Outdoorsman Thread

[cudgee]

An afternoon at Homer's homestead. the twins have just about lost all their spots

What are those things in the black cages on the telegraph pole?

[bighomer]

An afternoon at Homer's homestead. the twins have just about lost all their spots

What are those things in the black cages on the telegraph pole?

Suet, a mixture lard, seeds, corn, fruit, nuts and meal.and some other things such as preservatives I'm sure you can make your on but I buy mine at the store.
PS the woodpecker family love , that is and white bested nuthache headed down the pole head first.

[Waukonda]

An afternoon at Homer's homestead. the twins have just about lost all their spots

[cudgee]

An afternoon at Homer's homestead. the twins have just about lost all their spots

What are those things in the black cages on the telegraph pole?

Suet, a mixture lard, seeds, corn, fruit, nuts and meal.and some other things such as preservatives I'm sure you can make your on but I buy mine at the store.
PS the woodpecker family love , that is and white bested nuthache headed down the pole head first.

[treefarmer]

The pictures here are from a camera about a 100 yards west of our house next to a pond. There are usually all sort of critters during a weeks time but this week I noticed with interest what went by the game camera during 12 hour period, 4 pm through 4 am.

4:19 pm 10/3 pouring out about a quart of shelled corn

3:14 am 10/4 Little buck having an early breakfast

3:47 am 10/4 coyote #1

also at 3:47 am coyote #2

4:42 am Bambi and coon sharing the shelled corn

4:54 am Bambi appears to have one tiny spike

Treefarmer

[treefarmer]

This weeks pictures also revealed the 1st new fawns of the season. Our rut is roughly from January through sometime in March, so we are and will be seeing spotted fawns for a while. There are several little bucks with little raggedy racks that have been around all summer.

Apparently this one is an "only child", having a good time dancing in the dark.

Trying to get mamma to stop for a late snack.

This mamma has twins.

Kickin' up his heels!

Brothers, ones is a spike the other a 4 point, little fellers.

The little one spike and another spike buck

Very seldom see a good antlered buck until late in the season, January through February.
Treefarmer

[cudgee]

Are the Coyote's no threat to the fawns, or are they like foxes and only take small or weak animals?

[treefarmer]

Cudgee, the coyotes are a threat to most anything in the Florida woods, probably everything with the exceptions of donkeys, big hogs, panthers and bears. Lot's of cattle people have several donkeys in the pastures with the cattle and calves for protection. When we were still in the cow business (small scale) we had a couple of calves disappear. Later we discovered a red hide pulled down into a coyote den on a sandy ridge in the deep woods. Lots of country dogs and cats disappear and the coyote is probably responsible. I do my best to down one anytime the opportunity presents itself. Haven't killed one in several years, just hadn't seen one from the shooting house (elevated deer blind).
Here's a picture of a big male that that ran into a .243 on a cold January morning some years a ago.

Treefarmer

[garddogg56]

Thats the way I like to see them TF

[Doc B]

That was, indeed, a big one TF!!!

[cudgee]

Cudgee, the coyotes are a threat to most anything in the Florida woods, probably everything with the exceptions of donkeys, big hogs, panthers and bears. Lot's of cattle people have several donkeys in the pastures with the cattle and calves for protection. When we were still in the cow business (small scale) we had a couple of calves disappear. Later we discovered a red hide pulled down into a coyote den on a sandy ridge in the deep woods. Lots of country dogs and cats disappear and the coyote is probably responsible. I do my best to down one anytime the opportunity presents itself. Haven't killed one in several years, just hadn't seen one from the shooting house (elevated deer blind).
Here's a picture of a big male that that ran into a .243 on a cold January morning some years a ago.
2011-1 010.jpg2011-1 011.jpg
Treefarmer

Thanks for the reply and info., that is a large beast.

[bighomer]

He looked to be well fed. We had one a few years ago that was a big one, I thought he might have been a coy dog but his markings were that of a coyote. Most of the ones I see around here are much smaller.

[bighomer]

Fellers we've watched these fellers grow up.

[treefarmer]

Each morning Miss feeds the ground foraging birds and squirrels with some Black Oil sunflower seeds scattered out in the front yard around an oak and beside a Magnolia tree. The squirrels, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Mourning Doves usually fill the yard picking up the seeds. This morning as we were drinking our coffee, I noticed a Red Fox had taken over the job of picking up the sunflower seeds. He stayed in the yard over 30 minutes picking up an easy breakfast. He made a couple of attempts to grab a squirrel but failed. My camera isn't worth a toot but I got a few pictures of the fox. Click on them to enlarge to see the fox a bit better.

From inside the house

From the front steps

Outside behind the car for cover.

Treefarmer

[doglegg]

That is too cool Philip. Great experience.

[Dinadan]

Great photos, fellows. Treefarmer - those are three backwoods looking cirtters in the coyote photos!

[Doc B]

Very neat, Phil!!!

[treefarmer]

Thanks for the comments, fellers! The fox was back this morning too, even before the sunflower seeds were spread.
Today I received some special help from a good friend. What a difference a few years makes. Back in 2014 I had a total knee replacement in June and a total hip replacement in December between those surgeries I patched the roof on our shooting house with a 24' extension ladder in the back of my truck. I was unable to reach the top so I did the best I could with construction adhesive on the last roof panel. In 2018 Hurricane Michael removed 2 of the panels and we put them back the best we could, then another storm blew the glued panel off again. All that to say this morning, my friend who had rented a 50' Genie pull behind lift to work on the roof of his 2 story log house yesterday, called about 5:30 and asked, "Are you up? We are coming your way with the lift in a few minutes!" He showed up about an hour later with 3 other men and in just a few minutes had the roof panel screwed down in place and caulked a couple of other spots. They were gone in about 30 minutes, heading back to finish his job.
It's great to have good friends willing to help!
Miss Joy took pictures back in 2014 and this morning.

My attempt back in 2014 to patch the 14 year old roof. Notice the cane on the tail gate.

Different story 6 years later thanks to my good friend, Roger!

One man working, the rest standin' around. That's my friend Roger in the ugly Gator jacket and the older gentleman is the father of the man in the bucket.

Plus today, I got my deer plot put in after this early morning project.
Treefarmer

[Doc B]

Now that's a nice blind! I've put my extension ladder, in the raised bucket, of the front end loader, on my tractor. My wife really doesn't like it, when I do things like that. I have to confess, I don't particularly enjoy it. Between tree trimming, house and blind maintenance...I figure that theres probably a 50/50 chance of my demise coming from a ladder. That lift is SWEET!!!

[treefarmer]

Doc B, I hear you! I was only able to get Miss Joy to lift me up in the bucket a couple of times to trim branches around the yard. For some reason she just can't get comfortable with the controls. That leaves me to do the driving and on work day my buddy gets to ride in the bucket. Now putting the extension ladder in the bucket is something I hadn't considered.
Back when I was gainfully employed at the school district, we had a 36' aluminum extension ladder that had wheels on the top section so as to allow 2 men to roll it up the side of a building in order to extend it. It was way too heavy and awkward to stand up if it was extended while horizontal.
Safety practices were something we seemed to often to disregard back when we were young and agile. Just blessed not to have had serious accidents back in the day!
Treefarmer

[garddogg56]

TF with age comes wisdom and knowing our limitations IS key..nice condo there Mr Hunter

[Unk]

TF, the pics are nice, and the blind is great. But having friends like that is priceless.

We moved into the new house in May, and got the game cameras up shortly after. We see deer pretty much every day, sometimes several times a day, but so far no bucks. I told the wife last week that we should start seeing some bucks shortly, as the rut is beginning. Sure enough a couple showed up last week. One little guy and one big guy. The little guy was curious - The big guy has an interesting kicker. We also have a gray fox that comes and goes.

[Quick Steel]

Mike, why is that thing called a kicker?

[1967redrider]

Cool pics, Unk, tree and Homer!


Brenda and I took a drive out to Skyline Drive yesterday, hiked the Elkwallow and Trace trails to the tune of about 5 1/4 miles. Traffic getting there around 10:00 wasn't awful, but it was backed up considerably for those trying to get in at 3:00. It was a gorgeous day.

[Unk]

Hi QS,

I'm not sure of the origin of the term - that's just what me and my buddy's call an abnormal looking growth on an antler.

Your question made me curious, so I googled it. That made it clear as mud!

I did find this list of definitions - but not sure if it is the final say-so on antler terminology:

https://www.deerantlerstore.com/parts-o ... erminology