Beautiful 80-something day for a walk in the desert

Must have walked for 3-4 miles yesterday morning. Beautiful day.

Technically we were quail hunting. Quail hunting is different. It's like a combination of pheasant hunting and trying to jump shoot dove.

We were somewhere southeast of Florence. Lots of growth. In Arizona pretty much all of the undergrowth is "pokey", so wear good boots. Much like pheasant hunting you can be walking or standing and all of a sudden a bird or two will fly up from around 20 feet away, more or less heading away from you. They make a whirring sound when they fly, much like pheasant as well.

The big difference? Quail are a little bigger than a dove, while a pheasant is the size of a chicken. My partner and I hit 4 birds total, and recovered two. I HATE losing birds. Quail might be even harder to find than dove believe it or not. There was so much cactus that taking a dog would have been cruel to the dog, so we were without canine companions.

It's been a dry summer, so the quail numbers are really low this year. Still, a bad day hunting beats most things...

And besides, how many places can you go hunting in mid October and then drive home with the top down on the convertible?