May 17, 2012

Pass Along PDJ

As I step out onto the deck with a cup of steaming coffee in my hand, all of my senses concur: Autumn – the brief window of time between Indian summer and winter here on the High Plains – has arrived. The air feels crisp against my face, but the absence of a breeze eliminates its potential sting. A flock of mallards newly arrived from Alberta sends a chorus of feeding chuckles up the hill as the birds circle the creek in the valley below.

The new morning sunlight has left the coulee behind our rural home awash in gold, for my standard description of our local terrain as "High Plains" comes with an asterisk. While the prairie to the east offer all the benefits of savannah habitat, the valley where we live lies nestled in a ring of isolated mountain ranges, and the Big Snowies, which rise right behind our house, contain long fingers of deciduous trees that create a riot of color for several weeks before the snow flies. There’s no place else in Montana quite like it, and during our brief autumns I can almost imagine myself back in upstate New York where my wingshooting career began more years ago than I care to remember.

In fact, that theme defines my plans for the morning even though they have to compete with a number of options. Big brown trout are running up the creek below the house. Although the whitetail rut still lies several weeks away, I don't doubt that I could fill a doe tag with my longbow today if I cared to. And those northern mallards will be spending the night somewhere.

But this feels like the perfect day to address the mission that's been floating around my head during six weeks of sharptails and Huns out in the grasslands, even though it involves nothing more dramatic than a short hike down the coulee and a much longer walk down memory lane.

For today I plan to re-explore my neglected relationship with the gamebird that started it all: Bonasa umbellus, the ruffed grouse.

See what else is coming in the November/December 2011 issue.

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