doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Game Bird?

Meadowlarks. Not a game bird. However, I've got many an old recipe book that listed recipes for them. I mean people eat muskrat too

even had crow from time to time...but am trying to avoid it if possible..

My dog pointed dove a few times, when she was younger. Now she just retrieves them. I think they learn what you're hunting or not, and what's to be pointed or not, with experience. We just yell at the stupid sparrows, but we shoot at the quail and pheasants. Perhaps yours learned very early on!

So why are game birds game? I suspect it's based on the birds - which taste good, which are good to hunt, and which reproduce enough to hunt sustainably. Over time, they became "game". Dove are songbirds in some places, game birds in others. To me, while they do "sing", they definitely qualify as game birds.

Once upon a time, maybe 14 or 15 years ago, my partner and I ran into two young airman on opening morning of Prairie Grouse season, east of Wall, SD. They asked how we were doing and after looking at our birds, commented that all they had seen were small yellow breasted birds.

My partner ask "You mean those Ellsworth Quail?" "Ellsworth Quail?" they said looking at the best poker face in Rapid City. "Yep!" "Ellsworth Quail." says Harold. "Mighty good eating."

Later that day we saw them in Wall Drug Store. "Hey! Thanks for the heads up. We got a bag full of them quail." says one.

Old Harold never cracked a smile when he said "Be sure to pluck them. They are better eating that way."

Harold has passed. I wonder if he is as ornery in Heaven as he was around here.

Reference dogs not pointing songbirds, there are exceptions to every rule. I have watched a setter over several seasons start the season pointing songbirds, especially meadowlarks, only to relearn to focus on exclusively gamebirds by seasons. Starting on early season prairie chicken it happens and by January it is cured through end of preserve season in March. She tips her hand that it is a song bird that by tail position, but she still holds the point. I flush the bird and she moves on.

She also points squirrels and rabbits in the yard, but never in the field. She will even successfully stalk chipmunks on summer walks, but never when hunting in season. So yes dogs may know what is game and what is not, but still do what they want to do and some simply like pointing anything that flies

My 85 year old mother has mentioned when she was a girl during the Depression in Bath County, Va. several of the neighbors enjoyed Robin pie. My grandmother never fixed it, but apparently my Uncle Fred loved it.

Have you considered the door into heaven might have been locked when he arrived?

Best,
Ted

My old Shorthair would point Woodcock...but would never pick them up to retrieve..she would retrieve everything else including doves and ducks???

No. Harold was a good man.

He helped the poor and served in various capacities, our community. He was steadfast to his principles, loyal beyond words to his country as was recognized by our government for his actions in arms during the Korean Conflict, held true to his word and paid both his debts and his way through life.

He not only was a elder in his church, but lived it's teachings.

I never heard him raise his voice to another man, nor say anything about him he hadn't said to his face.

He personified the farm personalities that settled our plains.

I am certain that if the Pearly Gates were opened for anyone I have known, they were opened for Harold.

He was ornery, though.

I wasn't implying he didn't eventually get in-just maybe that they made him sit on his ass and wait for a while.

Best,
Ted