doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Report from the North Country

When i was growing up we had a dog we taught to climb trees like that.

The reports of a few widely scattered coyotes in Penn. in the 1930's have been pretty much discredited as a source of any established breeding population. That's why I didn't even bother mentioning them. It appears likely they were introduced either intentionally or accidentally, but never actually took root and spread. Even a few pairs in close proximity would be unlikely to provide a healthy and genetically diverse enough population to successfully spread. The early 1960's in northeast Penna. seems to be the most credible and likely beginning of a successful breeding population.

In the mid- 1990's, the PGC attempted stocking many thousands of Sichuan Pheasants in an attempt to establish a replacement for Ringneck Pheasants. The stocking consisted of a ratio of 2 females to one male at 45 birds per square mile. Many were sighted during those years, but nobody would suggest that experiment was the beginning of a new species in Penna. I have not heard of any sightings for many years. Sustained efforts by PGC biologists and sportsmen to protect them and get them established failed miserably, in spite of the notion that Sichauns were even better suited to our habitat than Ringnecks.

There are many reports of PGC personell releasing coyotes into remote areas of Penna. during the 1990's. Supposedly, this clandestine predator introduction was in response to complaints by farmers and the Auto Insurance companies over crop and vehicle damage. But that's another story.

Reds can climb onto low hanging limbs like those big live oak limbs, but a grey can climb almost as good as a 'coon. Red's problem is that they prefer open terrain where there are few such trees.

FWIW, an old time friend of mine used to run 'coons with coon dogs. He treed an otter one night. The otter had gone up on a big low hanging limb like those in the videos above. When my friend arrived on the scene the otter jumped out in the midst of the coon dogs, whipped them all, and escaped unharmed. My friend said he never saw anything fight dogs like that in his life.

The traditional accompaniment up here



4 aged birds, 6-hours in the brine



Boning and pellet removal



zero waste please!



before the grilling



labor intensive food prep, this took almost all day...( my bride would do this in about 1/4 of that time)



Dinner here last night, bacon-wrapped grouse breasts with mushroom wild rice and asparagus, all washed down with a good malolactic chardonnay.

Hunters do set better tables.

yum, yum...

last night, I made two root beer floats for dinner...

Many years ago in Oxfordshire the Heythrop Hunt was casting about in an orchard almost in the centre of our village.

My friend who was a bystander found he was exchanging amused glances with the missing fox who had ensconced himself in an apple tree.

Thanks for sharing, Lloyd. Your illustrations are always entertaining and educational.

I'm a little behind in reading this thread, but gotta say that I have observed the same here in central AL. We had a lot of red fox back in the 60s and 70s. I'll never forget calling one up while turkey hunting when I was 14. Took several shots to get him, but I was proud of him. The last one I saw was in the late 70s, just about the time the coyotes showed up. We still have some grays, but I don't see nearly as many tracks as the past. Coyotes are everywhere.

I hadn't made the connection on the grays being able to escape by climbing, but I suspect you are right.

CZ is always mentioning here how grouse hunters hunt their memories and I am guilty of that one today.

This walking trail didn't get mowed in time for the opener, but they finally got around to it earlier this week.

There is a child's grave marker on this one that tells a very-sad story about a little girl. I always used-to stop as I walked by it and remove my hat (as I had seen my FIL do here many years ago now) and I did so again this morning.

Why some folks get to live long lives and others die before they even get started will always be a mystery to me







Still a lovely trail, but it just got too warm on this walk (low 80s) to enjoy it any further, so I abbreviated it. Took a short break, looked this old Parker over, and headed back to the car.

I think I'll go fishing thisafternoon instead.