Posted in Uncategorized on May 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Media Contact: Janice Mackey, CDFW Communications, (916) 322-8908
Low Fawn Survival Rate Impacts Population
Researchers at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) are studying a deer hair-loss syndrome across the state.
Wildlife experts are calling the issue “hair loss” but the real problem appears to be from the infestation of non-native lice and in some cases, a heavy infestation of internal parasites.
Posted in Ecology, Endangered species, Uncategorized, wildlife, wildlife conservation, wildlife management, wolves on February 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
My college roommate was a student of economics. He later became the controller of a large law firm. He has credibility with me, so I’ll relate a story from my college days.
Bob came in from an economics course and explained the law of diminishing returns to me in this way. The first beer is the best tasting, and each beer after that is not only less tasty, but also has other negative effects. Thus the biggest bang for your buck, is the first beer. With each subsequent beer the cost per unit of enjoyment is higher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns
After deliberating the wolf conundrum for a while, I’ve concluded that this rule of economics can apply to wildlife management decisions and nowhere does it apply any more appropriately than with the gray wolf recovery.
Even if species have no negative effects upon mankind, the rule of diminishing returns applies, but when species have negative effects upon society, by either threatening man’s possessions or inhibiting his peace and enjoyment, the returns on recovery are diminished at an accelerated rate.
I’d claim this as a great discovery, but surely somebody has beat me to it.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 17, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Media Contacts:
Erin Hanahoe, CDFW Region 3, (707) 425-3828
Janice Mackey, CDFW Communications, (916) 322-8908
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is offering wild pig hunting at Joice Island inside the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area in Solano County.
CDFW will be holding a limited-entry, permit-only pig hunt to control a small population of wild pigs. Three hunters will be drawn for each of the eight weekends, for a total of 24.
Posted in Uncategorized on September 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Arrived Thursday and could hear elk bugles from camp. Haven’t got close to any, but I’ve seen about a half dozen bulls so far.
Lots of hunters, but it’s big country.
Came to town this afternoon to make calls and pick up a few items.
The elk are active.
Posted in Purple Heart Tour, The Mule Deer Foundation, Uncategorized, tagged Purple Heart Outdoor Tour at Livermore Pleasanton Rod and Gun Club on August 21, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Ranchers, guides, hunters and volunteers took a break from deer hunting Saturday to eat some venison and break some clay targets.
Before heading to the trap range to play a few rounds of Annie Oakley, the group posed for a photo under the 2011 banner which displays logos and names of the many supporters of the Purple Heart Outdoor Tour event.
Click to enlarge photo
Sponsors of the barbecue were the Livermore-Pleasanton Rod and Gun Club, Cal Waterfowl and The Mule Deer Foundation, but all the event sponsors contributed in one way or another. Present were reps from MDF, CWA, Field of Dreams, Purple Heart Outdoor Tour, Operation One Voice, Cal Deer and California Outdoor Heritage Alliance. Ranchers present included the Ward Walker, Robert Rao, Russ Fields, Paul Banke and Clayton Coopman. Guides present included Ken Haggerty and Culton Fields.
The venison was supplied by SSG Mathew Jackson, who bagged his buck Friday on the Patterson Ranch. Thanks to Curtis from CWA for cooking the meat perfectly and Rodney from Cal Deer for the assistance.
MDF volunteer Ray Brown ran the trap machine and the Livermore-Pleasanton Rod and Gun donated the BBQ facility. Sherry Wiggins, Warrior Watch Riders photographer was on hand to photograph the event.
Our hunter guests included MSG Craig Bishop, SSG Matt Jackson, SFC Eugene Fletcher, SFC Tyson Crosby, Dan Hammack LtCol UAR retired and NYC Fireman Paul Johnsen.
Thanks to all who participated and made this a fun event.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 50,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 110 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 312 posts. There were 215 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 86mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was August 16th with 260 views. The most popular post that day was Most Colorful Bird – The Roller Bird.
The top referring sites in 2010 were search.aol.com, hunterlandowner.com, facebook.com, californiahuntingtoday.com, and mail.yahoo.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for bird, colorful birds, roller bird, south african birds, and colorful bird.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Most Colorful Bird – The Roller Bird February 2008
The Largest Boar Ever Killed in the Livermore Hills? January 2008
5 comments
The Undivided Interest January 2008
6 comments
Hunting Along Alaska’s Pipeline Haul Road June 2008
3 comments
Mule Deer Tracks January 2008
Posted in birds of prey, butterflies, Deer hunting, turkey, Uncategorized, wildflowers, wildlife, tagged checkerspot butterfly on May 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One week left in the archery turkey season and I haven’t loosed an arrow. Actually I haven’t hunted since opening day. Last year’s turkey crop was below par and only one gobler is living on our ranch where we generally hunt. However, there are still turkeys in the area and with this spring’s rain promoting good grass growth, I’m optimistic that this summer will produce good sized flocks for next year. I may still make one more attempt before the archery season concludes next weekend.
It’s the time of year when we conduct Alameda whipsnake surveys and I was out again this week. Although snakes were scarce, I did take a few photos and here’s a sample. According to Rob, this first photo is of a buckeye butterfly.
This checkspot butterfly posed nicely. This is most likely a chalcedon checkerspot.
Redtailed hawks rode the thermals. You can tell this bird is mature because their tails don’t turn red until they’re a couple years old.
This taranchula ducked into a hole when I lifted up the board he was under.
The wildflowers are still blooming. Here’s an indian paintbrush.
It’s time to start planning for deer season. It looks like I’ll be hunting Nevada and California again this year. Time to tune up the bow and start shooting more often as the coastal archery season is only two months away.
Posted in Ecology, fishing, outdoors, Uncategorized, wildlife on July 2, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The kingfisher was perched upon a stump protruding four feet above the lake surface. From this lake location near the mouth of the river which fed the impoundment, he commanded an excellent view of the water below, where smallmouth bass minnows hid amongst rocks of the lake bottom. His gaze was unyielding as he remained motionless.
The morning light exposed his target and in an instant, like a thrown spear, he plunged headfirst into the water, but his quarry was too quick and the fisher extracted himself from the water, shaking water from his wings, as he maneuvered back towards the perch.
Out of nowhere, a more ominous predator streaked towards the kingfisher. Barely avoiding the falcon, the flying fisher dove back towards the water and disappeared into the safety of the lake waters, beyond the peregrine’s reach.
Unable to remain in the water, the kingfisher leaped skyward again and flew at full speed up the river in search of an escape route. The faster peregrine circled and attacked again and once more the kingfisher dove. The kurplunk of the bird hitting the water caught the fisherman’s attention and he gazed at the two birds astounded by the scene in front of him – one bird maneuvering to escape and the other with bloodshed on its mind.
The kingfisher appeared over matched as it climbed and dove only to climb back into the air again. The fisherman was certain the kingfisher’s demise was imminent, but after a series of dives and recoveries by the kingfisher, the peregrine became perplexed by the its inability to catch the long billed diving bird and gave up the pursuit to seek a better opportunity for the acquisition of breakfast.
Posted in dogs, Uncategorized on May 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Our canine companions are wonderful company. Val, the 14-year old yellow lab has seen her better days as a duck retriever, but her loyalty has never been more endearing. Lola our 18-month old yellow lab has energy without bounds and never ceases to impress me with her enthusiasm.
Val has lost some of her senses, primarily hearing, but her general awareness has gone way downhill from her youth. In fact, she is nearly deaf, but does pretty well with hand signals.
Each morning she wakes us up at first light with a couple light woofs, which increase in volume until we open the bedroom door and then the back door to let her out. With increasing frequency, she has failed to reach the exterior door before relieving herself -the resulting dog bombs rolling on the carpet or tile floor waiting for us to dispose of.
Linda was first out of bed today and she made it to the back door before the inevitable poop. She fed Val and headed back to bed as I arrived to throw the ball to Val a few times before Lola’s release which always signals the end of Val’s opportunities to retrieve.
Exercise done, we headed indoors and I cooked a couple eggs. About the time I finished I noticed Val standing at the door – standing in dog poop. As I reached for the door handle, she stepped forward and back a couple times, grinding the brown mess into the small carpet by the door.
I let her out and, cleaning up the obvious mess, I routinely took the carpet out for a wash. Wash complete I finished my breakfast and settled in for a newspaper read. Linda arrived and we had a brief discussion. I briefed her on the Val action.
“Is Lola still in her kennel?” I asked.
“Yes,” Linda replied.
Feeling a little uncomfortable about Lola being in her kennel at 7:30 AM, I made a suggestive comment, but didn’t raise a response from Linda.
After a few more minutes passed and Linda arose and headed towards the stairway.
“Did Val poop again?” asked Linda.
“I don’t know, I replied, rising from the chair and following my nose around the downstairs portion of the house.
Entering the living room near the base of the stairway, I could smell the distinct odor of dog poop. Looking up the stairs I thought, “Oh no.”
Quickly climbing the stairs, I detected increasing odor of dog poop or worse – diarrhea!
There stood Lola in a pile of her own excrement. What to do now? Should I pick her up? Carry her to the back door?
No, I opened the cage and out she ran leaving a trail of brown dog tracks across the light colored carpet all the way to the back door.
“So much for the morning plans,” I thought to myself.
