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TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
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A11
CCC pushes forward with winter seasons Tips for tracking
late-season birds
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
CORVALLIS — Fans
across the country are cross-
ing their fi ngers that sports
seasons will not be post-
poned or canceled amidst a
recent increase in COVID-
19 cases.
In the Cascade Colle-
giate Conference, East-
ern Oregon University’s
league, offi cials are intent
on moving forward with
the season. With forfeited
games counting as losses
on a team’s record, health
and safety is of the utmost
importance for teams look-
ing to compete for confer-
ence titles.
“Our goal is to push
through to the end, have
our tournament and send
our representatives on to
nationals,” Cascade Colle-
giate Conference Commis-
sioner Robert Cashell said.
Short-handed
Through Saturday, Jan.
15, the Mountaineers’ men’s
and women’s basketball
teams have experienced
a combined five cancel-
lations. Evergreen State
recently canceled its men’s
basketball games against
the College of Idaho on Jan.
14 and Eastern on Jan. 15.
The conference has seen
just more than 20 cancel-
lations between men’s and
women’s basketball, all of
which took place from Dec.
18 through this past week-
end.
T h e Mou nt a i n e e r s
women’s basketball team
has experienced three forfeit
victories this season, all of
COVERS AND
COVERTS
Although the two words,
both of which are used in
this column, are almost
identical, their meanings
aren’t. Brad Trumbo said
that in most of the classic
upland bird hunting
literature, “covert” is used
when referring to places
that always hold birds,
regularly visited hunting
spots and sometimes
secret spots. “Cover,” by
contrast, refers to habitat
with potential to hold
birds but that he has not
yet hunted.
BRAD
TRUMBO
UPLAND PURSUITS
B
y the time the snow
fl ies on the Palouse,
upland birds have
wised up from months of
dodging dogs and gunners.
Finding birds in the late
season requires creativity
and a willingness to explore,
hike further, and gamble on
new covers. I typically make
a hard switch from chasing
pheasant to seeking covey
birds like quail and Huns,
and this means scouring
On-X maps, driving farther
from home and hiking new
territory.
Parcel size means little to
me past Christmas. Distance
from the road to popular
hunting areas and habi-
tat quality are the metrics
under scrutiny. The smallest
parcels can hold a surpris-
ing number of birds. They
can just as likely be vacant.
It’s a crapshoot. Striking it
rich requires trial and error,
cataloging sites and expand-
ing your collection of coverts
both good and bad for future
reference.
In a good partridge year,
every acceptable patch of
short native bunchgrass
holds a Hun covey, particu-
larly when fl anking a wheat
fi eld. These areas are easy
to fi nd with aerial imagery
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
Paul Pennington makes a layup attempt against defenders Jok Jok (10) and Treyton Pax-
ton (14) during the second half of the game Oct. 30, 2021, between Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity and Montana Western University at Quinn Coliseum, La Grande. The Mountaineers
have earned two victories via COVID-19 forfeit as the Cascade Collegiate Conference re-
mains intent on pushing through the 2022 winter seasons.
which occurred in a span of the logistics of completing
four scheduled games from a season in time for postsea-
Dec. 31 through Jan.
son competition.
8. After (results)
“It comes down
to the distance that
against Northwest
we have to travel in
a n d Eve r g r e e n
our league, the fact
St ate, Easter n
that we don’t have
stands at 9-2 in
conference play and
bye weekends or
12-7 overall.
anything like that
T he Ca sca de
Cashell
and that we have
Collegiate Confer-
deadlines with the
ence’s policy for COVID- (National Association of
19 limitations is that a Intercollegiate Athletics),”
team unable to fi eld enough Cashell said. “So really, it’s
players for a contest will a balance between timing,
receive a forfeit. Cashell fi nance and academics. We
noted the Cascade Colle- also want to keep people in
giate Conference decided school as much as possible.”
to fi rmly establish forfeits
Eastern’s men’s team
and canceled games rather has seen the impacts of
than postponing contests COVID-19 limitations,
until further dates due to with two of its opponents
forfeiting contests so far
this season. The Mountain-
eers dealt with COVID-19
shortages themselves, rely-
ing on freshman Copper
Lumsden to step up with 32
points in a 102-93 win over
Multnomah when key play-
ers were missing. After a
single-game weekend, the
Mountaineers dropped to
10-8 on the year and 4-6
in conference play. With
the Mountaineers men’s
team fi ghting for every win
this year, forfeits could go
a long way in determining
the outcome of Eastern’s
season.
Cashell stated the NAIA
has strict limitations handed
See CCC, Page A12
by zooming into the cover
to see the small grass tufts
that appear khaki-colored on
aerial imagery, but don’t be
fooled by monocultures of
common rye, which show up
golden and unbroken, like a
paintbrush smear. Similarly,
yellow starthistle shows up
drab brown, almost gray, and
covers vast swaths.
One January morning,
Yuba and I struck out across
a parcel of Department of
Natural Resources land in
Washington we had yet to
lay eyes on. Aerial imagery
suggested enough native
grasses to tempt a Hun covey
along the eastern bound-
ary with a wheat fi eld. We
worked the boundary that we
found covered in hairy vetch
and starthistle, then dropped
See Birds, Page A12
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