Charamba

Charamba is a traditional Portuguese dance from the XIXth century...it is an elegant, graceful dance, and it reminds me of pointing dogs and birds...of course, birds being quail. Quail in this case are of the scaled variety.

Today, I fixed the birds from Thursday one of my favorite ways...and yes, it's from a box! I usually leave the birds undrawn and in full feathers in the fridge for several days before I prepare them for the table. Zatarain's has several choices, but my favorite is the chicken creole. I follow the recipe on the back but add a can of Rotel's (Original) instead of the diced tomatoes. The Rotel's gives it a little extra spice to it. I also add my favorite sausage and shrimp to the mix. Combine it with your favorite side dish and beverage!

Bon appétit!

Bird Dogs & Optimism

Have you ever noticed that bird dogs like their upland addict counterparts are an optimistic lot? We continue to trudge on & on in order to discover birds on the next hill & dale...or over on the cholla flats F-I-V-E miles from where you are currently standing. Tongue's tough like boot leather, stuck to roof of our craw...but we do it, cause we know there will be birds and an explosion of feathers at the proverbial end. Of course, only after a heart-stopping-stylish-steal-your-breath-away point!

Today was one such day! Mark Kastler and I headed out early this morning to find some Colorado scaled quail with our optimistic partners eagerly in tote. We, optimistically, walked the first 4 hours in a brisk Colorado breeze leaning forward...onward we trudge, but no birds! Finally, after what seemed like the 11th hour of wondering if there were even a scaled quail to be found, Mark's Brittany, Ranger, slammed into a point...just about tilted over! We Found birds by golly ...knew that we would being the optimists that we are! In fact, we spent the magic hours mesmerized by the dog work and plenty of birds!

The dogs are what keep me going...suspicious, optimistic, trusting, loyal, feisty, & loving. What more could a person ask for in companionship? Give me a bird dog any day of the week!

"Invictus" by William E. Henley

I was reminded today of my favorite poem by William E. Henley. The words to this poem ring true. Unconquerable! We are the masters of our own destiny...even in leans times! Thank you for reminding me!







Invictus

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.


William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903

Dann Jacobus

Dann Jacobus' Fence Line Flush made the cover of the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of the PDJ. I enjoyed the picture so much! It reminded me of chasing wily roughneck-roosters while I was in veterinary school in Eastern Washington with my very first crazy pointing dog...Jibbers! To find out more about Dann and his outstanding art work click here!

These prints were borrowed from Dann's website with his permission.

The Wordsmith...Julian and his Lovelies

My friend and fellow contributor to Upland Equations recently sent me these photographs from his last weeks upland adventure. Julian and his significant other Emma spend a great deal of their spare time training bird dogs...a couple after my own heart. Below are Julian's words of the weekend...




Hi Shawn,



Hopes all's going well, and sorry to read about the death of William Tapply. I hope he's in that great covert in the sky.

Had a great day out working the dogs for a party of 8 guns on saturday. We finished with 76 pheasants, 1 woodcock, and a pigeon.

The labs are really finding their feet, (paws?) now, retrieving to hand both pheasants and duck from water.

Here are a few pics from saturday's shoot:


I'm very proud of Julian as he has been on a publishing roll...and will have an article out in Gray's Sporting Journal in the very near future! Julian most certainly has a way with words and the pen! I hope that some day he'll come out West and help this Pilgrim skin a Griz or perhaps a sage or blue grouse!

William G. Tapply 1940-2009: Loss of a Great Outdoor Writer!

I read with great sadness last night of the loss of one of my favorite outdoors writers of all times, William G. Tapply. I hadn't heard the news until yesterday when I picked up the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of American Angler and read the news on the Editor's Page.

Bill's writing touched many outdoor sports-peoples lives. He was one of the last links to bird hunting legends like H. G. ("Tap") Tapply, Gorham L. Cross (aka Grandpa Grouse) and Grouse Poet Laureate himself Burton Spiller. More information can be read about the life of Bill by going to his website (CLICK HERE).

Emile and Remy: Training with Gary Ruppel

My good friend and hunting partner Mark Thompson recently acquired a new member of the family...a French Brittany from the author of "A Hunter's Road" Jim Fergus. Here are some photos of Remy and Emile with gun dog trainer extraordinaire Gary Ruppel. I can hardly wait to get in the field with Mark and his bird dogs!

Here are the words of Mr. Thompson as he sent them to me in an email:

Emile and Remy got a trip over to our friend and well-known gun dog trainer, Gary Ruppel, for some bird dog training today. Gary worked with Emile on quail, though he was a bit weasy after being car sick during the hour ride out to Kiowa. He is only around 12 weeks old, so he has lots of birds ahead of him, so we didn’t push him too hard. Emile is being carried around by Lauren as I write this note, as she loves her puppies, and they are very tolerant of her games. And he loves retrieving a frozen quail in the driveway at home. has been very keen on birds hunting this year, at least the few that we found as we have had a tough year with grouse, even in our honey holes. Anyway, he is now a year old and coming into his terrible twos year and needs a lot of whoa put back into him, as he enjoys chasing the birds too much for a pointing pup. It was amazing, as Gary had him steady to the flush in about 15 minutes of training. He was steady to the flush on several birds the rest of the session. Just when I thought I had learned all of Gary’s training after 15 years now, apparently I am still only performing at 75%, as his consistency and posturing did the trick in short order. I can’t wait for pheasant and quail season, which opens in another week.

Mark Thompson photographs: