THE ART AND SCIENCE OF BIRD PLANTING…

OR LIFE IN THE JUNGLE

By Charlie Blackbourn – North Central Director GSPCA

Reprinted by permission of the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of America

Each year as I go through the fall field trial season in the Upper Midwest I am tempted to write an article about bird planting. Obviously that desire has not been achieved until now. The things that prompt me most in this effort are bird less dogs, finds and or crashes in the horse path and crawling through dense uncharted jungle complete with briars, logs and swamp in search of a four ounce quail that my dog is convinced is in there.

It is after one of these experiences and while I am treating the scratch wounds on my arms and face that I find myself again trying to write this article.

General Considerations: First I consider the bird planter(s) extremely important and are very integral in whether or not you have a successful trial. They should be experienced field trial people. They should know the grounds and they definitely need to know the difference in what is expected of the dogs running the various stakes your club is running.

The birds in an all age stake need to be in an entirely different place than those in a derby or gun dog stake. Many times the only consideration for choosing a planter is whether or not he can ride a horse. The planters do not necessarily have to be club members. You can certainly request visiting participants who are qualified to plant a couple of braces. You must be careful however not to have people plant braces immediately prior to the ones that they will be running in.

I have seen field trial chairpersons assign braces to be planted for an event in advance. This makes things run very smoothly and assures that each brace will be planted by a qualified person who is not participating in the next brace. If you use this method you must of course get agreement from the club members and visiting participants in advance. Visiting pros are usually very happy to help out with amateur stakes but you must be careful that they are not asked to plant braces in which their client’s dogs are running.

Consider the season and daily conditions. In my part of the country there is an extremely different set of conditions on our grounds in the spring vs. fall trials. In spring trials the cover growth is very light. This is true of course because there has been no growth during the winter and the snow cover has beaten down the tall grass vegetation. The problems in the spring sometimes are finding cover heavy enough to hold or provide a sufficient hiding place for birds. There should be sufficient cover so that we have a reasonable chance that that bird will stay there until the next brace goes by.

Consider the wind; if you are planting birds in a hedge row or a linear line of cover, place them on the edge that will be blowing out to the dog’s nose as he runs by. Remember, the object is for the dogs to find birds so that we can evaluate their style and whether or not they are adequately trained. It does no one any good to have dogs going bird less.

The fall situation is much different. Usually we are faced with long grasses making it difficult for the dogs to travel the same areas that they used in the spring. The objectives that we used in the spring are overgrown and thick in the fall and are many times surrounded by long grasses.

My point? Do not place the birds in the same places in the fall as you do in the spring. Think it out, the birds need to be in light enough cover so that a breeze can get through and they can smell them. If you are going to use a piece of cover that is now surrounded by long grass, put the bird on the edge of the grass rather that deep in the clump where you did in the spring.

Some grounds committees will do some mowing in the fall to improve conditions. They will usually mow along the lines of objectives and around objectives to make it easier for the dogs to traverse the course. When planting birds we need to take advantage of these efforts. Let’s face it; a dog is not going to plow through a field of shoulder high thick grass when the grass is mowed and easier for him to travel. Place the birds along the course in a logical place for the dogs to find them. Remember we want the dogs to find birds. Plant the event that is being run. Bird planters need to know the difference between an all age performance and a gun dog performance. As we all know, all age dogs are expected to hunt with more independence and drive than are gun dogs. There fore the birds should be placed in a different place.

Birds for an all age stake should be wider and more off course for a gun dog stake. My objective when planting is to place birds where I would like my dog to find them. If I would like to see my all age dog make a very nice move along a piece of cover, then I would like to reward a dog that makes that move by placing a bird there. Same is true of a gun dog; reward them with birds if they make nice use of the course.

Also keep in mind that dogs use both their eyes and noses to find areas that hold game. They operate in the first couple of feet off of the ground and if they cannot see a potential bird holding area at their level of vision that is a bad place to put birds. Conversely, if a dog comes off of a line of cover and there is a natural tree line for him to see and to go to next that is a good place to put birds.

THE HORSE PATH OR PROXIMITY TO IT IS NEVER A GOOD PLACE TO PLANT BIRDS.

I go to trials where everyone seems to find birds, and then again I go to trials where the bird work is always at a minimum. I think in some cases the number of birds used may be a factor so I am going to say a word about it.

Our club is one of those where there is always a lot of bird work so I am going to mention how we go about deciding numbers of birds. We place about 30-35 birds on course prior to the start. Then we place at least 2 birds per brace as the event continues. So if you’re running 15 braces in an event you need about 60 birds.

When the next event is about to start, we will seed that course with another 20-30 birds and again place 2 per brace. In a derby stake we will try to sort of flood that course with birds because we really want to see derby dogs have bird work. Basically we think we can run out a 3 day weekend trial on 200 birds (Quail) plus our DNR usually gives us about 20-40 Pheasants to release.

METHODS OF PLANTING: Usually trials are run on pen raised quail, chukars or pheasants. Quail are the least expensive and therefore are seen the most. There are a couple of methods of placing these birds in cover. By far the most common method is to spin their head to dizzy them and throw them into the cover. This can be done off horseback or ATV. With quail or chukar, just hold the birds in one hand over the back pinning the wings to their sides and necks; then spin their heads and necks until they loose muscle control and the heads spin like a windmill. Then throw them into the desired cover. With pheasants, two hands are required to hold the bird’s body and sometimes considerable effort is needed to achieve the windmill effect. Pheasants are tough so several more rotations of the windmill are needed before you toss them into the cover.

The second method is as follows: Hold the bird in two hands facing you. With one hand lift he wing on that side while with the thumb of that same hand rotate the bird’s head under the wing in a sleep position. Transfer the bird to one hand holding it over the back pinning the head under the wing and swing the bird forward and back at arms length. After 8-10 swings, stretch out the legs and place on its belly in the cover. The disadvantage of this method is you must dismount your horse or ATV to do it.

Some clubs do what I refer to as “covey planting”, but not that often any more. In covey planting the planters go out the evening before a trial or very early the same morning. They would place 3-4 birds and a small cup or pan of food in each position hoping that the birds would form small coveys and return to their food to be found again. Now most clubs plant single birds using one of the methods I described in desirable locations immediately prior to the event.

I hope this article provides you with some information of bird planting. I also hope that it stimulates some of you to come forth with other ideas that I may have missed in this article. Good luck with your trials and remember that the whole idea is for dogs to find birds and look good finding them and on their bird work. I realize that some days scenting is bad, but generally speaking if too many dogs are going bird less or too many finds are on the horse path something is wrong.