I posted these pictures on the Facebook page and asked people what they thought was going on with my doe's shoulder. We got a few different responses but I am not sure. Warts? Burdock? a horribly placed bow shot? I am hoping to keep watching her and see. This is the first time that we have seen a deer with something like this. On the flip side, she looks very healthy.
How can you not be excited when you are checking trail cameras? The suspense, the unknowing... one of the first pulls of the season gave us quite a shock. A dog. A big brown, pit bull looking dog at the Sky Condo. It looks healthy enough but the last thing we want is a dog up there. Is it friendly? Who knows but now we may need to carry more protection than we usually do when we are checking the cameras and making tweaks to the food plots. I would rather see a coyote; they are skiddish of people and don't tend to come out in daylight hours. Plus, you can shoot them on sight and resolve the problem. Dad thinks he knows who own's the dog but regardless, it doesn't belong running in the...
When I woke up, I had gotten two and a half hours of sleep in the past 24 hours. With the time change, I knew that I had to trick my mind into thinking that it was like any other morning and that with copious amounts of coffee, I would be able to function. I had to; I was going fishing! It was just me and the guys, heading to the Russian river to try our hand at salmon fishing. Some had fished before and knew the Alaskan river well. Some of us planned to just do what we were told. We loaded up the waders, some lunch and fishing poles and drove two hours south. It was a beautiful day! Warm but not too hot and no bugs. We were using regular fishing poles with a hook but instead of a fancy lure or a...
The only other Mainer on the trip, the bride's brother and I were walking down the wooden pathway to see how far we could go to not have a bunch of fishermen in the water. The answer was; not possible. We hit the stopping point and started backtracking to find our group. We hadn't gone too far when we heard a women yell something. I turned to Ben, "Did she just yell bear?" The friends that we were fishing with us had warned us about bears coming down and taking fish (which is why you must always keep you fish inches away from you at all times.) I wanted to see a bear. I was so excited and pictured this fantastic brown bear emerging from the trees as I dropped my fishing pole and got my camera out. The...
One of the strangest things to get use to while fishing the Russian river was the fact that there are seagulls and eagles constantly watching you, flying overhead and swooping down into the water. They sit in the trees and just watch. I have never experienced anything like this in Maine. It was a little unnerving to be surrounded by birds while you are trying to fish. At one point, I counted four mature eagles in one tree with this immature sitting nearby in the next...
I found this turtle trying to cross the road on my way home after work. I was the obnoxious person who put their car's hazard lights on and stood in the middle of the road until the turtle was safely on the other side. Once I walked up close to him, he took off and was not wasting any time. It's that time of year! Watch out for them in the roads.
In Maine, it is easy to brag about our bear biologists. I did some quick math and with conservative estimates, Maine's bear biologist Randy Cross has spent more than 72,000 hours studying and working with our black bears. That blows Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule out of the water. I was lucky enough to tag along with Randy and his bear crew, including Lisa Bates, as they started running their trap lines to check the health of our bears. I met Randy and two of his team mates, Preacher and Roach, as they headed out on day 3 of the 2016 trapping season. Their goal during the six week season is to collar as many females as possible while also getting the stats (weight, length, canine tooth size etc)...
This mourning dove would not move from my flower bed. I flushed her mate but she refused to budge.
I think overall, I was excited for turkey season. I really was. Then May came and we went fishing, celebrated Mother's Day and found ourselves busy. Dad and I had one morning to head into the woods to hunt. We had moved the blind closer into the woods and the path that I had seen the turkeys on when I was deer hunting. We set up the decoys and waited for it to get lighter before I started calling. I had a box call, slate call, electronic call and a couple of apps on my phone. We called and listened. Called and listened. Called and listened. After a few hours, we made our way to the fields to see if there were birds around. It was quiet as we walked but that didn't stop us from jumping at least three...
