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@wingworksvests

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Gear for a lifetime of western wingshooting

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It’s been a while

#idaho #sagegrouse #hunting #pudlepointer #sagehen

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Idaho Sage grouse 26

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#sage #grouse #retay #pudelpointer #idaho

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Opening Day never disappoints. Happy New Year!

#drahthaar #vomikekennel #wingworks #birddog #zegermans

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Sharp-Tailed Grouse (Hen) - North Dakota - Wild

This last spring, I turned my lens away from the males and their displays a lot more often than I had in the past. There’s a ton of nuance in their behavior that I was able to observe this year. Hens can be scrappy, especially if other females are encroaching on the dominant male they’ve selected. Hens can be totally uninterested and act entirely careless, but are very in tune to every bird around them.

When males are in their fullest, most dramatic plumage, there is an elegant beauty in the way they carry themselves over the prairie. When males are battling and dancing at a fever pitch, hens just cruise across the dance floor, feigning ignorance and checking out the attendance.

I’m hoping to get photos of more hens in the coming years across several different species, but their secretive nature doesn’t always make capturing them on camera easy. I like a challenge.

Go get lost.
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#birdphotography #wildlifephotography #upland #prairies #conservation

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Horned Lark - Theodore Roosevelt NP - Wild

We often fail to talk about the power of the smaller eco-engineers. Bison and Beavers take the spotlight for the most famous biological forces that change the environment besides us, but Prairie Dogs are super powerful too!

Many short grass species, like this Horned Lark, absolutely love prairie dog towns. The short grass and gravel patches are prime nesting locations, and the prairie dogs vigilance helps act as little rodent guard dogs that can let larks know when danger is about.

Countless of my favorite species can be found in or around prairie dog towns. Species like Horned Larks, Western Meadowlarks, Pronghorn, Coyotes, Swift Fox, Burrowing Owl, and my true favorite, Greater Sage Grouse.

I’d say, that if you wanted a true sampling of the bird and mammal life present on the American west, go find yourself some prairie dogs and
Go get lost.
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#birdphotographyweek2026 #wildlifephotography #birdphotography #conservation

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Have you heard?

@wingworksvests is under new ownership and one of those owners, Ford Van Fossan, is joining The Ugly Dog Podcast this week to share about how his bird hunting journey brought him to business ownership.

And, he reiterates WingWorks commitment to building a quality, made to last a lifetime durable hunting vest right here in the USA.

Check it out Thursday wherever you get your podcasts.

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Let’s talk about the elephant (Buffalo?) in the room when it comes to prairie health and birds.

We are missing a huge piece of the ways our lands operated for hundreds of thousands of years, we are missing the prehistoric eco-engineers of the prairie.

We’re missing our American Bison.

At its peak, the Bison population in North America was estimated to be 30-60 million animals, reaching from Appalachia west towards Oregon, and from Mexico to nearly the Arctic Circle. Much of this population was concentrated in the Great Plains region.

You look on the landscape today, and you see cows. A grazer of many types and breeds, with a collective population greater than that of the wild American Bison.

Conservation-minded grazing can mimic some of the things that Bison do, but it’s still a basic emulation of the natural behavior of our native grazer.

One of the biggest things that bison could do that cows can’t is move. The historic Great Plains were a fenceless region, divided only by rivers, mountains, and wetlands. Whatever direction the herd wanted to go, the herd went.

This nomadic lifestyle created intense habitat heterogeneity. The landscape was diverse and mosaic. Sometimes bison would roll through fast, other times they’d sit and graze harder, but always they moved.

Cattle are also generally harder on wetland and riparian areas than bison. The hydrophilic ancestors of our domestic cows wallowed and thrived in the abundant riparian areas of Eurasia. This trait persists, and cattle can demolish a riparian area and not give it time to recover.

What does this have to do with Sage Grouse and the birds I love?

The mosaic of habitats created by free-roaming bison were unmatched in structure and variation. We know that variation in vegetation correlates to higher bird diversity. It also provides some prime nesting areas for birds.

Riparian areas, specifically wet meadows, are a crucial piece of grouse habitats. The best forbs and juiciest insects for growing chicks are found in those less-disturbed wet meadow environments.

Conservation grazing works wonders, but Bison are the rulers of the prairies.

Go get lost.

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The girls put a show on for Dad and me today! The only thing almost as impressive were the bird numbers 😮‍💨. The cold weather has the birds bunched up tight making for some fun hunting.

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Thankful.

#drahthaar #zegermans #family

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Another successful hunt on the Prairie’s. Congratulations to Tom and his Drahthaar Max on their 1st ever Prairie Chicken adventure. #uplandphotographer #gspoftheday #uplandbirdhunting #gspofinstagram #drahthaar #uplandbirds #shotguns #shootingsport #pointingdogs #prairielife #chickendog #uplandbirddog #gobblengruntoutfitters

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Happy New Year.

#upland #birddog #drahthaar #vomikekennel #charlie #grateful #zegermans @vomikekennel

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