rocks, crevasses and ground debris seem to exist to confound hunters and dogs. As shooters, we can keep our eyes on the bird and note visible landmarks where it drops. As dog handlers, we have another set of eyes and an impressive nose available to help. Even though a dog’s nose and instincts are superior to ours, there are things we...

Read More

Join Or Renew Now