The Transmission: Nancy Drewing CWD Part I

Remember this: Sometimes where you get that itchy twitch of intuition that something is not right-you have to go with it. 

I am on a research bender one night at a job I was experiencing. This job was an eight hour stint of watching Barneys in the woods, phone calls, coloring, and a lot of free time looking at all things wildlife. The nature of the rabbit hole I am free-diving into is rabies. After swimming around that paddling pool, I decided I had a bad case of the lets-go-look-sees.

I began to read about Chronic Wasting Disease. It was a thing during another job I worked over a season at a wildlife processing facility and brain samples were being turned in to local wildlife agencies for their biologists to examine and study on the hunter time-dime. 

Much like any other online Nancy Drew, I started the old keyboard up and pulled up more tabs with different reseach and ideas that my screen started to look like a dating application. Read-click the X-goodbye info.

I began to follow the trail. This began my reading into the Adventures of the Suspicious Researchers of 1967's Colorado Division of Wildlife's Foothills Wildlife Research Facility a.k.a. The National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC). All I can say is vague. There is no real definitive paper on this burp in time. 

Let me set the scene. 1967 Fort Collins, Colorado is the origin story or legend of where this went down. Some captive Mule Deer were taken from the wild in Northeastern Colorado to a specific facility  as part of a winter survival and nutrition research study. The deer appeared in good health per researchers. They get put in with some sheep and disaster ensues.

It took an act of Congress to find the human suspects: Mike, Terry and I. Mind you, when I look for these three people in other research you can't find them. It is like they are part of some secret military operation where whatever happened has been buried somewhere, never to be seen again. Infect, Deflect, and Deny. 

I perused an article entitled, "Chronic Wasting linked to Fort Collins for 50 years", by Miles Blumhardt on The Coloradoan website. The person Blumhardt initial fingers as the guy is Gene Schooveld. Schooveld is a retired Colorado Division of Wildlife Senior Wildlife biologist who lived in Fort Collins.

On this website you can hear Mike Miller, Colorado Parks and Wildlife senior wildlife veterinarian is informing the reporter about the goings on. It does appear he isn't so clear on the retelling of historical events, probably due to the absence of info. He does go on to say that the deer dying kept ruining good research experiments. This made me think that they must have re-upped with a couple more clutches of deer before hair pulling and gnashing of teeth ensued from the frustration. If you watch the video provided you see that it is an area with grass set against hills and some protection from the elements. The area appears to be unproblematic as shown. We don't know what the conditions were at the time of the research. 

My understanding there were twelve deer in with unnumbered sheep. You don't know how long these deer were alive but if it takes 1.5 to 2-2.5 years for Chronic Wasting to bring an animal to its end, how is it that these deer died so fast. Mike Miller states they appeared healthy. That would mean that those deer were infected in 1965-66 because this is noted as an event in 1967. The research was suppose to be on nutrition over wintering and natural deer history. Upon closer inspection, it reads like an ill-handled scientific inquiry where the ball was fumbled for lack of a better word. 

What areas specifically did these sample deer come from? How did they bring them to the facility? Were they in a cattle trailer that wasn't sanitary? Was there no physical exam? Why were they not quarantined from other species due to their designation as a sample group? What were the researchers feeding those animals that was suppose to help them over winter? What exactly was the structure of the research? What happened to the sheep that was being used by CSU to conduct Scrapie research? What was really going on there? Why is it that in 2025 you can look at a map and it still a hotbed of eyestrain? What is everyone missing like the nose on their face? 

Here look at this (click on it to make it bigger):

I sat back and thought there is someone out there doing the dissection and sample collecting for sampling but what about the other factors that go into solving this mystery? There is no location except Fort Collins. If they are stating the deer came from different areas of northeastern Colorado then one of the deer had CWD. Their exposure comingling with the sheep, human hand, or some other unknown could have caused the exposure. Were the deer there long enough to indicate the CWD gobbled them up after they were put together in the pen with the sheep. Information lost to history or in the annals of the NWRC.

This situation moved through time and space to that map above. I am going to tell you now this is where my research car goes off the road into a rabbit hole(s). 

I looked at the above map and thought, it is still there like a blazing field of red poppies. Why? The only thing I could think of is birds. Think about it. The mass migration of birds that appear in spring leading up to winter. Then you have the pockets of CWD far away places like Norway that had a reindeer infected, Canada, and South Korea. There is even an article from the Coloradoan that is about the mass migration of birds from all over. 

I wondered what birds could migrate from Norway or South Korea and what about those areas around Canada? 

The examples are the Black-faced Spoonbill and artic tern:

Arctic Tern

Blackfaced Spoonbill

 

These are marsh or shore birds and require to some degree a water body.

The birds that are around Fort Collins as an example are Common goldeneye, American tree sparrow, and lesser scaup.

Lesser Scaup

 

Common Goldeneye

American tree Sparrow

My first untested hypothesis is that somewhere in these birds migratory plans, something might be contributing to the CWD. Stopover locations that give migratory birds a pitstop are subject to scrutiny. There is the idea of migratory birds that practice fecal sac business. My research on this is there is not a lot of testing done. The birds either gobble it or dispose of it outside of the nest at some location. The reason I state this is, "For example, the widely held belief that all CWD occurrences can be traced back to a single Colorado research facility has precluded wildlife and animal health professionals from considering that some outbreaks may be arising from unrecognized exposure events that occur repeatedly over time." (e.g., Williams & Miller 2003, Greenlee et al. 2015) 

My second untested hypothesis is during the 1967 research shenanigans something was done or not done that elicited a situation where the twelve mule deer met with a moment of destiny that has changed the course of cervids history either through poor research practices or secret research practices of the military and biological warfare plot twist. Trust me that crazy rabbit hole exists to the Nth power. 

Because the word transmit is used for the mobility of the prion, something within or outside of the life of the ungulate is making it susceptible for infection even though this is a sub-viral protein. Sub-viral meaning agent are pathogenic, can cause disease but lack viral properties. Subviral agents are satellites, viroids, prions, defective interfering particles, viriforms, and obelisk. 

I most likely will revisit this because I am still researching on the topic. Strange things are definitely happening at Fort Collins. If its not the deer, it is the rabbits. What is next?

If you can learn anything from this it is building a sound research study with plenty of documentation and observations no matter how futile or stupid it might appear and communicating forward in time if the problem at hand becomes a persistent ghost in the future. If an exposure begins all it will do is spread. If you can't stop the spread, therein lies the problem because if Nature can't stop it on its own, then who or what will?

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved.

Citations:

Miller, M. W., and J. R. Fischer. 2016. The First Five (or More) Decades of Chronic Wasting Disease: Lessons for the Five Decades to Come. Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference 81: in press.

Chronic Wasting linked to Fort Collins for 50 years. 2018 August 30.The Coloradoan.https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/08/23/cdc-tse-mad-cow-chronic-wasting-disease-linked-fort-collins/878097002/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2680674/#ref-list1

https://www.defenceiq.com/air-land-and-sea-defence-services/articles/prions-as-bioweapons

https://ndupress.ndu.ed/Portals/68/Documents/occasional/cswmd/CSWMD_OccasionalPaper-12.pdf

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/27449/chapter/3

2024 Duck Stamp Contest

Remember this: Talent can win more than once. Reading the directions are important.

Every year I follow the United States Fish and Wildlife Duck Stamp Competition. I usually follow Kira Sabin and her process as she selects the duck of choice to paint and her wins and struggles for getting to final shippable submission. She has sat as a judge for the juvenile duck stamp competition and provides excellent input. 

At first glance, you understand this is a lump of 300 or so entries that are of different levels of artistic ability and growth. In good purpose, giving someone the opportunity to attempt, and try again another day, is a learning curve of how not to give up but to come back to the drawing board and try again after improving one's skills as an artist, more so a wildlife artist.

Time and practice can cure a lot of problems. 

With that being said, a lot of the submissions were probably cut due to not reading the requirements. 

In the instructions, it stated something to the effect that you could choose from the migratory fowl, but you had to put in the conservation aspect and the habitat. Alot of these are migratory fowl swimming or suspended on water with some sprigs of grass. Its starts looking like a Sears portrait studio photo shoot. 

It views, "I am a beautiful duck, watch me swim."

2025 Winner by James Hautman 

Three Buffleheads

Here are some entries I wanted to review:

(Click on images to enlarge)

This image provided light and color and action with the above-below water line visuals. There is a hint of the cattails in the background. 

Several of these were hyper-realistic but lacked the conservation and habitat or action.

This image was camera worthy for realism but was portraiture with no story behind it.

This was a nice little photo with the underwater foot and bubble with the ripple of the reflection.

These two entries were cool neutral but still lacked conservation and habitat.

I thought this entry dabbled in the folklore and stop action imagery but had a suggested story, migratory fowl on the borderline of human habitation and industry. It looked intentionally different visually.

This entry was a great action shot with complimentary background.

These two entries I adored for the attention to detail and how much work it must have took.

This little entry right here was different. It is different to me because here you have the known and unknown where Conservation isn't always right there in your face. 

The questions to ask are:

Why is there a decoy present?

Is the decoy implemented for wildlife conservation science or active hunting?

What happens if the little fowl disappears forever from the landscape due to over hunting, disease, or limiting factors that will cause there to only be the remnants of floating fowl decoys that will drift till they get caught up in the mud, moor themselves in the grasses, or sink to the depths?

Will there be another image like this for the future or will this be a reminder reaching out from the past that illustrates the loss we will have as a country when a political pen swipes a paper and slowly but surely rubs it out like No 2 lead on paper? Because of revenge? Retribution? Religious fanaticism?

It is quite an image to ponder on. You travel from pristine, beautiful healthy fowl to what if it were to all end tomorrow?

These online events and competitions can bring people to love it and study on the greater ethos of Conservation and those creatures and landscapes within it and to those people that wake up and go to sleep every night with its past, present, and future always on their minds.

Go ahead and put it on your calendar for next year, practice and save up that entry fee. You will not regret it!

If you would like to view images click the link: 

2025 Federal Duck Stamp Contest Entries | Flickr

Federal Duck Stamp Contest & Event Information | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Adieu!

Footnote: All images are subject to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service copyright. Images used solely to support contest and spread awareness of wildlife conservation, conservation law, and public service awareness through education and learning.

Developing Florida State Parks 2024

 

 

Remember this: Let Nature Be.

Recently, I have become aware of the issues Florida residences are experiencing in regard to developing infrastructure in Florida State Parks for tourism and entertainment. 

Historically, when you consider the weather and subsequent flooding alone, it makes you wonder who came up with this idea? I know the need for money has everyone squeezing the soul out of a lemon, but this gives new anxiety to humankind's progression to a nature-less dystopian reality. 

The executive office of Govenor Ron Desantis has proposed nine amendments to nine existing management plans of nine state parks in Florida. This is coming from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). 

The argument for this is economic growth, expanding public access, increasing outdoor activity, and to improve Floridian quality of life, but does it? Is it a great argument? Is this based upon what is best for the location, or what goes in the state, federal, or local coffers? What about the ecosystem and the biological participants existing in mostly untouched areas? When you are looking for the devil, it is usually county, state then federal. Everything follows suit. The county is all about progression and how it can expand town out into the country. The first sign is the infiltration of energy, cell service, and water companies into areas that are not on a grid. Once you are on a grid, then you become an unwitting hostage to its dictates. Not that those systems are directly bad, but it brings housing and structure that eats away at land and Nature like the Nothing. This is when you have human population growth because people need place to go. This needing a place to go out competes wildlife and Nature. The only predator(s) we seem to have is bad food choices, disease, virus, bacteria and human incompetence among other things. 

These are the state parks that are listed as targets for outdoor recreation economy. 

• Honeymoon Island State Park in Pinellas County (lodging, pickleball, and disc golf)
• Hillsborough River State Park (lodging, pickleball, and disc golf)
• Oleta River State Park
• Jonathan Dickinson State Park
• Doctor Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park
• Anastasia State Park
• Camp Helen State Park
• Topsail Hill Preserve
• Grayton Beach State Park 

There is a proposal for putting a golf course on the state parks. Why? Are there not plenty of those everywhere else?  Don't build another one because you are bored and unchallenged.

Let's look at a real-life golf course that is in the lowlands of South Carolina: The Witch Golf Links. The Witch Golf links was closed (2021-2022) due to excessive flooding that cause the course to be under-utilized or not utilized at all during its golfing seasons. One of the co-partners stated flooding would be a regular thing. This course has 38 acres of wetland and floodplain within its boundaries. Initially, the plan was to build 326-home residential development consisting of 115 townhomes, 211 single family dwellings, and six acres of commercial development. The county had plans to develop this property flood or no flood. At some point, someone made the good decision to not put structures over the wetlands. 

This makes you wonder. How can you look at a property and think this is a bad idea and do it anyway? This is the resonating thought in the Floridian brain pan when this was put on the table for them to eat and it was a definite no go meal. 

The golf course was sold to which the Horry County Council decided it would be developed into a multi-family housing to give a wider birth to the wetlands and swamps where the front nine ran through it. Here you have a property that went from golf course to housing development. 

Who did Horry County decide would be desperate enough to market to and those people would buy an expensive house on a flooded area? Then live with taxes, debt and consequences.

The lesson/idea here for Florida is once DeSantis plunders the state parks with the upgrades and it fails then will it be turned into a housing development? Is it really just a prep for this sort of thing. Gives new meaning to buying Swampland in Florida. 

Not to be a bad cookie, sometimes you can mesh lodgings with state parks. Santee state park has yurts that you can stay in, but they are on the bank of the lake with a pier. People stay there because its down in the woods and they don't want to stay in a hotel. You do have to come to God on the fact you will be visited by insects and snakes. There can be a good balance to the situation where the money goes back to the park. This park has a sink hole problem so that would go to repairing the road system inside the park. When you think of lodging you get into the realm of the wastewater management that comes with people. When you have natural disasters and rising water tables the issues are real.

The pickle ball activity should be left to the towners because you would have to build a court and that takes up surface area and needs to be built to withstand increment weather, as does disc golf. Is anyone going to use it regularly? Upgrades to parks tend to not be used as often and fall into disrepair. Now it is money in and lost. 

Of course, there is always gateway development. What is that? When the local governance decides they want to ease development on constituents and do a little then when that fails go all in and put a bigger spread down because you have now accepted the buildings, gardens, and structures that are there. What you see every day becomes unseen in the long run. You get desensitized to the reality of it because you don't see the minuscule damage going on under the surface.  

The most pressing issue with having our state parks developed is that it falls into the hands of corporations that will see the area as a cash cow or moneymaker on its way to being privatized.  

If you are going to develop over an area, get creative and build things that are engineering feats, work with the nature ecosystem and can withstand a Category 5 hurricane. When you think of life over dollar, dollar is going to win depending on who wants it in their pocket.  

Ultimately, the concern of Floridians on their state parks is the gentrification towards a house development through cherry picked alterations onto the landscape of the park. It is the impact these alterations have on the now existing residents, wildlife and surrounding ecosystems. 

We know our state parks as a place that we can go to get away from the ever-increasing dystopian quality of human life. We resound with Nature by unplugging from it all. Now, someone wants to push an aspect we do not want in that landscape for availability's sake. That is something we already have at home, work, or our daily lives. When you look at human population growth or even migration from other countries, I am surprised that there are not tent camps up everywhere.  Why does everything have to have the life squeezed out of it till all that is left is empty casings with nothing left to give? 

If you would like to learn more, click the link and head over to the Florida DEP page to keep current on breaking news for this situation. 

https://floridadep.gov/about-dep

Just remember, if it is worth it, it is worth fighting for. Once it is ruined, that is a struggle to get it back to a semblance of what it once was. 

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

  

Running The Numbers: How Do We Know When We Overhunt?

Remember this: People tend to eat all the gummy bears out of a bag.

As I have said in previous posts: Lets take a closer inspection of this...........
Once again this website is a tool to get people to think a little deeper about the sport of hunting, habitats, wildlife, and hunter behavior.

I have since read a book from the 1700-1800's. In this book which I can not recall the name was a description of South Carolina before Lord Ashley's immigrants moved in. I read that one group came to South Carolina and the comment was the 'sky was darkened by turkey in such a number to astound a man'. Not exact words but I remembered this phraseology because I was curious to the fact that there were that many turkey. I wanted to live back then even if dysentery was the conversation of the day.

 
That's dedication. Can you imagine though hunting in a time where there was more game than you could shake your stick at? As I reflect on this passage from a book from my memory I thought upon the turkey herd near me. There is probably about 20 in number that I know of because the herd collects in March through May to breed and nest. Twenty turkey are not enough to darken the sky. Maybe over one of my eyes on a cloudy day?

Usually when I am alone with my time out afield hunting I have the clearest mind and great thought on conundrums that sometimes do not seem so obvious to others. Not that it makes me special but when you live in a time where social media has covered every known topic getting a different slant on things is like finding gold or a coal encrusted diamond.

My world of hunting is very small but my observations are big. I don't choose to be a world traveling hunter because of the bad impressions that other hunters having pursued that endeavor have afflicted me with but that is for a later topic.

 
As one can see the above is a very beautifully well mounted Mountain Goat. When reflecting on the internet and the menagerie of trophy photos (which are endless) how do we as hunter know when we are actually overhunting? Where do we go to for that knowledge and is it really correct or false security? If it is evident by what we as hunters observe on our outdoor excursions would it not be a relevant topic to address based on observations afield?

I, as a woman who hunts and a woodswoman, feel at times I am undervalued for my perspective, my observations, my opinions, and feedback but yet I feel compelled for the greater good of wild game, the enjoyment of hunters of all genders, and the general state of ecosystems and habitat to stick my finger in the murky water of this quest and stir vigorously.

 
On occasion I have been told to say nothing that would make hunting look bad but with a conscious about the broad health of hunting how can I sit in silence and not say a word? Would it be more valuable if it came from a man or maybe more believable if I were a hunting show personality with the backing of a big sports channel?

 
I say chuck it. I am putting it out there for the universe to deliver unto the masses regardless of who steals it or passes it on. The greater good I say.
The reason that I asked myself this question this evening was because of deer and birds. Mostly birds.

I can remember back in the 90's I could drive down the road to my house and there would be coveys of quail bursting from the bush to fly elsewhere. Since the 90's I have only seen one quail and it was a pharaoh quail.  Over 22 years I have only seen that one. I have travelled other places and no quail insight not even on the land managed areas of the DNR. Very troubling to me especially when there are governmental agencies that disperse funds to land owners to grow habitat for non-existent birds.

 
South Carolina was known for quail hunting. Since the introduction of wasteful fox pens that are eventually used as coyote pens to train dogs and spread disease, domesticated animals such as dogs and cats, other competitive wildlife, the quail have as the old phrase states "gone to the birds".

Even if you have a quail population the domesticated or wild animals eat the eggs.
Quail are known as the "Prince of Game Birds" but their slow decline in the state of South Carolina makes them look like the pauper.  I googled, back in 2007 the DNR accommodated 1100 people but in 2011 they would only accommodate 35 people because there was no interest in the quail seminars they were hosting.

As a link to check just for my state I researched the Quail Forever website on the outdoorhub.com page: Click this link after reading my full commentary.

 http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2012-quail-nesting-habitat-conditions-report/

Even looking up your state it will give you the general conditions on quail nesting habitats because if the eggs can't survive to hatch you will have no quail.  If quail have their breeding season with accompanying conditions that would be tuff on the hunter getting his birds. I noticed the key word at the beginning of the commentary was hope which basically points out the helplessness of any control of the outcome of quail hatchling survival.

Just for my state this was what the Quail Forever posted:

"South Carolina’s virtual lack of a 2011 winter, combined with moderate harvest levels, has resulted in high quail carryover on managed properties, reports Billy Dukes, Small Game Project Supervisor for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. One of the mildest winters on record resulted in an early nesting season for many bird species, including quail. These early hatches will help to spread out an already protracted nesting season and may lead to greater instances of re-nesting. South Carolina’s spring was essentially normal, with a few timely rains that improved growing conditions. That said, all counties except Barnwell are now in drought status, which will likely decrease hatchability of nests and lower chick survival.

Since South Carolina added counties to those eligible for the state’s CRP SAFE practice, acreage has increased from less than 100 acres to more than 1,000 acres. South Carolina’s SAFE practice is essentially a short-term set aside program in which landowners are allowed to convert whole crop fields to native warm season grasses and forbs for the duration of their contract."

As a point this is what I am talking about.
I looked in the SC Market Bulletin. This is a newspaper put out by the state to sale things statewide. I looked under Poultry to find ads for Bobwhite quail. This is the prices for quail hatchlings:

1 w/o $0.55; 8 w/o $2; 10 w/o $2.50; 12 w/o $3.00 then there was another ad for eggs.

 
If one was interested in Pharoah quail they run $0.50-$2.50 for 50 eggs so there is not much different in price for Bobwhite quail. Don't even get me started on Pheasants.

At this price I could see it worth making an initiative to raise and return Bobwhite quail populations back to the fields but where is the interest from hunters? Or the population at large that wants to conserve, conserve, conserve?

Yes you can increase acreage, get land owners to allocate tracts for habitat but its useless if there are no quail. Why do they not let the land owner raise the quail as close to wild as possible then turn them free? As a rule to help quail be less stressed from hunting do not have a hunting season for X amount of time. This would be followed by research for the number in the populations to see if it works? I haven't delved down into this dark hole yet but I am sure it would be interesting. If only other hunters would question this same thing.

I walked afield one morning hunting for dove. Doves are known to stay in the woods in the evening to breed but come out to eat hard in the morning. I only saw five dove sitting on a powerline. You can't shoot at them on the power line. Only five I saw and none in a freshly combined cornfield. I was pretty put out not because I couldn't shoot anything but because there was no dove population other than five renegade birds. I stood with my gun as a V of Canadian Goose flew over. At that point I didn't even want to shoot at them.

 
On the other hand I noticed as the weather got cooler here and tossing out black sunflower seeds in the woods, I had about 20 lite down by the stand I was in to eat and drink.  Of course I like that sound they make when they take off like a torpedo.
I also noticed this with wood duck in my habitat area. For five consecutive hunting season I have herd the blast of guns behind the area I hunt but each year its less and less because the hunters aren't really concerned with skipping that area for a hunting season for life to take its toll but have decimated it to no duck. 

They shot all of the duck out that area. The last season I heard the guns there was whooping and hollering back there clear through the woods. I feel that was disregard for replenishment. Here I am building a habitat and a breeding ground. There they are tearing it all down around me to nothing.  Usually duck come when its cold but the weather is too warm. If you as a hunter observe the change in the weather you will realize the conditions in the past were more conducive to migrations of waterfowl but as the weather has become indifferent to its past the migratory birds do not move to areas they use to visit. Breeding grounds are becoming desolate gameless areas.

 
On to the topic of online trophy photos as a working model or example. I was scrolling down a feed on a social site I peruse. Every post on that stream was a dead animal with a hunter smiling away. That part didn't bother me but when I started to count the different species up and realized they were no longer in the number of live specimens I became concerned. If you are a hunter with trophy photos sit down with pencil and pen then do a hash mark for the number of each different animals type and do a count by the end of your time on social media that night. Think about that and do it for a week.

 
My question here was how does anyone know exactly how many of these animals are killed in a season if there is no system for turning them in? I know there are tagging systems for the 'ones that count' but what about the game that are killed by hunters anonymously on a Saturday evening but go un-noted while hanging outside at the barn?

 
I can go into the woods and shoot five deer but never tell a soul that I did it.  How do these five deer figure into the population count the DNR reports as a flourishing deer population for the year of xxxx. I could take out a herd and no one would know. If that is the case what effect would that have on a deer population and its report on the yearly report?

I have heard farmers brag about shooting deer off their farm land when really they are only allowed to shoot over the head and scare away. The unfortunate thing about this was the farmer just let the body lay without getting the meat so it was a waste of life. When hunting season comes the deer have been long since killed and gone. It takes some time for new deer to migrate in. Sometimes the deer migrate in because of lack of habitat elsewhere or the pressures of over and unscrupulous hunting.

This year I have observed very disturbing things on behalf of hunters. I have seen a drive hunt based off a public paved road around a community of house where they weren't concerned in what direction they were shooting. I have seen hunters try and chase the deer out the woods with an ATV. I have found bodies in the woods where the horns only were sawed off and the intact skeleton lay in the oak leaves.
This is my concern and it should be others. Its different when its publicly managed lands but what about the individual with the responsibility for managing his own corner of the world or his behavior?

 
I have observed a lot of hunters that talk about and bemoan the fact they are 'conserving' but are they really? Do hunters really dig down deep for the information to follow a sound personal stream of thought on the very sport they profess to love?

 
How far as my initial question of knowing when we over hunt I feel that the hunting community only relies on the governmental agencies that post the report for game population numbers but really could be taking note of what they observe in the field.

 
If a hunter notices something afield that he could report it would be more eyes on the ground to help those agencies that are left to be responsible for collecting the data and information for public consumption.

 
My hope is that instead of the sport of hunting being about the photo-op or the gross arrogance of those that profess they are doing good for hunting  be diverted at least by those that are more concerned with the infrastructure of hunting, habitats, and the wild game replenishment when management only maintains a number in populations that is barely doable for hunting.

 
As hunters and huntresses we should be better informed on what effects the lives of game animals. If we do not have adequate game animal numbers we have nothing to hunt.

~ Courtesy of the AOFH~
 

The Beagle Napper

Remember this: A good dog always keeps his nose either to the ground or in the air.

This evening I spent about two or three hours in a 12 acre Pine stand with a machete cutting off the lower limbs to make way for a tractor to drive through the rows. There were places riddled with briars. I was also keeping Deep Woods Off in business but the thought of poisoning myself with Deet and helping the mosquitoes spread West Nile didn't make no never mind to me. By the time I got through I had lost more than one battle with the thorned bush as the tale tell red marks were on my ankles. I was making my observations as I was walking through. The pine stand abuts a cotton field but has a grass road around it so one can drive a full circle around it. I was moving along at a relaxed pace whacking and looking at the ground. I noticed something heavy with a big split toe was visiting the spot. 

I thought that was interesting as there were not a lot of tracks to see there. Out on the sandy dirt road I could see the deer prints traveling up and down the drive. I walked along the cotton field. Nothing. Maybe it was Santa's reindeer I thought or a Jesus deer that could walk on water or not touch land? Probably not. One blister, one broken ax and a bad tick infestation later, my son and I went back to the ranch. I wanted to get this hanging feeder out of a tree because it was never used and there was another one left on a different tree. My son drove along the outside of a field in a fit to get revenge for almost tossing him and his friends out my truck. He almost tossed me: right into the bushes. Don't worry! I am an old pro. I held on for dear life. lmao.

Let me tell you. This kid was complaining about everything at this point but he was hungry. After we got this big J shaped PCV pipe I instructed him on which way to go. I got him to drive through the woods which he dubiously did. I don't think he trusts me sometimes? I got out and moved limbs for him. We finally got through the woods to the other side where I wanted to be and put up the feeder. Looking over the acreage you can see that the deer tore through it since they cut the pine stand from last year down by eating leaves and stripping anything green. Now in some places its like a tunnel system you would see underground. Dark and uninviting. One of my prospects was to grow ginger root in the area.

After we finished this I took my son home to feed him but then came back to sit in a stand in the far rear of the acreage. I figured I wouldn't see anything but got a little squirmy back there for some reason.

I will not lie. The other day I saw a buck come out the woods trailing his girls. Since then I have been anxious over this deer and worried someone else would shoot him before I did. Oh the horror! lmao. I have been mulling it over trying to figure out where to position myself to get this one buck. He runs slow and he holds his head like a Chinese goose that is about to attack. Down and forward. Moving he doesn't look very big. Maybe he is a midget deer. Big rack no substance? This buck is one of those kind that will sleep under your window at night then knock on it with his horns saying, "Haa haa. Here I am. You haven't got me yet, you moron."

Back to my train of thought, I was sitting in this stand being all squirmy and playing with a buck grunt. While I waited I tied this blistering bright orange nylon string onto the 30-30. I wanted it to hang across my back and not off my shoulder this way I could crawl in and out of tree without the butt of the gun hitting beneath me. I have no idea why but all day I was thinking in my mind that it wasn't a day to sit in a stand or be on the look out. As I was sitting there I thought I heard the voices of men but they sounded like they were coming from a tube? I finally got to hot and said, "Screw it. I am going to the house." I crawled out the stand and made my way back across the field in grass that was way over my head. 

The idea that something could come tearing through there did cross my mind. I walked up to my truck but saw something moving. I stopped then realized it was a tri-colored beagle with an orange color. I started to call him thinking he might come to me. He crept off under the truck. I offered it some water in a ceramic flower pot. No go. It acted like it wanted to come to me but grinned then went back under the truck. I started to laugh at it and asked, "Do you have rabies? You looked like you have rabies." He grinned again from under the bed of my truck. I laid my rifle up on the tailgate. Who the hell had turned their dog loose back here? Or was it from somewhere else. I decided I would just get in my truck. Once I did I sat there thinking about this stupid dog that looked a little old. Ugh! I thought I would make one last try. I opened the door and looked back at the dog who was at my tailgate. "Dog, I am going to leave you here to die unless you would like a ride?" I hit my leg a time or two then waited. He was thinking about it. Finally after a hilarious stare down and one toothy grin he conceded to me and walked over with his head down. I felt kinda bad for him. 

That dog knew it was go time. He crawls up to my foot and lays down on his belly like he's saying, "I don't know what you're going to do to me but I don't want to stay here." I didn't know if he was one of those kinds of dogs that if you pick them up they will bite you. I reached down and grabbed him by the loose skin on his neck then hauls him into my lap. I tossed him into the passenger seat where he laid down full on panting. I shut the door and started to laugh as I looked at this dog. "It's your lucky day dog. Aren't you glad I came along?" I turned on the truck then drove back off with the dog who looked like a Barney. 

I got back to the house and wrote the number down then called his master. His master was this skinny guy driving a Nissan. When he came to collect him, two huge guys jumped out and I wondered how they all got in there. I stopped skill sawing a board then gave him his dog who stunk up my truck. I did feed him some dog food and water him.  This guy named Tron (someone liked Disney I guess) told me he was using these beagles to run deer across the river. They swam across it to find their way on my side. 

Now I know why the deer came out the swamp on Friday. I didn't say much to him but they packed back in the sardine can truck then took off to look for the other dogs they turned loose and left. I did notice they didn't have tracking collars on them. Must not care to much about getting them back is all I can say. I watched Barney drive away in his dog box down the road never to be seen again.

 

After they left I finally cut my boards then took the schnauzer down in the golf cart to put boards in the box stand so I can have a writing surface while I wait and a cooler.

Once again in a weird fit when I got back I crawled up on top of the buck barn to view the back field that is used for a quail-dove plot. As the light got dim I thought I saw something in the shadow of the tree line but decided I needed to quit and crawl down before I fell down in the dark. I can imagine how the scene would look: me laying lifeless on the ground between a toilet and a shower my brother had left for my dad to install 'somewhere' and I stress 'somewhere'.

My tombstone epitaph: THE BUCK MADE HER DO IT!.


~Courtesy of the AOFH~

The Mourning Dove: An Epitaph.

 

 

Remember this: Doves are fragile.

 

Its Dove Season! Always a good time to stop and know your state regulations. Here are the following for our fair state, South Carolina.

• Sept. 1-Oct. 6 (Sept. 1-3 Afternoons only)
• Nov. 17-Nov 24
• Dec 21-Jan 15

Bag Limits:

Mourning Doves: 15 per day. No limit for Eurasian collared doves.

*All Hunters Please Not! The following special regulations apply to ALL Wildlife Management Area Public Dove Fields:

 

1. Hunters limited to 50 shells per hunt.

2. Dove hunting on all public fields is "Afternoon Only". No entry onto fields before 12:00 noon

3. No shooting after 6:00 pm during first segment of the season (Sept. 1-Oct 6).

 

Today I was sitting up in a pine tree in a deer stand waiting for something to come by. As I sat there I could hear the sad cooings of a mourning dove. It sounds exactly like a woman crying in sadness or pain. I was down in the forest so I concluded that their happy hunting grounds were no longer happy. The doves had taken to the sanctuary of the small area I serve to get away from the blast of gun and shell due to the farmer I previously heard combining a field of corn directly through the woods. 

A couple of days earlier I had been 'renovating' a handicap capable box stand on the ground. Of course it was way to comfortable in there and I fell asleep. I awoke and a small mourning dove landed right outside of the mesh screen. It started to coo its sad little song.  The understanding on the coo is more likely to be herd when males are courting females. Congregational groups also voice their opinions. Don't waste your time trying to call them like a duck. Its not happening. You also do not need to dress up like you are going to war either to hunt them.

The thing that was more disturbing to me was this little bird could have passed for one of those white, pink eyed mice you see in research experiments. In this case, it would be the obese study. The little bird could barely walk around. I would call it more of a 'waddle'. Duckish in nature, if you will. True to form just as soon as I spooked it, the bird took off in this erratic pattern.

I wasn't really out for anything that day. I had only chambered one bullet in the rifle I was carrying incase a wild hog or something else decided to play 'woods games' with me.

Truth be told, you can take several shots at them before you actually hit your mark. This would indicate  your level of expertise as most people usually empty 4 to 5 shells per bird but that is depending on the shooter.

To show our bird appreciation at the aerodynamics and speed, a dove can fly up to 30 or 40 mph but can also abruptly accelerate to 60 mph with a strong tail wind. A gun shy dove will twist right out of the shooter's well placed shots and be four wingbeats out of range before you can say boo (in this case coo).

Doves live a very strange lifestyle. They get intestinal worms, viruses, cowbirds steal their eggs and leave a cowbird egg behind just for fun. Doves can carry psittacosis or a form of menigitis but safe to eat if you are following proper cooking protocols. You do not want any form of the poultry police visiting your house. Trust me.

For a peace symbol, the male dove will pluck and stab his rival  just for the love of a lady dove.

If you're walking the bush and need to figure out where would be a likely spot to flush a covey the following plants might be on your 'things you should know' list to name a few:

• Bristlegrass
• Doveweed
• Ragweed
• Pokeweed
• Pigweed
• Crabgrass
• Cane
• Sorghum
• Rye
• Buckwheat
• Peanut
• Pea
• Browntop Millet

If you decide you want to get proactive and start building a habitat for your hunting foray the ideal thing to do is check with your local agriculture office and see what grows best for your location. Most farmers have already planted nice fields of wheat, corn, or soybeans but that might also be a GMO crop. You can't beat a machined picked cornfield or a sunflower field.

The habits of doves are to feed hard in the morning with a rest at midday. Around 2-4 pm they will go back to the fields, find water then roost for the evening.

A good dog is essential be it a bird dog or not. Once you shoot these little birds and they fly out, you're going to need an excellent bird dog to split the grasses to find where the dove has landed Always keep this in mind: if you shoot it make sure you collect it for the pot.

You do not want to waste a shell or a good evening's meal because you were ill prepared or couldn't find your quarry.

Good hunting and straight shooting.

  

 

~Courtesy of AOFH~

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