you can definitely hunt birds without dogs, people do, and they claim to have fun. It is difficult for people that hunt birds with dogs to imagine hunting without dogs. It is like watching color TV and then going back to black and white. A smart phone and then reverting back to a flip phone. Anyways you get the idea. If you like upland hunting get a dog, it will increase your fun level 100x.
I would say my dog finds 75% of the birds I shoot. He also finds 100% of the birds I down once shot. If you are hunting in deep cover without a dog you will lose downed birds and spend a lot more time looking for the ones you shoot. If you are hunting wild birds, that sucks. Bird populations are already doing bad across the state wasting birds is a loss for all hunters.
If you'd like to go with a dog, PM me. Happy to take you out. While, I hate to give up my spots, I also realize growing the hunter population, and therefore more people that care about bird populations, is the best way to get the numbers back up again.