Wide sheets of cirrostratus marched across the December sky west to east. We slid shotguns from their cases and watered the dogs. Joel McCabe, his son Logan and I would carry doubles. Steve Ries thumbed rounds into his autoloader.

Dry and unseasonably warm, it was a better day than we had a right to expect of mid-December. A field of sorghum, winter wheat and great basin wild rye stretched before us like a quilt.

Spencer Tabor let his skepticism seep through. “Flushing dogs have been having a hard time in this dry weather,” he said. “It’s just hard for them to pick up the scent in the dry cover. We need a little rain to moisten things up.”

We agreed that if the beagle and the lab couldn’t find birds, we would call in reinforcements.

Most of my bird-hunting friends own pointing dogs, and they like to show them off. Flushing and pointing dogs can work together, but it is problematic.

Often, the tendencies of the flusher cause the pointer to forget. It is usually easier to leave the flusher at home.

This time we had two flushers: Max, a 10-year-old black lab, and 12-year-old Molly, the beagle.

Three years ago when she was 9 years old, Molly, our tri-colored hound, was in the prime of her hunting life. Bred for rabbits, this beagle has seemed better suited to upland birds and pheasants best of all. Now, at the age of 12, she sleeps more than she does anything else. It seemed like another bird hunt was in order to see if she still possessed the same spirit.

We hunted at Central Oregon Sporting Clays, a pheasant and chukar preserve located in the junipers and sage between Bend and Redmond. Old stone foundations recalled the first homesteaders in Central Oregon. Here and there stood the ancient junipers that were here when the pioneers first settled this dry land east of the river. Now the farming benefits the birds most of all. We saw doves and valley quail on the drive in. Out in the rye, we heard the cackle of a pheasant.

Fresh from hunter education training with Youth Outdoor Adventures, this was 11-year-old Logan’s first pheasant hunt. There is a rhythm to it, the dogs coursing back and forth. Logan kept pace and stayed in line with the older hunters, his Stoeger pointed skyward. Molly seemed to forget what was expected of her until a rooster streaked out of the wheat toward the cover of a fallen juniper.

Bird and beagle played hide and seek among the branches, then Max joined in pursuit. As soon as the rooster was above the dogs, Logan and I saw our chance. Max brought the bird back to his master, and Ries presented it to Logan, his first pheasant.

The pheasant, the chase, and the feathers in the mouth sparked an impulse in each animal. The area of a dog’s brain that processes scents is four times larger than our own; a dog can detect scent up to 10,000 times better than a human. We turned to get the wind in the dogs’ faces, and they set to their work with enthusiasm.

With the scent of birds in the rye, the dogs tensed, changing direction time and again. Molly chuffed and Max’s tail stiffened, his nose to the ground. They were “birdy” again.

Molly zigged and zagged and lost the scent of a chukar, and Max picked it up just as the bird flushed. I let it hit treetop level before I squeezed the trigger.

Max picked up the scent of a pheasant but overran it. Molly, her nose closer to the ground, chased the scent under another broken tree, and when the bird broke for the sky, it almost hit Steve in the chest.

Walking through a tangle of downed trees and fallen branches, we bounced a cottontail, and Molly streaked after it like she was bred to do. It is proper to shoot a rabbit over a beagle, but considered impolite to shoot a rabbit in front of someone else’s lab. We held fire. Molly came limping back, pleased with herself.

Over the course of the afternoon, our game bags grew plumper. When a chukar blew out ahead of Molly and streaked between Joel and Steve, the younger McCabe kept his gun up in the air and his partners safe. Another example of how the investment in hunter education pays off in the field.

In Oregon, when a child passes Hunter Education, they can hunt small game and birds. To hunt bigger game, a hunter must be at least 12 years old, unless they are enrolled in the Mentored Youth Hunter Program. The MYHP allows youth between the ages of 9 and 13 to hunt with a licensed adult.

Classes are held in late winter and spring. For listings in all Oregon counties, visit the ODFW website at www.dfw.state.or.us. Another option is with Youth Outdoor Adventures (www.oregonyoa.com).

Parents wonder when it is right to start their kids with gun or bow in hand. From what I have seen, the earlier a hunter starts, the more likely the hunt will become part of the fabric of their life.