doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Turkeys in Grouse habitat?

That is incorrect. DDT was banned for all agricultural use in the United States in 1972, which represented all but a small fraction of it's annual use. True, it was used for very limited "public health" (i.e. flea, bedbug, etc. infestations within dwellings) circumstances until 1987. However that specific usage had very limited, if any, relationship to it's impact on bald eagles compared to it's agricultural use.

1972 is the date you need to use.

Wait a minute! They call those critters "Sherman's squirrels" in the South, and the Rebs haven't wiped them out? Say it ain't so!

But my apology for not knowing that a Yankee fox squirrel and a rebel fox squirrel aren't the same critter.

Sorry if what I wrote was not clear, FF. I didn't say that 1987 was when DDT was banned; I said that 1987 was "after the DDT ban". Otherwise, I would have written "1987, when DDT was banned."

But we still need to deal with that increase of nearly 40%, from 05 to 06, reflected in FWS's count of breeding pairs.

Ya'll have confused me. One species fox squirrel or two?

We do have the red variation here in Ga, just not as common as the gray/black in my experience. I have lots of'em at my middle GA farm.

For some reason I don't shoot them though I love to shoot and eat grays. Some guy from up North put an ad somewhere that he'd pay $1,000 to come South and shoot a Fox Squirrel. Bucket list thing I guess. One of my sons took him up on it and he shot one of my Fox Squirrels and paid up!...Geo

A breeding pair of Eagles can disrupt all kinds of road construction. When they were getting ready to put the new Route95 bridge over the Potomac a patient of mine was given the job of evaluating the impact on local wildlife. This site was next to a six or eight lane major highway. He reported to his boss he was amazed by the wildlife in that three acre spot. There was a family of beaver, white tail deer and a large tree which had a large nest in it which most likely was a Eagle nest but could have been an Ospreys nest. It was the dead of winter so not an active nest. His boss directed him to re-evaluate the site in a month or two to �make sure� the nest was not an active one. When he went back in a month the beaver were dead and the tree the nest was it had been cut down. End of wildlife conflict.

Last Eagle I saw on one of my farms was eating a dead Perdue oven stuffer which had died and was thrown out with the manure when they cleaned out the house. There was our national symbol eating a dead chicken like a common buzzard.

I see eagles eating road kill often. In fact, when I see one that is usually what they are doing.

SRH

You need to look at the state by state surveys for those years. 2000 was the last year that every state submitted a survey. After that year it was determined they were no longer needed due to the recovery that had taken place with the bald eagle population.

In 2005 and 2006 states opted to conduct their own surveys again. Some of them did in 2005 and some did in 2006. The raw totals between those years can not be compared because states did not report numbers in both years.

With data after 2000 being inconstantly reported, it is more difficult to determine accurate numbers of breeding pairs after that point.

There is a funny story that goes with the naming of S. niger, but suffice it to say, you aren't the first to be fooled by the color morphs.

Meanwhile, there is such a thing as a "Squirrel Slam." The grand slam of squirrels... One day, soonish, I intend to complete it.

You cannot believe all game department's "data", either. In the late '70s and early '80s I supplemented my farm income with trapping and selling hides. I was a land-liner, using my pickup to cover many miles a day taking red and grey fox, bobcat, 'coons and otter. I would see an occasional panther in the early morning. Every year at the trapper's convention the game department would confidently claim there were no panthers in GA. There were then, and there are now.

SRH

A few years ago a Florida panther was seen at Ft. Stewart. Not surprising you've seen them up the Savannah River. The river corridor is wild and woolly. Gil