Outdoorsman Thread

[jerryd6818]

Oldest grandson busted this bucket mouth and a nice bluegill yesterday!!

We also saw a couple gators....

[Old Hunter]

Nice Scott!

[kootenay joe]

Kid oughta have a 'Gator' knife, just in case eh. Give him a fight'n chance.
kj

[bighomer]

Treefarmer wake up !

[CheckSix]

Treefarmer wake up !

Hahahaha....!!!!

[jerryd6818]

Sleepin' on duty. That's NJP for sure.

[treefarmer]

bighomer,
How did you know?
Jerry the only punishment has been lack of venison .
I am so guilty of bighomer's picture . I can't tell you how many times I've raised up from a little siesta and there stands a deer. Knowing this, I'm sure some real good shooter's have walked in and out of my field of view many times.
In my main shooting house (condo) I have 2 executive type office chairs, the ones that swivel and rock, nice arm rests . They really are honest to goodness "executive" chairs, they came out of a real board room when they redecorated/refurbished the place. The chairs are so very comfortable, you just can't help closing your eyes for a minute or two. I spend a lot of time reading and keeping a hunting journal between glassing the woods and napping.
Thursday evening there were 2 big does and a yearling wading through the mud in the wheat plot, both does showed evidence the rut would be soon in full swing. This is what they waded through, picking at the just sprouted wheat.

Wheat plot planted in October on very dry ground, now under water.

Earlier in the day I had checked a camera and none of the deer on the card showed any evidence of the rut. Here's what was ganged up around one of the feeders up in the morning.

No buck, but they should come in a few weeks.

This is what the old condo looks like when the grandsons were playing in it a year or so back. The rifle shots from this stand are a lot further than they were comfortable with and that led to their little shooting house on skids.

I had an interesting visitor last Thursday afternoon, he sat on my scope for a while .

Maybe I'll have Scott's knife in hand if I bust Bambi this season and see if it will be useful in dressing a deer.
More heavy rain coming in from the west tonight, always complicates matters in the Florida woods. Used to be no matter how much it rained or how nasty the weather was I was there with bells on. Now any little excuse will keep me in the house. Miss Joy said this afternoon, "You remember what a mess we had last year when you killed a buck in the rain?" What a mess, I remembered and I stayed in the house.

Doesn't this look like the beginning of a wonderful evening? Maybe 10 years ago...

Treefarmer

[Quick Steel]

Thanks for sharing the photos. They let us into an interesting slice of your life.

[CheckSix]

ya man! great stuff treefarmer... thanks for sharing!

[bighomer]

Great pictures TF and great fun. I've got buddy that has a blind very similar to yours and he calls it his condo.

[bighomer]

What a difference a few weeks make.

[Old Hunter]

Good stuff Phil - congratulations! OH

[Old Hunter]

Hello from Maryland's eastern shore, having some success hunting Canada's. Dad's party (top picture) limited out yesterday, our field wasn't productive yesterday but we've each got one bird from this mornings hunt and we're heading back out this afternoon. OH

[CheckSix]

Awesome OH! Hope you bust the Geese this afternoon!

[TripleF]

Philip and Bruce...........thanks so much for posting!! This thread has turned into exactly what I was hoping for!!

[Dinadan]

Very nice photos here. OH, really like those goose photos. That looks like a great outing.

I was out fishing on Friday: the Spotted Seatrout (specks) were biting and we had a great time. The winter raptors are here and we saw numerous fine birds, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Red Tail Hawk. Not to mention the usual bounty of wildfowl such as Kingfishers, Pelicans, Herons, and ducks. I used to be a fairly serious birder, but now I just enjoy watching and I have lost half my identification skills, except for raptors, which were always my main love.

[Quick Steel]

Dinadan: I was about 13 when my birding interests took off, so to speak. The specific moment was when my attention was drawn to a racket being raised by blue jays. Looking up I saw a broad winged hawk ; a first and in urban Chicago tho it was a "leafy" neighborhood.

P1010390 (2).JPG (65.31 KiB) Viewed 2021 times

[treefarmer]

Great pictures all around!

bighomer, at least the lawnmower gets some rest after the frost comes .

Goose hunting is something I've never done, we see and hear them a lot when we visit our daughter in Lawrenceville, Ga. How do y'all cook them big ol birds, Bruce?

Did y'all eat that sea trout, Mel?

Quick Steel, is that critter a Rose Finch?
Treefarmer

[Quick Steel]

Treefarmer that is a very common bird, the House Finch. It might be called a Rose finch is some places; but House Finch is the common name.Much less common is the Purple Finch which looks quite similar. I keep checking the feeders carefully to see if a PF has stopped by.
Here is a poorly lit photo of a Red Bellied woodpecker. He resides on our property but has just started visiting the feeders

.

[Old Hunter]

Nothing like Specks Mel - good fishing to you. Thanks gents, been a long time since we came to MD to hunt, but it's sure been fun. The young guides work hard to pull in the geese, connected late afternoon yesterday for my second bird. The Chesapeake Bay is on the backside of the trees behind me, maybe 1200 yards, the Chester River is a little further on the opposite side of the field. Best way to cook these birds is frying em up into "goose tenders". Going out again this morning, then heading home via Richmond (gotta hit Greentop - terrific hunting store). OH

[jerryd6818]

Colonel, we have Canadian Geese that now live here year round. You can't go to a park anywhere near water without stepping in goose shirt. I don't recall the last time I saw flocks migrating. When I wore a younger man's clothes, that was a sign of the changing of the seasons. This ain't my daddy's world. Heck, it ain't even my world anymore.

[CheckSix]

Congrats OH! Keep bustin'em!

Mel, nice trout!
I casually enjoy birds too! I remember the first time I saw a Kingfisher do his fishing routine and spear a fish. I was amazed at the speed.
Here's a Kestrel I surprised in Florida a few years ago and was able to get a photo...

[treefarmer]

Here are two pictures that I thought were worth sharing. The first is of a very healthy doe. You deer hunters should appreciate her condition. She has no ribs showing, she is sporting a milk bag that would make some Jersey cows jealous and she shows very little sign of estrus. Her tarsal glands have very little stain, yet. This tells me the rut is coming and she should have a buck trailing her in a few weeks, maybe sooner .

A fine lookin' ol' gal!

The second is a picture that would invite humorous captions. Looks like that coon is warning the deer that he is in charge of the corn at this time. Not only coons but rabbits, possums, squirrels, Cardinals, Mourning Doves and occasional fox will dine on the corn intended for the deer.

"Stay back, it's my corn!"

Treefarmer

[Dinadan]

Goose tenders sounds good. Personally I like just about anything fried, only had goose baked, and never wild goose. We had fried specks over the weekend! I have tried all kinds of different ways of cooking fish, but with all due respect to fine cuisine, I have never found any recipe as good as pan frying.

Dave - that is a good photo of the Kestrel. I know how hard it is to get a good photo: I have tried plenty.

Treefarmer - I like the eyes in the second photo. Folks who are never out among animals at night never know the eyes.

[Old Hunter]

Hunted yesterday, morning only, with my brother and brother-in-law; we were fortunate to limit out by 1000 (guide had to get a dog and retrieve one bird from the pond after we took the picture). That hole in the ground is my pit, you stay down in there and jump up to shoot once the geese commit to landing - lot of fun but a young mans game (all our older guys skipped the third morning hunt). That eight hour drive home from MD seems longer than the one to get up there! Hope to hunt some ducks locally on the Pamlico River next week with my daughters boyfriend and another hunting buddy. OH

Ps Jerry, the resident geese issue is nationwide - we have a separate season in September in NC for shooting resident geese. Like Whitetail deer and wild turkey, the geese seem to adapt well to an expanding population of humans and less natural habitat. In Wilmington I stay at a Holiday Inn that is a few blocks from the Cracker Barrel via sidewalk. I walk down to the restaurant on nice evenings to have dinner - you need to walk with your head down in order to keep out of the goose crap.