Treblig, the gun is a Merkel Model 8. Good eye. I didn't hunt with my hammer guns much this year.
Matt, I'm in North Story County, but I hunt mostly in Green County. Birds were up fairly well last year, and things seemed to be on the mend over the last few years, but this year, they took a noticeable dip. I'm not at all sure why. Just stochastic variance I guess. There is a lot we don't know about population dynamics.
Strangely, in the really bad years recently, we did really well. I think that was mostly because almost no one else was hunting. But hunter numbers are coming back so competition has gotten more severe.
I'm also a bit worried about pesticides out there. In the last 15 yrs or so, EVERYTHING seems to be, in general, declining. The sparrows, wrens, and every other little brown bird are far less common that they were. Butterflies and dragonflies and fireflies and, well, you name it, it seems like there are less of them. I guess exceptions would be mostly geese. No shortage there. But we don't hunt them. We may have to change that.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/qclHjMQ.jpg)
