Opening Day A-Zone

Spent the A-Zone opening day preparing for the A-4 hunt. Deer numbers on our ranch are so low that it’s really hard to get fired up.

First time I’ve ever hunted with my bow during rifle season. After target shooting for a while, I headed out to look for a buck.

While I was setting up, I got a text that Rob had just shot a 100 pound boar that was cooling off in a pond and he had to wade in chest deep to retrieve it.

Spent the rest of the afternoon waiting patiently at two locations. Never saw a deer until the ride back to camp when I came upon five deer, two of them spikes.

There will be time to hunt the A-Zone later on. Right now I’m focused on preparing for Modoc. Not enough time to do it all.

The mule is loaded in the Cargo Trailer and my check list is nearly complete.

Devil’s Garden Hunts are On?

Sunday 8/13/17

Late Thursday and after I made my last post, I got a second call from Modoc. Not certain what is up.

Contradicting the morning phone call, the latest word is that the forest closure for the Devil’s Garden portion of the Modoc National Forest is still in effect, but is limited to the area around the Steele Fire.

Hoping for better information tomorrow. (Monday)

Retrieved my A4 tag from License and Revenue Branch.

CA Ground Squirrels

California ground squirrels create a network of holes and tunnels that is used by many other critters. These include threatened and endangered species such as the California Tiger Salamander and the California red-legged frog. Fence lizards, rattle snakes, gopher snakes and king snakes also make these tunnels their home.

These ground squirrels, which are sometimes called ring-neck ground squirrels, are also a food source for bobcats, coyotes and gray foxes as well as raptors.

Golden eagles  and red-tailed hawks are a primary hunter of these rodents. They are also good targets for varmint shooters.

I’ve often wondered if the early settlers survived off grounds squirrels. They are quite numerous and I’m sure they could be tasty.

squirrels scurry across open areas

they shift home sites with the seasons

nervous

they like our fruit trees

a squirrel of the year

always searching for food

on the run

Their tail helps them keep balance

watching for hawks

From my trail camera.

Looks Good for Ground Nesters

Been seeking some successful nesting signs for turkey, pheasant and quail. Here is some evidence.

Last week I ran into three hen turkeys at the ranch. looks like they had a couple of poults each. That’s pretty good success on our ranch where there are lots of predators.

It’s not always easy to pick out the poults this time of year. Size varies, depending upon when the young hatched.

Driving to work on my trailer at Mayberry Saturday and Sunday, I bumped into a half-dozen pheasant broods. The seemed to have between four and six poults in each. Once again that looks pretty good to me.

Seems that the number of quail chicks is also very healthy. Maybe there will be some successful upland game bird hunting this fall.

Meatless Mondays

Source: Meatless Mondays

Game animals are probably the most efficient users of water, from a human standpoint. Their meat is very eco friendly. On the other hand, there are not enough of them to go around.

Shady Jakes

Caught these young tom turkeys resting in the shade of a blue oak alongside the road.

In summer, young male turkeys band together with other males their age. Gobblers tend to avoid the yearlings, but sometimes the jakes hang out near the older birds or follow them around.

After taking this photo, I stepped on the gas a little too hard and my tires spun, causing the flock to sound off together proving that turkeys do gobble in summer.

Salmon Try

Thought Monday might be a good day to catch a salmon, so my friend, Captain Bob, and I headed to the south buoy to see what we could find.

Nobody there so we asked on the radio where everybody was. The response was “head south on 210 and you’ll find the fishermen.”

We did and we did, but we couldn’t catch a fish – not even a hit-and-run.

However I did snap a few photos of some of the whales that we circling us most of the day. That’s all I’ve got.

There were quite a few birds around as well. This gull was a pretty boy.

We also noticed that the area we fished was loaded with sea-birds eating something on the surface of the water. Maybe krill (small fish) – possibly the same thing the whales were after.

The trip back got a bit rough, which made things a bit more interesting. All and all it was a good day. From the reports we got, our experience was consistent with the norm, but a few nice salmon were caught.