Slightly hunched over, pressing himself into the wind, Kevin Cramer keeps his eyes locked on Gypsy.
Some 20 yards ahead, the energetic German shorthaired pointer furiously works the edge of a tree row. Even with the gale force winds, her nose picks up some scent. Kevin races forward, closing the gap between himself and his 2-year-old pup.
“Get it, girl! Come on. Find that bird!” Kevin encourages.
He calls out to his wife, Cristee, on the other side of the trees. Time to get ready.
A surgeon’s focus takes over. Movements are quick, smooth and controlled. The heart-pounding experience of a ring-necked pheasant flushing underfoot creeps closer. Kevin moves in on the tree. Gypsy darts back and forth in the brush.
Kevin and Cristee round the end of the wind row at the same time. Gypsy bounds out the side, tongue flopping and tail switching.
No bird.
A big wind gust hits, rattling the tall grass. The junipers dance about wildly. That’s a wrap on the morning hunt.
There’s not much foot traffic in downtown Holyoke today. You’re only outside if you need to be. Blowing dust clouds sting the face. Any unsecured hats make haste, their owners scrambling after them.
Kevin and Cristee find reprieve in a cozy little barbecue joint that’s spitting distance from the town’s main drag. The couple grabs some chairs at the front end of the restaurant. Charlie Schoenherr and his friend Tristan follow closely behind.
The group of wind-blasted bird hunters couldn’t resist the allure of hot barbecue and cold drinks. They aren’t alone. More groups of opening day pheasant hunters filter in and out of the restaurant.
Over plates of brisket and ribs with mac and cheese and green beans, the four of them partake in a time-honored tradition: chatting with other orange-clad hunters seated nearby, and reliving their own opening morning adventures.
Kevin, Cristee, Charlie and Tristan take turns regaling the first hunt of the day. It was a picture perfect start to the season, complete with some of the classic first-day faux pas.
They arrived at the field silently, in the sooty pre-dawn. Charlie’s gun jammed at one point. Gypsy’s tracking collar fell off. They flushed several nice roosters right off the bat, bagging two of them.
Laughter bounces around the dining room and they all flash smiles. Each hunter swaps their version of the story, weaving together a beautiful tapestry of the experience. Everyone talks like old friends, but in reality the group is an eclectic mixture. Some of them are meeting for the first time today. What brought them all together is one thing: pheasant hunting.
Kevin grew up bird hunting. He fondly recalls hunting geese in his childhood backyard.
Cristee got interested in hunting as a way to spend more time outdoors and exercise her and Kevin’s bird dogs.
Charlie jumped into bird hunting in college once he became the proud owner of a labrador retriever.
Today’s pheasant hunt is Tristan’s first time chasing upland birds, most of his other hunting experience is relegated to deer camps in the Midwest.
For this little group of Denver-area weekend warriors, pheasant hunting on Colorado’s Eastern Plains has made them into a small community for the day.
“It’s just a cool thing to share,” Kevin says.
“As much as I don’t mind solo hunting once in a while … I’d rather have an empty vest today, and do what we were doing, than have a full vest by yourself. Then you don’t get to share it,” he adds.
Harvesting birds aside, the thrill of the chase and love of the outdoors ties them together, and connects them to a larger crowd.
“I don’t think this sport exists without a community,” Charlie jumps in. It sounds slightly personal when he makes this claim.
Pheasant hunting in Colorado relies on a larger group of like-minded folks in many ways. The actual hunting is easier with more people and larger groups. It’s typically not a great individual hunt. From a broader angle, the very existence of the activity relies heavily on other people who care about pheasants, too. Even if they never hunt them.
An Eastern Plains [hunting] Thing
Across the Eastern Plains, over 12,000 acres of land are enrolled in Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Corners for Conservation (Corners) program. The Corners program takes little slices of the countryside and turns them into jewels of the plains, thanks to partnership between CPW, private landowners and the High Plains Land Conservancy.
Corners are little spots of native grassland habitat tucked away among the farm fields and homesteads that dot the landscape. They’re little oases of habitat. Corners are built for pheasants but also benefit countless other species. These spaces provide food and shelter for pollinating insects, migrating songbirds, upland birds, deer and more.
Corners properties are owned by farmers and ranchers who offer up their land for habitat improvement and public hunting access in the fall and winter. They’re a win-win-win arrangement for wildlife, hunters and the folks who make up the fabric of rural eastern Colorado.
“You drive through Holyoke and every sign has a pheasant on it … This whole Eastern Plains [hunting] thing, it exists because people stood up and said ‘No, we want this here,’” Charlie says.
His fire is getting hotter now. If the pheasant tail feather pinned under his cowboy hat band wasn’t evidence enough of his passion, hearing him talk about public access and bird hunting should be.
“Think about all the public lands that come through here. All the land in Fort Morgan. All the land down south. All the land around here, even far enough down into Lamar there’s public lands everywhere,” Charlie says.
Between the Corners for Conservation program and CPW’s Walk In Access hunting leases, 213,679 acres are open to the public for hunting each fall and winter alone (as of fall 2025). That acreage is equal to almost 334 square miles.
In the grand scheme of the Eastern Plains, it may seem like a little piece of the cake, but all this acreage is critical for both wildlife conservation and carrying on a cherished tradition.
“You have to have a community of people with a shared vision of what they can do. Without that, we can’t do this,” Charlie says.
Around the table everyone has their own interpretation of being cheek by jowl over a shared vision. For Tristan, the value of community includes both home life, and time in the field.
“At the end of the day I hunt because I love to cook and share things with friends and loved ones,” Tristan says. “And the meals I can have with friends don’t have to be the only time where hunting turns into a community. It can be the act of sourcing the meat.” He lightly gestures to his left and right, referring to his new-found companions.
One of the requirements for landowners enrolled with Corners for Conservation is to allow for public hunting access on the properties. Fields enrolled in the Corners and Walk In Access programs provide enduring memories each fall and winter for countless hunters.
For Kevin and Cristee, the promise of a weekend pheasant hunt has far greater appeal than many other treasured Colorado pastimes, like sitting in a ski traffic stampede.
Having a sprawling network of properties to hunt within a couple hours of Denver is something Kevin has truly come to appreciate recently.
“It’s awesome. I honestly didn’t realize the vastness of how much is out east here and available for pheasant hunting,” Kevin says.
“If you asked me five years ago about pheasants in Colorado, I would’ve been clueless. But then I started bouncing around here the last two years and there’s more than I would’ve ever expected. Why drive to Nebraska? Why drive to Kansas? When I can just go here and do a day trip. It’s a cruise for a day trip, but it’s fun,” he adds.
“If I’m gonna go ski Steamboat from Denver it’s the same distance,” Charlie says with a chuckle.
Even as longtime skiers, Kevin and Cristee hit a breaking point with the traffic.
“I can go east in the same amount of time and still get eight to 11 miles of exercise and run my dog … skiing is fun … but I’d rather go pheasant hunting,” Kevin says.
For Cristee, there’s a certain magnetism of chasing a colorful 4-pound bird on the Eastern Plains.
Cristee recalls a story from last winter. She was telling her sister about the 5 a.m. departure for a bird hunt. Stirring about in the wee hours of the morning.
“She was like ‘Do you guys ever just sleep in and relax?’” Cristee says.
“And I said ‘You realize that this is relaxing?’ I told my sister ‘I zoned out for like 10 minutes straight, and was just looking in the sun, in a beautiful field with my dog and my husband and no phone and I was just walking,’” Cristee explains.
Frosty mornings where your breath rolls like golden smoke in the sunrise. The flood of adrenaline that comes with a cackling rooster on the wing. Walking a quiet gravel road with a loved one. A proud puppy leaping through tall grass, feathered around the muzzle and panting at your heel after a retrieve.
To Cristee, bird hunting soothes her soul.
“It’s relaxing out there,” Cristee shares.
“I was telling him [Kevin] yesterday, ‘I need this so bad. I need to get outside. I’ve been stuck inside working.’ I just need to be out and be in the sun and the wind,” she adds.
For this rag-tag group of hunters, their adventure resumes after lunch is polished off and aluminum cans sit empty before them. They settle up at the register, and break for the trucks.
Two birds in the vest already, and lunch with great company –– hallmarks of a successful opening day. With the remaining daylight each pair is called in a new direction. Kevin and Cristee are working more fields near Holyoke. Charlie and Tristan split for Fort Morgan and then onto Denver.
Ahead of them all, a sea of Corners for Conservation and Walk In Access parcels awaits. The hunt continues. Opening day is far from over.
A Pheasants Forever Community
Riley Dubbert putters about with purpose. Inside the cavernous steel building beside the county fairgrounds, he’s chatting with volunteers and making sure everything is in order. The annual Pheasants Forever community banquet in Holyoke is about to begin.
“I’m not going to do much tonight,” Riley shares.
He’s got a warm smile and radiant charisma. His modest claim is also a bit hard to believe after seeing him in action. His version of not doing much is different than most.
An opening weekend tradition that goes back to the early 1990s, the banquet brings folks together from all walks of life and all parts of Colorado. Tonight, nearly 325 people are gathering to celebrate two things: pheasant hunting and upland bird habitat improvement.
Riley has organized and run the banquet for as long as he can remember, and finally passed the reins to someone else within the past couple years. He and Bruce Rosenbach started the banquet decades ago to rally hunters and the town around both pheasant hunting and habitat.
Bruce now runs the High Plains Land Conservancy, which partners with CPW to plant Corners for Conservation projects across the Eastern Plains. Back when Riley and Bruce, who also started the local Pheasants Forever chapter, began working on bird habitat in the 90s, the focus was on planting windrows to provide winter cover for pheasants.
Now, most of the habitat work being done in the region is centered around native grassland restoration.
While the banquet itself and habitat projects have changed over time, one thing that has remained steadfast is supporting a tradition built on community.
The volume in the building bubbles and churns. Before long it’s a cacophony, roaring and lively as more people fill the space. Soon, long lines are forming in front of the folding tables ringing the event space.
There’s close to a dozen stations where folks can play a game and win tickets for prize drawings throughout the night. Typically the prizes are some kind of shotgun or gear for bird hunting. Plinko and dice rolling seem to be the most popular games.
Money raised through the games and live auction later in the evening goes to the local Pheasants Forever chapter, which supports habitat improvement projects and Holyoke’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter, perpetuating the legacy of upland bird hunting and lifting up the community.
At the end of a long banquet table, Ed Gorman, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s small game manager, steals a seat. Beside him are Bruce Rosenbach and Hank Hassler.
Ed was a bit worried about potential issues on opening day with hunting season bumping up against a late corn harvest. Surrounding Holyoke, roughly 80% of the corn crop was unharvested by the start of the pheasant season, which could put a lot of hunters in close proximity to active crop harvest. Ed and his colleagues spent much of the morning driving around checking in with hunters, and making sure the season was off to a safe start.
Much to Ed’s relief it was a quiet opening morning. He and his team had nothing to report.
For Hank Hassler it was an exceptionally quiet morning for a different reason. It’s the first opening day of pheasant season he hasn’t hunted in nearly 70 years.
“Winds blowing 40 to 50 miles per hour, I’ve been there, done that … I didn’t even go out,” Hank says with a little bit of disappointment.
After nearly three quarters of a century chasing pheasants in eastern Colorado, Hank figured he could be a bit picky about how he starts his 2025 season.
“I grew up here, and I have never ever seen this time of year have this much corn standing. You haven’t either Bruce, have you?” Hank says. The bleak situation with crop harvest gets him a little more animated.
“No. No,” Bruce softly replies, shaking his head.
Between the windy weather and standing corn, it was a tough start to the season. Hunters were still successful, but even making a shot in stiff winds is tricky.
“We talked to some guys early this morning … they saw a lot of birds but just couldn’t get them,” Ed shares.
“If you were out there at 7 o’clock you probably did okay, if you were in the right place,” Ed adds.
Shortly after sunrise, the wind really picked up. After that, if hunters saw birds, bagging one required a fair bit of luck and skill. But that’s the essence of the chase, there are no guarantees.
Riley Dubbert sidles into a chair beside Hank. Between the company seated at the end of the table, there’s nearly 150 years of combined habitat restoration experience. After all the years of planting trees, grassland habitat, working with local landowners and battling blizzards and drought, they have complete conviction in the work they did.
It has helped build and support a thriving community in what most folks would call the middle of nowhere. But for this group of conservationists, bringing together hunters, farmers, ranchers, small business owners, school teachers, families and more is what it’s all about.
Building a healthier ecosystem and assembling a community with a shared vision is what keeps their clock ticking. Bringing in hunters for pheasant season is a boon for both the social and economic scene in little towns like Holyoke.
“All you gotta do is look around,” Riley says. He darts his eyes side to side with raised eyebrows and lets the noise from the room fill in the end of his statement.
“It’s really good for a lot of the businesses. You know, everything from restaurants to bars, grocery stores and gas stations … people look forward to it [pheasant season],” Hank says.
“One of the things Holyoke is known for is pheasant hunting, and I think it’s neat that people come from all over to hunt here,” Shauna Strecker says while counting raffle tickets behind a long table. Strecker is the local FFA chapter advisor and a high school teacher in Holyoke.
She’s got a bright smile and blonde hair, and does an impressive job of wrangling nearly 20 teenagers volunteering at tonight’s banquet.
“A lot of our community is here tonight, and a lot of pheasant hunters as well. I like that it brings other people to our community to kind of show it off,” she adds.
Among the folks who look forward to the opening weekend of pheasant season are the kids in her FFA chapter. It’s a chance for them to be stewards of their town for a night.
“This is always the event that my students want to sign up for, which is kind of a neat thing. I actually had to take kids off the list because we had too many kids helping. And that doesn’t always happen … They enjoy being here,” Shauna explains.
“They get to experience this and see the impact it has on our community,” she adds.
The long, white card table at the front of the room only has a few more items on it. Gary Hershfeldt roves between the auctioneer’s podium and back to the card table. Gary is who Riley passed banquet planning responsibilities to.
For Gary, the evening has been a huge hit.
“It surprised me in a good way. With the weather the way it was, I didn’t know whether we’d have a crowd, but it turned out pretty good,” he shares with a chuckle.
Gary is tall, with silvery hair and a matching mustache.
The feelings of relief come from seeing friends and strangers still show up from near and far despite the cold, windy weather and less than ideal conditions to start the hunting season. That’s exactly why he has a full heart at the end of the night.
“Opening weekend is something you look forward to all year long,” Gary shares.
Hunters are drawn to Holyoke from across the state by the chance to chase pheasants on Corners for Conservation properties and other public lands across the plains. These properties serve as the foundation for a long and rich tradition of upland bird hunting in Colorado.
Even though there’s been a huge loss of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields in this part of the world in the past 20 years, other habitat projects are stepping up to the plate. As historic habitat fades or ages out of its prime, newer projects fill in some of the gaps. Quality overcomes quantity with what’s being done today.
“There’s a lot of habitat out there. There’s good habitat now,” Gary says.
Whether it’s newer, native grassland-focused Corners for Conservation projects, or the forebears of the program, these parcels have a special power. They turn a couple of days on the November calendar into an almost magical weekend affair for so many people in eastern Colorado.
The auctioneer’s closing call rings on the final item of the night. From the back of the room, Tammy Kroeger takes in the scene as the evening winds down. For decades she’s watched her father, Riley Dubbert, toil over the opening weekend banquet.
Their family missed out on many in the field festivities. They were always more focused on preparing a night of revelry and celebrating habitat, heritage and community.
Tammy shares a side by side hug with her mother, DeeAnn.
From the back of the room, the pair takes in a special sight. The wintertime lifeblood of Holyoke has returned in full force.
Several hundred folks mosey towards the exit. Some are still clutching fistfulls of raffle tickets or carrying sleek new coolers and totes. Parents corral rambunctious children. Orange and brown jackets bob through the crowd. Cowboy hats pepper the moving mass.
In a one stoplight town closer to the state’s border than the capital, it’s the start of a new season. A remarkable time of year when community means more than just a street address.
Written and photographed by Forrest Czarnecki. Forrest is a Colorado hunter and angler, and he is a Digital Media Specialist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
