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Last Sunday I was photographing the largest owl we get here in the north east (great grays), and today I was after the smallest. I was at my in-laws for the weekend and there is a nature center about 45 minutes from their house that is a known location for saw-whet owls. I took my son with me and went looking this morning. Another photographer had keyed me in on the best place to look along the trail but as it turned out we didn't need to look very hard because when we got there several people were already observing it. Getting a clear shot wasn't easy but I managed to find a few angles that worked ok. Not long after we got there a barred owl started calling nearby which prompted the saw-whet to open its eyes a little bit, but before long it dozed off again. Then the sun came out in full force and moved to where it was creating harsh light and shadows across the owl but we had a good time hiking some of the trails and looking through the visitor center. This was our first trip to this nature center but I'm looking forward to going back, it was a beautiful property. My son grabbing a few shots.

Saw this bald eagle eating Saturday morning in the field outback of the house. to the picture with a cannon power shot at distance of about 250 yards is why its is a little blury. the same bird sitting in tree across the road after he was done eating.

Griffon gastropub in East Aurora First up French onion soup dip. Carmelized onions , veggie stock , miso , cream cheese , Parmesan cheese , gruyere , worchestshire, garlic , thyme , sour cream , sherry wine vinegar with garlic bread crostini Ginger beer calamari Ginger beer marinated calamari , fried peppery coating , ginger hoisin sauce , scallions , pickled julienned carrots and peppers , cucumber wasabi aioli Wife had smoked salmon poke Field greens , sushi rice , smoked salmon , mango , edamame , sliced avocado , red onions , cukes , bell peppers , toasted macadamia nuts ,cucumber wasabi aioli Kid had Belgian chive waffle , butter milk panko fried chicken breast , jalapeño coleslaw , applewood smoked bacon , cheddar , spicy maple mayo I opted for Grilled alligator andouille sausage , Buttermilk battered spicy shrimp , on a toasted baguette with creole mayo and New Orleans vinegar slaw Daughter used her dessert stomach on Oreo cake Great meal ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Daughter turned 4. Bought her a lifetime license for her birthday. Lol she was confused when she opened her gift I dont think she quite grasped the concept. One down now just to get my son his.

I thought I'd share some pics fro the international Boston seafood show, it's the Catalina Wine mixer for the industry The booth with the giant bears is preferred cold storage, they roll out a bar and serve cold beer to the entire show at closing. All three days

Three more yesterday. 2 male 1 female.

The other way I look at this is I now have a paid for contract with the state that many others do as well, this makes it that much harder for the state to take hunting away. In addition you will always have a resident hunting license in NY even if you move away, allowing you to come back and hunt with family.

Almost time to get this thing in the water. A lot of the ponds and marshes around here were starting to open up but they have refrozen after the big storm, won't be long now though. My mother in-law finished up the cover a few weeks ago and we were out there this weekend so I was able to pick it up and bring the blind home. Can't wait to get out and chase some ducks this spring! The flap over the middle section secures into place with four strong magnets (1/2" rare-earth disc magnets). If I want to get to the far side of a pond and need to cross water too deep to wade through I can open the flap, pop out the forward support rib of the rear section, and hop up on the deck and paddle it like a canoe.

Until archers start taking the majority of the deer harvest I think you & I are safe from being the blame. AR's don't suddenly cause the archery stats to go thru the roof.

Few more pics from cam today

Doc, noone ever denied that baiting isn't effective? It's just not as effective as you're giving it credit for in most people's scenarios. You keep bringing up TV shows as proof of something, these shows don't portray real life hunting situations. When was the last time you saw 10 bucks over 100" in a food plot? I'm willing to bet never. These shows you keep relating to isn't realistic, therefore saying that if you plant food plots and do everything they do on tv, would you have the same results as they do? Absolutely not. Baiting can be effective, food plots can be effective, hunting over a picked corn field can be effective, hunting over a wild or planted apple tree can be effective, let's not act like they're so much different. Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

I find it funny when we say we do not want to draw deer off others property with baiting yet we can have acorns, corn, clover and any other food we plan and think this IS NOT pulling deer off other peoples properties? Baiting wars started a long time ago we just call them food plots. I don't agree with baiting but we still do it with food plots anyway. I also bait using calls, rattling and deer scents.

Gun hunters, bow hunters, crossbow hunters, black powder hunters, handgun hunters, we're all in this together. We are all just hunters. United we stand, divided we fall.

Baked chicken with zucchini and parmesan cheese . Gonna have some smashed potatoes and green beans too.

I bought a new Kubota grand L GST 3130 back in 2007. It has served me well but I had to put some money in it this year though.. A new Battery.. Greaty machine.

i treat my bird gun like archery. I self-impose a limit even if my gear is capable of longer. I understand some have issues with that and that's fine, but it's my preference. for birds it's 40 and under. I shoot hevi-13's 3.5" mag out of a Mossberg 835 with a pure gold choke and the pattern is mighty fine indeed.

I won't shoot that far just out of personal preference. Although gun is completely capable. I just like the up, close and personal part. Hearing them drum, spit and gobble so close I tinkle my pants a bit. I know on Oldgobbler sight if guys rant about long shots the thread or post gets whacked pretty quick. I'm not against these shots knowing your gun and how it shoots. It's just not for me. I'm sure these loads are great for folks who can't judge distance and shoot farther than they think they are too.

Don't discount the other orange tractor,Kioti.I had a NH 35 hp,bought new 2003,wanted a new tractor 2014,wanted a 40 ish HP, looked at all of them,Kioti was only one that was same size as old NH,all others shrunk the tractors.Kubota was a really nice tractor but i would of had to go to 47 hp to keep larger frame tractor, which had no rear remotes as standard equip.and was $5500 more than the 41hp kioti,so far its been a great tractor.

"And in terms of the food plot vs. the food pile or mechanical feeder, I don't think there is a hunter around (especially bow hunters) that doesn't understand the difference if they are to be honest. There really is no need to repeat all the differences that have already been noted. They are all pretty obvious anyway." Having hunted over food plots/corn piles and feeders I will tell you from my experience there is absolutely not a bit of difference between them other than some moron in Albany deciding what one is legal. You are changing a deers natural habits to make it "easier" to kill them. If you know what you are doing when making a food plot using fence and/or trees you can make a deer travel as close to your stand as you want, no different than a bait pile. Want deer to be within 20yds of your stand in your corn field? Mow the corn that's within 20yds of your stand. This stuff isn't rocket science! That being said you can bait deer with a feeder, with a pile of corn or bait them with a clover plot you still have to get a deer you want to kill to come to them in daylight within range. All hunting shows make what they are doing look easy. It's not hard to get 5 minutes worth of deer footage during a 7 day hunt. To the ignorant viewer who sees a buck come to a feeder and get shot during the 5 minutes of hunting I can see how you would think wow that's too easy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Attraction is still attraction either way you look at it and you are still using the animals need to eat as a tool to kill it. Just makes some feel like they are doing it better by putting a little labor in planting the corn seed to make more corn rather than filling the feeder.

Before you get too far into this let me give you a little advice. I couldn't live 1 day without a tractor. I use mine 4 or 5 times a weeks and couldn't imagine not having them. My grandfather had a construction/excavating company and I have been running equipment since I could walk. A 25hp tractor with a hoe is right on the edge of being useless, and yes I have ran them more than I wanted to. They lack power and weight to do any real digging and are honestly are not much faster than a shovel. On the side job thing, let's say you want to put a bid in on a Drainage job and someone else places a bid with a mini trac hoe and a skid steer/tractor. His bid will likely be half of yours because he can do the job in half the time or faster. A tractor of that size with a hoe is just not good enough at much of anything to try to do it as a side job. For a homeowner they are handy because efficiency isn't important just not as a business when time is money. I know many do it but I couldn't imagine having a payment on any toy, yes a tractor is a toy. My vote rent a mini excavator with a blade and do your job, if you want a tractor for food plots/ trail clearing find an old 8/9n or similar for 2/3k with some implements and have fun with it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Our deer must head south for the winter or collect their own fallen headgear. Nice find rachunter.

Got out for a long day today no sheds today.I followed the longest scrape/rub line i ever seen 36 rubs when i stopped count with 13 scrapes all in a some what straight line for two miles according to my gps.The rubs where all different sizes.The only thing i found was the remains of a opossum and someones teeth

Time to update this. Sealing took longer than planned. Cure time for the Coat-It is supposed to be 12 hours at 70° but when the weather turned cool it was more like 48+ hours. We finally got one last day that went back up to about 80° so I dumped the rest on the night before (almost half the can), dragged it out in the driveway before I went to work the next morning, and it was cured and bone dry when I got home. Then the top was sealed with poly. And painted. Frame for camo. Conducted sea trials this morning, worked great! It's plenty buoyant and stable. I'm going to start bringing a paddle in the future, I wouldn't hesitate to cross a small body of water on it. Didn't have anything terribly interesting to shoot this morning, but here is a beaver lodge to show the unique perspective you get with the camera this close to the water.

Guy in town bought a brand new 50HP Kioti last spring. He bought it for brush-hogging, but he had tons of trouble with the transmission and it spent most of the summer at the dealership. They stood behind it, but it what a hassle. I'm not saying that Kioti is a bad brand, just passing along an issue I heard about. I know the issues were legit, because he had contracts to do brush-hogging for the town and they didn't get done on time.

I bought my son his when he was 4. He is 15 now and will get many years of hunting and fishing long ago paid for! My wife bought me mine 20 plus years ago. It paid for itself in 12-13 years. And still good if we move out of state is even better.

Exactly right, if attracting a deer to a certain spot to try to kill them is unethical, immoral etc. How many guys hunt over a scrape/mock scrape? Or set off a buck bomb and hope a buck walks up to it for a shot? You can argue it's different when it's food vs an animals instinct to breed which is true, but the instinct to breed is stronger than finding food, so wouldn't it be even more unsportsmanlike to attract them via estrus to a specific location? Deer get accustomed to food plots for food, same as a feeder. Deer learn to avoid going to feeders if pressured, same as a food plot. It's amazing to me that people get the notion that a feeder makes all of the deer stupid and reckless. It might make you feel better to hunt a food plot, it has less of a stigma to it, but make no mistake you sir are "legally" baiting. Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

It's cheap insurance if he decides to become a hunter . It's a great idea ,I plan to buy my son a lifetime before he turns 5 as well.

Those super tight patterns are fine for all of you stone cold killers with icewater in your veins. I like a little more margin for error, myself. Factor in the adrenaline rush, sometimes less than ideal shooting positions, etc. it is pretty easy to miss a bird that gets into " closer than comfortable" range with those softball sized patterns.When a gobbler gets closer than 25 yards, I get REAL nervous, despite the fact that that I have killed well over a hundred of them. With standard 3" turkey loads like Winchester XX or Federal Premium, my turkey guns throw sure kill patterns out to past 40 yards, and that is as far as I want to shoot anyway. It also gives me a bigger, more forgiving pattern at the range where I prefer to kill my birds, which is from 25 to 35 yards...

Personal choice Yes? You still attracted those deer to that spot by using food and the deer's need to have it. Pile or Plant is still doing the same attracting.

You forgot to mention that said arrow lacks FOC balance. It will not be very forgiving.

Earning her keep last week cleaning up after the Blizzard.

Canon 600mm f4 IS II. First shot is cropped a bit with the bare lens, second was taken using the 1.4x III teleconverter.

Is there anyway you can plant evergreens while planting grasses? That way you will only have to plant grasses for about 5 years.

I bought a John Deere. I had some problems with it early on and I do not think their implements are as good as others. If I had to do it again I would buy something else. Kubota would be a definite consideration.

You should check into it, I was told today they are down members and are taking some $$ off To join. I guess they don't allow rifles.

That hurts to know u cant!but is still enjoyable to see how they act in surroundings they are comfortable in.theres been alot of time while im in woods bow hunting.havent had a shot opportunity..just sit there and watch them jump around and so on.its enjoyable

Having hunted south Texas "where most of the shows showing feeders are filmed" I can honestly say I don't think a deer could survive there without them, and that makes a big difference when the feed is their main food source as to a snack. To answer your question on how they do it on the fake tv shows I will say I honestly don't know. Probably the same way lee and Tiffany can get 4 or 5 Boone and Crocket bucks to step out in their 10 acre bean fields 2hrs before dark. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"Not as good as usual" MANY MANY bad words of jealousy jumped to my mind looking at your pic as my collection grew only by 1 dead head (only one sided at that!) this year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Next Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Next 2. Could be a long day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

St. Pattys day parade. Bottle share. Just the beginning. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just picked up Mr.505 and Dies Downwind. Charlie seems to approve. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

3'00" lol

History tends to repeat itself. Prior to WWII, that exact same opinion was popular in the US. Because of our isolationist policy back then, we came very close to loosing that war. A forward presence in "trouble spots" has never been more important than it is today. "Policing the world" is not such a bad idea, especially with a Commander-in-chief who has enough sense to get those "police" paid in part by those foreign powers who are enjoying their protection. That is something that was sadly lacking under the previous administration.

Its really no different than food plotting, or hunting natural food sources. Once you pressure the deer that use the bait, they act just like they would at any other food source that you pressure, be it a food plot, crop field, apple orchard, oak flat, etc.

I am still trying to figure out how he pulls the trigger.

I ignored all the bad reviews and bought a pack, loaded very hard, didn't shoot great and didn't expand well in my beach sand in a bucket test. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I believe this coyote has been found .........