• End of Season Omens

    Rio the setter suddenly hits the brakes, sliding to a stop on a steep grade beside an old logging road being reclaimed by the forest. We’ve spent a couple days wandering the hills of West Virginia searching for late-season Ruffed Grouse with no luck. I can tell by her stance, even on this awkward angle,…

  • Bag Limits Creating Monsters

    The first game bird bag limits in this country were established by the state of Iowa in 1878 as a way to protect remaining populations of Prairie Chicken, Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock. Iowa didn’t employ game wardens until nine years later, so it remains a mystery how such limits were enforced.* Today, bag limits are…

  • Rio Afield

    Rio Flufferbunny

    It was fall when she came to us on a plane from New Mexico, all legs and ears and sharp puppy teeth. She pointed from the womb — butterflies, song birds, turtles, tufts of grass stirred by a breeze — nothing was safe from…