The difference the rain makes

Once sandy lake beaches and emptying ponds are now full, migrating birds bound to the shore line waiting to be chased by one springer spaniel. Farrow and whitetail deer hiding from the inevitable.

Things are about to change

Winds from the north are finally coming , the migration of Redtails is starting to pick up, the next week or so should see me with a male Redtail Hawk.

The Curious case of the missing hunting land

I use google maps allot when looking for potential hunting land, the last few weeks i have been wanting to go check out a plot of land on the north side of Lake Texoma. On google its know as Texoma Public Hunting Area the locals call it Widow Creek.

I didn't take either of the dog and in allot of ways I'm very glad i didn't, first of i drove around this for 3 hours trying to find it, even with a GPS , the main road into is a single track and not very well paved at all. The thing that confused me was along the red line ( on the map ) its marked as private property with lots of signs stating that the owner will prosecute. This is what confused me the most, I thought perhaps i had miss the road so i set of to go round it only to realise nope that was the right property. i found the road that looks like an elbow joint , however the road leading into it had been dug up, one minute its paved the next a mud/bog track and then back to being paved.I followed this road that then became a trail round only to run up against a dead end, a 4 foot deep creek that was to wide to jump across

I have a friend who''s relative works as a park ranger for the cor of engineers who are supposed to own the property and find out if in fact they still do. It would be a real shame to find out that this property is now gone out of the public domain. Oklahoma has a proud tradition of public hunting and lands that are available for public use , we need more of these properties and not less.

Cycles

I was updating my season information and i noticed there had been changes in the season dates for game that i am interested in. Dove season has been extended to 75 days but Quail and Pheasant (Gun ) has been shortened and in the case of Quail the season is 50% down on the previous year.

I came across a number of reports that had some very interesting reading. Quail in Texas and Oklahoma seem to go through a cycle of a 5year hi/low. 2005 was a very productive year for quail and if my understanding is right we should be and the emphasis on the should be on another high... but we are not , we are in a declining population.

One of the reasons put forth is the change in agricultural policy and a change in hunting behaviour. More and more pasture is being given over to the growth of none state native grasses for hay production. Nearly all fields in Bryan county have hay bails on 2-3 times a year, the farmer gets anywhere from $50-$100 depending on that year prices, a small pasture of 10 acres can produce 100 bails in a year, that's allot of money for practically doing nothing.

One of the other reasons is, quail hunting appears to be down, this is partly due to the fall in birds but also the fall out of favour in Quail hunting with hunters. Quail hunting in terms of trophy bucks is not as glamorous.

Pheasant populations are falling for the same reasons, lack of habitat and lack of interest from hunters.

These reports ( spanning 25 years of data) also conflict with the anti-hunting lobby in that here is direct proof about how hunting regulates game numbers and the opposite effect of why we shouldn't hunt occurs. Numbers go down ( and not up) when game is not hunted.

I was also reading another report on Quill that also found that leaving quail coveys alone for the winter resulted in a higher loss of birds per covey (50%) than a covey that had been harvested. In other words the ones that where harvested would have perished due to the winter anyway so the harvesting of quail didn't really effect the natural populations of the covey.

I spoke to a few friends that own large pastures and have small to medium sized properties about why thy didn't allow the stocking of quail on there property and the overall reason was because they would then have to allow public access to there property , something they were not to happy about.

The solutions are never simple but one thing that has to change is the agricultural policy and habitat for these two game species in order to start bringing these populations back

A Predetor Dropped In

Tonight a predator of a different kind dropped in. I love Praying Mantis i found my first one in Cyprus when i was 17. There is something so alien about them. The big eyes the spikes on the underside of there two front feet along with bees they are one of my favorite insects god has created.

Urban Hawks

Found this new website called Urban Hawks, interesting videos and pictures of Redtail Hawks.



I'm amazed at the number of Videos and Pictures the site has.

Early trapping appears to be a waste of time, we spent most of Sunday traveling as far as Bartlesvillie and back (even via route 66) to Colbert. We saw a grand total of 6 hags and not one passage bird, by the afternoon the south wind was reaching gusts of 30mph. Frustrating and disappointing to say the least.

For consolation i took Lilly out, i wanted to explore a part of my hunting grounds i haven't been to before.

I found two duck ponds separated from lake texoma by a sand bar that now had trees growing on it, We flushed half a dozen ducks off it.

 The ponds look promising for this coming season and with Lilly being the gun dog she is promptly decided to go for a dip.

Lilly and i then scrambled through some dense brush she would occasionally pick up a scent but the brush was so dense we would quickly loose it. Shes getting better at walking without her lead and not wanting to run off but its been a long a tedious process.

We finished our walk along the beaches flushing a red shouldered hawk that seem to be eating the dead fish along the shores of lake Texoma. There are so many of these right now, the average size must be 3-5lbs

First Rifle

A friend of mine gave me a Marlin Glenfield Model 60 .22LR. He wasn't using it anymore and it was just gathering dust. It needs a good clean and a new scope mounting on it but very soon it will be used in the field. I've been researching the different kinds of ammo for it. my friend Albert has been advising me on the different kinds as well. I have also been learning to strip it down and put it back together again. It should make for some fun times.