I hit the stand with a crossbow on this morning at my hunting lease near Graham. Two herds of Hogs came through, but I was waiting on a spike that has been showing on my game cam. Too many hogs probably kept him away.

Now when I got back to the camp house it was crazy. Waves of Dove flying in every direction. Mourning and some Whitewings.
Second hunt was going to be with my compound, but when I saw the Dove, Deer hunting game over. It was going to be a Dove Day. Blaze had come with me to help with any tracking if I got a Deer so it worked out well.

This picture was taken from the front yard of our camp house.
In fact I shot a few of my Dove just standing in the front yard and pass shooting them.

Well Saturday may have been amazing on the numbers of dove, but today it was a different story. The latest front and the rain seems to have moved a lot of birds out. There are still quite a few birds to be had though, but they were hard to figure out. No set flyways or patterns and the whitewings are gone. No response to the mojo anymore. Plus once you shoot a couple birds, the entire field clears out. Steve Heath and I managed only a few. But definately enough to consider it a good afternoon I think.



This next picture has to be the goofiest dog on point I have every seen. I had a cripple down and Blaze was having a real hard time finding it. It had buried deep in the grass right up next to the trunk of a Mesquite tree. When Blaze finally found it, she just collapsed to the ground on her belly and whoa'd into a sort of point. I took a quick picture from the hip. It is out of focus due to me laughing at her.



My Dove hunting is not over yet, but to keep my wingshooting habit fed and to keep Blaze happy, I think I will start looking for Snipe in Oklahoma next.

Once I looked at lake levels online, I pretty much changed my plans on finding any Snipe. But the good thing is for me at least; the high water will kill the vegetation and make for some great Snipe habitat when the water recedes. So I just went on an all small game hunt and general scouting mission. One lake in Texas and one in Oklahoma. I walked two tracts of public land today that I had never hunted before. We jumped all of rabbit, dove, squirrel, and Crows today.

You just can't capture the beauty of a creek with a picture. When I crossed I decided to start walking down it looking for Squirrels. Then I realized and you can tell in this picture. My creek only had Cottonwoods, Cedars, and Elms on it. But I stayed on it as it was my shortcut back. It did turn to more bottom land with lots of Pecans as well as wood ducks hanging out in the bigger holes. Other things I saw are just between me and Blaze.



Did we find Squirrels today, yes we did! Blaze made me take this hero picture of her. I tried to talk her out of it, but I finally gave in. Just can't argue with a dog.



Squirrels were right on the water. and not up in the main body of trees. They seemed to like individual pecan trees on the water today. There was three in the tree I took this one from. I missed number two, and did not shoot at number three which was on the heels of squirrel number two. Those two got high in the tree tops and made great jumps from tree to tree until I could no longer see them. I was impressed and frustrated at the same time. Others were in singles.



The main body of trees had several murders of crows working them. It was almost like deer hunting during the rut. They were so focused on the pecans I was able to walk up pretty close to some groups. I was only wearing blue jeans and a brown T shirt. No camos and no calls with me. Still when I got close to the Crows, I would just hug a tree, send Blaze ahead, then make a sound I can't reproduce in text. Kind of a Bwaaaak with 5 second pauses. It did not sound like a Crow, but it did not sound like anything else. But the Crows went nuts over it and I even had Buzzards in the tree tops working me. Blaze would stop and look at me wondering what I was doing and she worked well as a substitute Owl decoy. It was fun and I am glad no one was around to see me standing against those trees going Bwaaaak, Bwaaaak, Bwaaaaak.





We did have an issue with one Crow today. When Blaze picked it up, it was like a "Squeaky Toy" and you guessed it. She had some fun with it. But it did not stick. When we got into some Dove later, not once did she try to squeak them. So I was happy about that.



"Now that's what I'm Talkin Bout!" Geese found for the upcoming season.



I saw wood ducks on all the creeks. I saw two Gadwall, four Mallard Drakes, and one Flock of Teal. I drove a lot and glassed a lot of water. That is all I saw and not all those were on huntable water. Unless the water comes down, most walk in hunters will not be able to travel down the bank and the woods and pastures are green with vegetation. It will crowd the walk in hunters at the popular access points IMO.
I do think there will be some negative impact due to the early date of the opener unless we get a real cold front between now and then.



I love Oklahoma. You just never know what you will walk up on. Big Foot, Black Panthers, or.... Snapping Turtles. Just crawling down a trail. This was not near a water source so it must have walked a long ways and had a long ways to go with a cold night ahead. We consulted helping out, but when he/she tried to bite me, I got the message.

Blaze does too, so she volunteered for this.




She has got pretty good with that little SxS!