Every Hunting Season is Different

Every hunting season is different.

This one exceptionally so.

Drought, heat, and an infestation of grasshoppers guaranteed it.

Since the upland bird season opened in September, I’ve been out more days than not. A lack of birds in my favorite haunts hasn’t kept me home.

There’s still plenty to see.

I was looking at pictures on my phone yesterday and a shot taken Sept. 1 popped up. Typically the pictures I take on the day of the opener are of my dogs and a dead grouse or two. This was a picture of a cow moose trotting across the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge.

Moose are becoming more plentiful in this part of the state, and sightings of them on the prairie are no longer so rare.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing moose. Like bears, they remind me of wild places. The first one I saw was during a canoe trip in northern Minnesota. A young bull later treed me on Isle Royale National Park. I used to see them frequently while elk hunting in the Gallatin Range and the Beartooths.

The sight of moose often catches me by surprise, especially when I’m hunting country more suited to antelope.

A couple of days after waterfowl season opened I drove down a dusty two-track to reach a stretch of prairie stream that I hoped might be holding a few ducks.

Near a spot I now call Jem’s grave -- after planting my old dog there last fall -- I parked the truck and got out. Approaching the creek, I saw a pair of black ears poking over the bank.

“Cows,” I thought.

But upon closer inspection I realized this was no black Angus. Instead it was a young bull moose standing knee-deep in the creek along with a cow moose and twin calves.

We stared at each other for a few seconds until the quartet got nervous, climbed the bank on the other side and trotted away.

Unlike moose I used to run into in the mountains, however, these didn’t disappear quickly. With no vegetation to hide them they were still visible a mile away.

These are strange times in which we live, hotter and drier it seems each year. I suspect the birds will rebound but it may take a while. In the meantime I’ll keep following in the wake of the dogs. Who knows what we’ll see next?

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]