On The Wing Podcast

At this year’s National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic coming up in Minneapolis this February, we’re presenting a special hands-on course called BIRD DOG TRAUMA TRAINING. It’s the brainchild of our very own David Gutierrez, PF & QF’s senior regional representative for the southwestern U.S. and a former Green Beret turned habitat conservation warrior. Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Gutierrez for t...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Gun Dog Supply’s Steve Snell to talk bird hunting, dogs, and bird dog gear. Steve is a passionate bird dog man and likely among the country’s top traveling wingshooters racking up truck miles in search of covey flushes from his home in Mississippi to his quail hunting properties in Texas to public lands destinations in Montana and beyond. Episode Highlights: • The...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by three of the country’s foremost quail biologists to talk about past, present, and future efforts to count bobwhite quail and how that population data is used to create high quality quail habitat, more birds, and better hunting opportunities. Those quail biologists include Quail Forever’s Working Lands for Bobwhite Quail Framework Coordinator Dr. Jessica McGuire, Ge...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Nate Akey, PF & QF’s first-ever employee to hold the title of “Social Media Strategist” for a discussion about his new job and his relatively newfound passion for mountain quail. Episode Highlights: • Holding a master’s degree in aquatic biology, Nate tells his compelling story about how a love for photographing his bird dog changed the trajectory of his career. •...

This is the fifth and final episode from Rooster Road Trip XIII. Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Graphic Design Manager Logan Hinners, and Video Production Specialist Aaron Black-Schmidt to recap this year’s trip to Montana. The group tackles a wide array of crowd-sourced questions sent our way through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter....

This is the fourth episode from Rooster Road Trip XIII. Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever’s Director of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Senior Regional Representative Renee Tomala, Corporate Partnerships & Product Development Coordinator Erica Hill, and Montana Regional Representative Chad Harvey to recap the trip’s final day in Montana. A mixed bag of pheasants, sharpies, and Huns were a...

This is the third episode from Rooster Road Trip XIII. Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever’s Director of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Senior Regional Representative Renee Tomala, and Graphic Design Manager Logan Hinners to recap the third and fourth days of the group’s Montana hunt. Day 3 was spent battling strong winds on the picturesque Wolf Creek Block Management Area, while rain-soak...

This is the second episode from Rooster Road Trip XIII. Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever’s Director of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Corporate Partnerships & Product Development Coordinator Erica Hill, and Montana Regional Representative Chad Harvey to recap the group’s hunt at the Teton River Wildlife Area. The Teton project was created through PF & QF’s Build a Wildlife Area program...

This is the first episode from Rooster Road Trip XIII. True to the Rooster Road Trip’s ethos, this year’s event takes place all on publicly-accessible lands in search of an upland mixed bag of pheasants, sharp-tailed grouse, and Hungarian partridge in Montana. To kick off this year’s trip, host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever’s Director of Marketing Andrew Vavra, Montana State Coordi...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by three Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever employees to chat about last weekend’s upland bird hunting openers in Nebraska and Texas, while also previewing the November 12th opener in Kansas. Episode Highlights: • PF & QF Nebraska State Coordinator Kelsi Wehrman kicks off the conversation with a recap of her opening weekend in which she completed the state’s “Upland...

Host Bob St. Pierre is fresh off the Minnesota pheasant hunting opener with a recap of his weekend at KFAN’s “The Captain” Billy Hildebrand’s family cabin in Sauk Centre where the group focused on federal Waterfowl Production Areas (WPAs). In this quick-hitter episode, St. Pierre throws out a few tips to help other bird hunters find early season success. Episode Highlights: • Echoing Renee Tomala’...

We’ve finally reached the best time of the year – opening day! Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Renee Tomala, PF’s regional representative for North Dakota; Matt Morlock, PF’s state coordinator for South Dakota & North Dakota; and Eric Sytsma, PF & QF’s regional representative for Iowa; to provide opening weekend forecasts from three big pheasant hunting destinations. The conversation also include...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Logan Hinners, PF & QF’s lead graphic designer, for a conversation with Joel Pilcher about taking a leap of faith to chase his childhood dream of becoming a wildlife artist. The guys also talk about Hinners’ vision for the rooster and bobwhite quail that Pilcher created using charcoal, and became the images embodying PF & QF’s monumental Call of the Uplands campaig...

When Douglas Spale, a Black man adopted into a mixed-race family from Nebraska, heard a request for more diverse role models in the upland hunting world during episode #86 of this very podcast, he answered the call. That’s the premise of the recently released Pheasants Forever film “Ripples,” produced by Erik Petersen, father of an adopted Black son who made that original request for more diverse...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Marissa Jensen, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s education & outreach program manager and Women on the Wing initiative leader, for a conversation with Maia Larson, PF & QF’s first-ever fire and public lands program manager. In this newly created role, Larson will deliver strategic focus to the organization’s prescribed fire programs to improve habitat, while a...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Quail Forever Journal Editor Chad Love to break down his Upland Bird Hunting SUPER issue article titled “7 Traits of the Successful Public Land Quail Hunter.” While a “listical” article in format, the conversation brings forth valuable quail hunting nuggets. Episode Highlights: • Love coins the term “upland familiarity bias” and explains how that tendency is handic...

Host Bob St. Pierre returns to Dokken’s Oak Ridge Kennels where pro dog trainer Mike Wieben has been training St. Pierre’s three-year-old German shorthaired pointer, Gitche, to be a better retriever. The guys talk about Gitche’s progress as a retriever and focus on St. Pierre’s role in maintaining Gitche’s training after her return home and throughout the hunting season ahead. Listen back to episo...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Jordan Martincich, PF & QF’s director of development, for a conversation with Jim Millensifer, a long-time PF & QF volunteer and donor who is also president of the Kansas Governor’s Ringneck Classic. The guys chat about the organization’s 9-million-acre Call of the Uplands campaign and how the Kansas Ringneck Classic has contributed acres, access, and dollars to th...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever Journal Editor Tom Carpenter to break down Carp’s Upland Bird Hunting SUPER issue article titled “7 Traits of the Successful Public Land Pheasant Hunter.” To kick off the conversation, Carp offers his theory that the way a person approaches a hunt – spirit, attitude, mindset, effort, energy, heart, outlook – are qualities as important to bagging b...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined in KFAN’s Twin Cities studios for a conversation with Birds, Booze, and Buds podcaster Tyler Webster and his buddy Bruce Potter as they kick off a bird hunting adventure that will take them to Alaska in search of ptarmigan for the country’s earliest upland opener. The duo then plans to drive south to Oregon in pursuit of mountain quail and valley quail before swinging...

This spring, longtime Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever President & CEO Howard Vincent announced his retirement following the conclusion of National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic 2023 coming up this February. That announcement kicked off the search for only the third person to ever lead “The Habitat Organization” during its’ 40-year history. Host Bob St. Pierre is joined for this episode by PF &...

Noppadol Paothong is a nature photographer with the Missouri Department of Conservation and an associate fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers, which is an elite group of the world’s top wildlife, nature, and culture photographers. For two decades, Paothong has been documenting America’s grassland grouse species and their fragile habitat. He’s published two large-forma...

Earlier this month, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever began our 17th year partnering with Ron Schara Productions to bring our love for upland bird hunting and our habitat mission to television. In this episode, Host Bob St. Pierre swings over to the offices of Ron Schara Productions to visit with two of The Flush’s hosts, Travis Frank and Bill Schreck. This, however, isn’t your ordinary televisi...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by the trio of PF & QF Western biologists Al Eiden, Kellie Dobrescue, and Connor White to talk about the organization’s expanding habitat work focused on sage brush habitat in the Western United States. Episode Highlights: • Dobrescue talks about her role in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management to improve sage brush habitat through tree removal. Those effort...

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by PF & QF’s Emily Spolyar and Marissa Jensen for a conversation with Jamie Carmody who became both an artist and a hunter over the last two years. Carmody, who lives in Australia, explains how she grew up as a vegan and was motivated to become a hunter to source sustainable meats for her young family. Episode Highlights: • Carmody talks about feeling “caged up” as a...