Trudging through the beige grass under a warm sun Saturday in western Racine County, it was easy to feel comfortable, maybe even sleepy.

Until your dreamstate was interrupted by a flying red, green and white alarm clock.

"Kak, kak, kak, kak, kak, kak!"

There is little that can prepare you for the explosion of feather and sound that is a flushing pheasant. This applies even when you are afield in search of the gaudy rooster.

"I couldn't catch up with that one," said Dave Franseen of Franksville, laughing and shaking his head after his shotgun blasts punctured only air behind a flying pheasant.

Franseen was among a group of local hunters who gathered on private land in Yorkville for an annual celebration of the pheasant opener. This year the group included Leon Falkner of Kenosha, Lee Fuhrman of Racine, Ryan Fuhrman of Franksville, Ken Heyman of Racine, Tim Predny of Kenosha, Tony Predny of Racine and Butch Wishau of Caledonia in addition to Franseen.

After a cookout lunch of brats and beans, the hunters took to the field shortly after the traditional noon start to the season.

They had walked for less than 15 minutes through tall, wild grasses and planted milo when the first bird flushed, fleeing east and safely out of range.

"Get's your heart going, huh?" Falkner said.

Yes, it's usually startling to hear the raucous call and rapid wingbeats of the pheasant, even if you've been hunting them for years.

A significant assist can come from man's best friend, if you happen to be in the company of a good pointing dog. The hunters had three bird dogs with them Saturday, a yellow lab, a golden retriever and a Britanny.

Still there were surprises. After 30 minutes, a rooster flushed well in front of the group, but circled back within shooting range.

Several shots rang out and Tim Predny connected with one. The bird set its wings and landed 50 yards behind the hunters. After 10 minutes of searching, Bailey, Franseen's golden, came up with a warm mouthful of feathers. The first pheasant of 2007 was in the game bag.

Sometimes, too, the bird will give you a mild warning before fully exploding.

"There's a cackle," said Tony Predny, walking later through a grassy opening. Five seconds, later the rooster took flight. Two seconds later, Predny's 12-gauge put the bird down.

Although the ring-necked pheasant is not native to Wisconsin, hunting the upland gamebird has been a tradition since the late 1800s. The birds were introduced to North America from China and flourished in Midwestern farm country.

Hunting the colorful cock pheasant became popular in Badgerland and many other parts of the country. Racine County saw a surging pheasant population through the early 1900s and into the 1950s, according to local agricultural reports. Most hunters over the age of 50 can remember a fair number of wild pheasant in Racine County as late as the 1970s.

But as agricultural practices have been modified to increase crop production and decrease wildlife habitat and as more and more open space has been gobbled up by residential, commercial and industrial development, pheasant numbers have generally decreased in southeastern Wisconsin.

To improve pheasant habitat, the state initiated the Pheasant Stamp in 1991 to provide funds for pheasant restoration and management.

Private efforts also have been applied to help pheasant numbers. The group who gathered Saturday has managed this private parcel for over 50 years to benefit wildlife. It features a pair of ponds and a rich mix of grassland, shrubs and trees. Sections of the property are planted each year with such wildlife-friendly plants as sorghum and milo.

And many of the surrounding acres are intensively planted with corn and soybeans, making the small parcel a sort of wildlife oasis.

"It might not seem like much but by having more cover here than in the farms around us the birds like it here," said Tony Predny.

The opener had a summer-like feel this year. At noon the mercury had climbed to 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the blue sky was dotted with white clouds.

"Maybe do a little golfing later?" Ryan Fuhrman said with a wry smile.

No, this day was for hunting and camaraderie in the fields of western Racine County. But it didn't stop the human hunters from feeling envious of the dogs as they plopped into the ponds on the property and slurped up liquid refreshment.

"No beach for us," Wishau said. "Maybe we should work on that."

Pheasants favor thick, sometimes impenetrable cover. The group fanned out in an attempt to flush birds from the cattail stands, fields and wooded hedgerows.

It was a workout to walk through the tall, knotted grass. And that's from the perspective of a two-legged species.

The dogs really had their work cut out, fighting their way through, around and sometimes under the thick vegetation. If it's possible for a 50 pound lab to look like a mole digging under the grass, it happened several times Saturday.

Although there had been rain the day before, the fields were relatively dry and apparently held little bird scent. The dogs worked hard but rarely appeared on a hot pheasant trail.

"I think the birds have discovered a scent-free spray," Butch Wishau said.

After two hours of walking and trailing and flushing, the group called it a day. Five roosters were in the bag. Several others had escaped, promising the chance of more flushes in coming days. And who knows how many cagey birds ran ahead or sat tight and never even showed themselves.

"Can't get 'em all," said Falkner, taking a seat on an old wooden picnic table and cracking a cold beverage. "Makes it more fun to have something to come back for."