Posted in Farm Management, Ranch Management, Wildlife habitat, seasonal marsh, wildlife conservation, wildlife management, tagged duck club management, marsh management on September 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It’s now been over two months since the arial spraying at Mayberry. Since that event, Rob has followed up by mowing, flooding and spraying the stuff that didn’t respond to our initial attempts.
Here are a few follow up photos.
Burmuda grass is a tough customer, but after a couple doses, this grass looks like it’s on [...]
Posted in California Delta, Farm Management, Wildlife habitat, seasonal marsh, wildfire habitat recovery, wildlife management, tagged duck and pheasant habitat, habitat management on July 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
On Tuesday, June 16 2009 a helicopter spraying company hit our thick stands of cattails, tules, Bermuda and blackberries with a 3 quart to the acre mix of roundup.
Took a trip to Mayberry yesterday to view the results of the aerial spraying efforts. I found the cattails to be hard hit. Bermuda grass showed signs that [...]
Posted in Farm Management, Hunting, Ranch Management, Wildlife habitat, hunting public areas, pheasant, wildlife conservation, wildlife management, tagged pheasants, Managing land for pheasants on December 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Ed Smith has a long history with pheasants and he is one of the most knowledgeable people in the country when it comes to producing pheasants. We spoke by phone today and he commented on the current pheasant decline.
According to Ed, the spring of 2008 was the driest on record and the record goes back [...]
Posted in California Delta, Farm Management, Hunting, Ranch Management, Wildlife habitat, pheasant, wildlife conservation, wildlife management, tagged managing for pheasant production, pheasant hunting, pheasants on December 11, 2008 | 5 Comments »
A comment on my post about the weekend hunting asked my opinion on why there are no pheasants in the Central Valley. The question is very appropriate and to say that the pheasant population has declined dramatically is an understatement.
Pheasants are survivors. They live in diverse habitats and under good conditions they thrive in California [...]
Posted in Duck hunting, Farm Management, Wildlife habitat, outdoors, seasonal marsh, seasonal marsh, wildlife conservation, wildlife management, tagged flood up for duck hunting, habitat management through goat grazing on October 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The goats are in and they’re doing their job. As many at 1,700 goats have been grazing on our duck club and they are removing much of the vegitation choking our duck ponds.
This is Walter the Peruvian goat herder. Talks about as much English as I do Spanish.
Walter says the great Pyrenees guard dogs make [...]
Posted in Farm Management, Land Ownership, Partnerships, co-ownership, ending co-ownership, purchasing real estate, real estate, selling land, tagged ending co-ownership, partitian, undivided interest on May 4, 2008 | 6 Comments »
The situation
Ten parcels of ranch property owned by one partnership with about 25 members, one LLC with three members, a family trust with 20 heirs and four individuals including one who was deceased and still on title.
That was the status of our ranch in year 2003. We owned an undivided interest equivalent to 949 [...]
Posted in Archery hunting, Big game hunting, Deer hunting, Farm Management, Hunting, Hunts with a Professional Hunter or Outfitter, Land Ownership, Ranch Management, Wildlife habitat, goose, mule deer, outdoors, wildlife conservation, wildlife management on January 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
On a recent hunting trip in Alberta, I was surprised to learn that in Alberta, the government does not permit land owners to lease hunting rights to other people, in other words the hunting rights cannot be segregated from the land and sold to somebody else on a periodic basis. However, my guide could hunt [...]
Posted in Ecology, Endangered species, Farm Management, Mountain lions, Wildlife habitat, outdoors, wildlife, wildlife conservation, wildlife management on January 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The racket emanating from the quarter-mile away brush patch was drawing attention from flocks of crowing crows joining in the ruckus like a Las Vegas crowd at an Ali -Fraser boxing match, but the seats were free. Screaming and growling two big cats were having it out.
I stood by the ranch gate, a witness [...]
Posted in California Delta, Duck hunting, Ecology, Farm Management, Hunting, Land Ownership, Wildlife habitat, goose, outdoors, permanent marsh, pheasant, real estate, seasonal marsh, wildlife, wildlife conservation, wildlife management on January 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After a morning of enthusiastic and exhausting pheasant hunting, with a bird each in the bag, Rob and I trudged through a final field of marsh on our way back to camp.
I glanced over to my brother, and he pointed skyward – above our main duck hunting pond. A large flock of mallards was circling [...]
