Killdeer and urge to "kill deer"

Killdeer
While preparing a wildlife food plot near our cabin I noticed a killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) staying close to the corner of the plot.



The killdeer is a ground nesting bird so I stopped the tractor and started looking for a nest. It was within 2 feed of the tractor tire.



I marked the location of the nest with a stick stuck in the ground and continued to work on the food plot. The bird continued to guard the nest. The nest is between the killdeer and the vertical stick in the next photo.



At times the killdeer would try to draw me away from the nest by using the "broken-wing act"




Urge to "kill deer"
Earlier this spring we selected a beautiful Yellow Transparent apple tree from Dushore Agway and planted the tree in the field next to the pond by our cabin. The tree was looking great until a deer decided it would make a tasty snack. The tree was still alive but looked like it had been run over by a brush mower. This apple tree and two others planted this spring are now encircled by fencing. I will seek revenge with the deer during the December hunting season.

Morel mushrooms

When our son, Maj. Chuck Beebe, relocated to Iowa with the Air Force he found the locals had the same enthusiasm for hunting wild game as the folks back home but they also take their mushroom hunting just as serious. Chuck's neighbor, a mushroom hunter that works for the Omaha newspaper, posted this photo of Chuck with his prized find of morel mushrooms.



Please contact me if you need any morel mushrooms removed from your property.

Another sign of spring

A pair of geese have been on Miner's pond all spring and within the last week a flock of little ones appeared.



After a few days the family of geese had moved from Miner's pond to our pond, over a 1/4 mile away.

Gas Pipeline

A team from Chesapeake Midstream Services was in the neighborhood today conducting an initial walk through of properties for a proposed gas pipeline. Within the past few months gas drilling equipment has moved into the Rome area and this pipeline will be used to collect gas from different well sites for transmission to a compressor station.


This proposed pipeline will start at Bob Wilmot's farm and head south toward Jason Abell's and continue south crossing the properties of Richard Minyon, Bob and Mary Beebe, Rose Ellis and Brad Sink. The pipeline will then cross route 467 and continue south where it will connect with another pipeline. Use this link to a GoogleMap showing the propose pipeline route (red line) through neighborhood properties.


Members of the walk through team (left to right): Mike, Austin Russell, Steve Finch, Allen Bailey and Andrew Bishoff.

Spring Turkeys

The warm weather of spring brings the mating season for wild turkeys. This is also the season for the PA spring gobbler hunt. Spring turkey hunting is allowed from sunrise to noon and sometimes I wonder if turkeys know how to tell time. While I was talking to someone in our driveway yesterday at 1:00PM I noticed 4 big gobblers, 100 yards away, out looking for hens. About 20 minutes later another big bird entered the field.


Three of the four turkeys. Click on this photo to enlarge and see the beards on the turkeys.