Desert Adventures

Male Gambels Quail

Two days ago Darren ,Sharon and I headed east  from Patagonia to pursue Gambels and Scaled Quail.Darren was hunting while Sharon was along for the walk and to watch her husband in action .

We arrived at our destination , aired dogs then "wired"  the 3 pointers  and my lab  with Garmin tracking  and Dogtra beeper collars then off we went for our first loop in an area that over the years has produced both Gambles and Scaled Quail .Three minutes into the walk Darren said "Snake" I looked over as the snake coiled and began rattling ,it was very "pissed" and made no attempt to sliver back down the hole that he was in front of. The pointers where well away but Tish was at "heel" beside me and being a curious lab she no doubt would have wanted to check the snake out , so on that note I told Darren to "shoot it" .After examining the snake my guess was it was a Mojave, which is the most venomous  Rattle Snake found in Arizona  and the U.S.A .If the Dogs where not out we would not had to kill it ,but given the circumstances it had to go .On the drive out we had talked about the dangers of the desert ,I mentioned that over the years I have never seen a Rattle Snake in December , usually they are underground , well so much for that theory ! but for my two friends from ST.Paul Alberta  it added to their Arizona Adventure and no doubt give them something to talk about when they get home to the North Country .

The Rest of the day was spent  chasing  desert birds , and although numbers are down ,we managed to move a few coveys of both species and Darren shot a  male Gambels  .

I have not spent as much time as I would like walking the washes and enjoying the desert sunsets, I am going to have to change that ! and hopefully we get the winter rains to help these birds rebound as it was a lot of fun watching the dogs roll in more open country than what we have been hunting here in Mearns Land.

 
Buddy on point