WORKING ON HABITAT

I've been busy the last two weekends. I got the wood duck boxes and bluebird houses all ready last weekend.I checked one of the wood duck boxes at the wetlands this weekend and it already has eggs in it.She comes to the box once a day, lays an egg and then covers it.I moved the cover here. The blue birds were inspecting all their houses too. I'm working on making brush piles in the quail habitat for the rabbits . I cut the trees from the ditch banks and have spaced out 7 piles through the fields. I haven't seen rabbits using them but the little birds love them. Bill's going to have the old buildings torn down on his farm, so I started pulling the best boards to use for paneling at Bobworld. The boards are really nice, wide with lots of little worm holes. I've got to rescue those big timbers too. I wasn't long getting a jitney load. Lori spent a few days at our house last week. She was working on copying some old pictures that the grandparents have. Lori also had a college student helping with the kids.Blandine is from France. I cooked her pheasant for dinner in Bobworld.Nate is always a hoot. He's showing off the bottoms of his boots. This weekend I opened up the woods road so the jitney could get through easy. I worked up and planted a new clover plot.It's a one acre plot in front of my big stand. It should make for some good deer watching.I watched the ducks coming into Bill's flood pond with my dogs Friday night.It was too dark to get the ducks on film but there were hundreds.From there I went to Brian's house where they had opened one of the little kegs.I had a beer with them.Sunday night Bill brought some steaks over and I cooked them up. Bill and his sons,Levin & Scott came for dinner. George & Diane and Rick were also there.These turkeys were on the deer cam behind the house.
Jake came home from the Air Force Academy and bought his friend Marshall with him. We toured Bobworld with the jitney. Brian and Emily rode along too.

This & That

The snows geese are almost all gone now. While they were on the farm we only killed maybe 20. So many birds but really hard to hunt. Dakota got stitches out a couple of weeks ago and now is back to normal.This eagles job was to keep the snow geese from feeding on the wheat.The farmer had them spaced out though the fields. They seemed to work at first, then the geese got used to them.I started strip disking.
last week.This brings different weed seeds to the top for good quail habitat.The seagulls came from every where for the worms that came to the top.I got these pics last week.I haven't found any sheds yet.
We went rabbit hunting with Bill's goshawk - we jumped around 5 rabbits and the hawk got some fur but all the rabbits got away.Bill fed him up good at the end of the day.

LUMP REMOVED

With hunting season over it was time for Dakota to have his operation.Judy dropped him off at Midshore Veterinary Service Tuesday morning.That's my friend Steve's clinic. Steve went out to South Dakota with me this year. I had him take some pictures of the operation. Here's a shot with the hair shaved away, you can see how big it was getting.If I was doing this I would have a dotted line here.The cuts been made and Steve is pulling out the fatty lump. Congratulations Dakota - you lost 2.5 pounds.He's back to being a mean lean bird hunting machine. Steve installed a couple of drain tubes. Steve sewed him up real good. That evening he got to stay in the big house. He's doing just fine and would like his friends to come see him - bring t-bones and beer.

LAST DAY

Saturday was the last day of the season for duck,geese and deer. Canada geese were using my flood pond Friday. Bill, Rick and Rachel came for breakfast at 6. We had egg and sausage sandwiches. We got to the blind at 7 and put out the decoys. There were a lot of geese flying by us and a lot of shooting from the west. Some of the flocks looked at us as they flew by but were headed somewhere else. Janey got bored and went squirrel hunting. When she had one tree'd I went and shot it. Dakota made the retrieve.Around 10 Uncle Buddy called me and invited us to his blind. He had a group of hunters who had got their limit of geese and were going to breakfast and then to duck hunt at the farm. When we got there one goose was out in the water that they couldn't get, so Janey retrieved it for them. While she was bringing it in a mallard flew over and I shot it. Uncle Buddy moved some decoys around and then tried calling some geese in for us.Most of the geese were high in big groups and Uncle Buddy couldn't trick them into coming down. Finally one did come in and Bill made a long shot across the pond.That's the only goose we got and we stayed until sundown. It was the last day for deer hunting so these deer can relax now. Their antlers are starting to drop.It will be nice to see how this one looks next season The deer have been using the corn and bean plots a lot

HUNTING

It warmed up and the ice melted so the ducks started using Bill's flood pond.
We put up a blind Friday at lunch time.We decided to come back at 3:00 since it was going to get cold over night and may freeze up. Uncle Buddy came too. With his help we got our ducks.
We went back Saturday morning and it was all frozen up - no ducks were flying.
I had planned a different kind of hunting for the afternoon. Made arrangements with Wayne, from Ober Automotive Warehouse, to come over with his friends who hunt with hawks.
Bill and his son Bill, both have their falconry permits. Bill,Sr, had brought a Northern Goshawk. His son had a Red Tail.We started with the Goshawk. It sat and watched from Bill's glove while we beat the brush. We didn't go far when I jumped a rabbit. The hawk saw it and dove for it but just missed since there is good ground cover for them to hide in. We jumped another rabbit and it got away too. Something got the hawk's attention near the woods and off he went. We found him in a tree.Bill showed him a small piece of meat and down he came. Then it was the Red Tail's turn. Bill released him and he followed us by landing tree to tree. I jumped a rabbit and the hawk had him before he got twenty yards. We jumped two more and they were lucky - the hawk just missed. The hawk saw a squirrel and caught him in the top of a holly tree. It took a few minutes for the hawk to get his wing out of the branches and down he came with the squirrel.