Bald Eagle

This winter's cold weather has caused a lot of creeks to freeze over. I found this bald eagle perched in a tree near some open water in Wysox Creek.

Rabbit Hunting

The late season small game hunting opened after Christmas and it was a good time to take grandson Reed rabbit hunting. Reed is 9 years old and has a Mentored Youth Permit which allows him to hunt while accompanied by a mentor.

With a light coating of snow on the ground it was easy to find rabbits during the late afternoon. Reed and his dad, with one of the four rabbits he shot with a .22 rifle.

Reed is a good shot with the .22 and hit all of the rabbits in the head or neck. Retrieving a rabbit from the thick brush.

Have Hunting Blind - Will Travel

We have a couple of permanent hunting blinds that have worked well in the past, but sometimes we'd like to have a blind at a current "Hot Spot". A local chain store had a sale on 5-sided hunting blind kits a few months ago and I decided to make it into a portable hunting blind.

I built a 5-sided base that matched the layout of the kit and included runners that would allow me to pick it up with pallet forks on a tractor.

Leveling the portable hunting blind after moving it to a test site.

Very strong winds this afternoon and no movement at all. Great panoramic view from office chair. Just need to set up the propane heater.

Wildlife Food Plot

I replanted a 1/2 acre food plot this summer with ladino clover and winter wheat. To check on the wildlife grazing activity in the food plot I placed a box wire fence around a small section of the replanted area. Inside the fenced-off area the winter wheat is over 16 inches high, the rest of the food plot is less than 2 inches high.

Coyote Bites The Dust

My son Matt and I were riding around our property in the side-by-side this afternoon when we spotted something bedded down in a field behind our barn. At first we thought it was a small deer, but we soon realized it was a coyote. As the saying goes, "The things you see when you don't have a gun". After a quick half mile drive to the house we returned with the 300 Win Mag and the coyote was still in the field. Matt went to the upper level loft in the barn and dropped the coyote at 215 yards with one shot.

.22 Rifle Practice

Under the Mentored Hunting Program grandson Reed will get his first chance to go hunting with his dad this year . Reed took some practice shots at 25 yards with my old .22 today. This was Reed's first shot ever with the .22.

15 more shots at the target.

Target Pratice

Grandson Reed received a Mossberg 500 .410 shotgun for his 9th birthday and today he got to practice with it. We used a turkey target at 10 yards with standard field loads.

Reed's first shot at a target with a shotgun. A very nice shot.

Reed's second shot. Just as good as the first.

Evening Wildlife Drive

Woke up this morning to 26F and heavy frost. The cooler temperature made it feel like late autumn and the wildlife was out as I made my evening wildlife drive around our property.

Yearling Buck

While at our cabin property I found this confused looking yearling buck sneaking around behind a shed. This is a transitional stage for yearling bucks as they disperse from their birth area to find a new adult home range.

This young buck has also produced his first set of antlers which will soon shed the furry velvet covering.

The young buck has an urge to do something with his antlers and this sapling tree.

What Bears Do In The Woods

I disposed of some fish cleaning scraps at the "bone yard" and got over 400 photos of bear activity on a game camera. The photos reminded me of a song about bears and I created this short video from the photos.

Antler Envy

I sometimes capture a sequence of photos with game cameras that explain/demonstrate how wildlife learn knowledge and skills from adults. This sequence of photos starts when a young fawn, assumed to be a male, meets with a mature buck and receives an introductory lesson on sparring, an activity to establish dominance and build social bonds.

The buck and fawn size each other up. The buck is 3 to 4 times as big as the fawn.

The buck and fawn agree to a sparring lesson.

First step in sparring, come in quick and low ...

Next, use your antlers to disable your opponent's head and neck movement ...

Now, practice and repeat ...

After the sparring lesson the fawn shows signs of antler envy.

Bathtub in the Woods

After remodeling our bathroom a few years ago I placed the old bathtub in our woods for the wildlife to use. I checked the game camera at the tub today and this bear loves it. This bear has two ear tags (ear bling for bad bears) and must have been caugth and released by the PA Game Commission.

Gardening Thumb

Some gardeners are known to have a "Green Thumb", while others tend to have a "Brown Thumb", my gardening efforts have rewarded me with a "Purple Thumb".

As the Summer gardening season winds down, I started working on garden projects for next year. One project was to establish a new asparagus bed by repurposing an old raised bed garden that needed some repairs to the wooden sides. The repairs involved nailing pressure treated wood over sections of rotted railroad ties. Since I would be driving large galvanized nails into railroad ties, I remembered Newton's second law of motion (F=ma) which states, force (F) equals mass (m) times acceleration (a) and selected the heavier mass of a 28 ounce framing hammer to generate more force. The first couple of nails went in easily with the framing hammer until complacency took over and the misguided framing hammer couldn't distinguish a thumb nail from a galvanized nail.

It brings new meaning to the phrase "May the Force be with you".

Free-range Chickens"

Earlier this summer one of our neighbors tried raising "free-range" poultry on their small property. Their flock included several ducks, chickens and a young turkey. At first the birds stayed close to the coop and in the owners yard, but then the birds discovered bird feeders in neighboring lawns and the size of the free-range expanded.

The birds also tried to answer the age old question, "why did the chicken cross the road". Their answer, to test a vehicle driver's reaction time and the stopping distance for moving vehicles. Over time the numbers birds decreased to one rooster which is now looking for companionship and a safe place to sleep at night. The rooster's new sleeping quarters is a hanging flower pot where it roosts every night.

Harry the Spider

For the past couple of months we've had Harry living in the area of our basement/TV room. Harry is a large Fishing Spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus). While most people have an unexplained fear of spiders (arachnophobia), Harry has Zuigerphobia, a fear of vacuum cleaner. Harry has become a well behaved house pet and roams freely around the basement looking for insects, but prefers this corner of the TV room, next to the night light.

Unlike most other spiders, Harry doesn't build webs to catch his meals, he uses an ambush method and has reduced the amount of other bugs in the basement area. Harry with the remains of ants he has caught.

A close-up of Harry showing the 8, two rows of 4, eyes at the top of his forehead.