Curmudgeon

It seems this is a problem all over, maybe not in the burbs but I hear a lot of complaints from rural residents who find this stuff on their property on the edge of the road. The bones and stuff will go back to the earth. The plastic bags make it much worse. If you don't have a discreet place to dump this stuff, it should go to the landfill.

I have personally observed hundreds of bald eagles. Size difference between close individuals is the only sexual dimorphism a distant observer can use to separate the sexes reliably. As with people, even that is not conclusive. As I noted earlier, an experienced NYSDEC biologist sexed a bird in hand as female. A necropsy found testes. Alloutdoors is correct. Continuing the argument is helping to establish your reputation on the forum.

The guy who traps eagles for us - who has handled many - on occasion has made mistakes with birds in hand.

It is great seeing positive feedback on non-game wildlife. Like Wooly, when I am hunting I am watching everything from deer to spiders. I find it all fascinating. Sometimes, I engage in purely hunting discussions on this forum. However, there is so much more than game species out there. If you are new, soon I will start another thread on this winter's eagle research. We start putting out bait tomorrow. Currently, I have one GPS tracked golden eagle making a regular cell connection. During the 9 days she has been on home range in the Catskills, she has already visited most of the sites where she found food last winter. If you don't know who I am, you can see me explaining a gut pile to a film maker in this video -

I found some time to walk back to the bone yard this morning. Since the last download, it is only birds, mostly crows and redtails. There isn't much special. I am posting 3 redtail shots. The first 2 are different birds at the same distance from the camera. You can see a significant difference in size. Females are larger than males. The third shot is somewhat fogged. It shows a very wet bird yesterday after hours of hard rain just as the temperature was dropping below freezing.

Very cool. At least the hawks are getting along. Sometimes they don't. Smart birds remember where food comes from. And, Ravens are the smartest. I have had ravens get so used to the cameras that they try to take them apart. A lot depends on the individual. Ravens are usually very wary at first. A fascinating read is Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich. His second book on Ravens - Mind of the Raven - is also a great read.

You do not need 10 power for most situations. Sice weight is a major consideration, err on the side of lighter. Consider what type of strap you will use. Those cross the back straps are great for heavy bins but I find they get in the way of other gear. I use a cushioned neck strap. It is simple and easy to remove. If you wear glasses, you will want some that adjust to the proper eye relief. Celestron makes one of the best value bins available right now.

The guy or the dog?

I figured it was photo shopped but still "liked" it. You have to appreciate humor and imagination.

I am actively trying to reduce the population so the older, experienced breeders are better for that goal. That said, some of the best venison I have ever eaten was from 1 1/2 year old does.

Really? Someone in the gutpile thread posted a shot of a black Panther.

Very nice. I love the panther. Now I need to get motivated to check mine.

Just a reprise on last summer post on Mrs. Curmudgeon treeing the bob kittens.

Ditto to all those comments.

Right, remember what Ernie Shackleton did when the going got rough, eat the dogs!

Thanks. Has anyone observed what happens to one with the fur still on it?

I have had similar experiences with skinned coyotes. We're yours skinned or not?

Is the 3rd photo a fox or a coyote?

You misunderstood. There are lots of deer, way too many deer. The coyotes are not doing what you claim they do. There is also way too much land where hunting is forbidden adjacent to me. The deer know where they are safe. Then, there is the restriction that my DMAP tags must be used on my property. Re small game: Rabbits are up; Grouse are steady but down from a several years back; Both squirrels are out of control - I killed 5 red last week when I discovered one was trying to chew its way into the house; turkey are in good shape; there were a lot of woodcock back in October.

Here in 4F there are way too many deer. So, why did 6 guys hunting my property only fill 2 of 10 doe tags? 1: In early October, 90% of the deer disappeared from my cameras. Why? Maybe the lack of apples. Maybe because bow season combined with the youth hunt pushed them onto safe/posted land. Last year a camera on a big, sweet apple tree was getting many daytime photos, and one every minute all night long, all fall. This fall many of deer were evident 400-500' lower on the hill. It's a steep grade, about 30% on my north side. The elevation change does not represent a long distance. (The youth hunt coincided with the bachelor group of 8 breaking up. One of those deer was shot by a youth and not retrieved. The story I got was that there was no blood trail so they didn't pursue it, figuring he missed. I found the deer less than 200 yards from the pop-up blind they used. I flushed 6 eagles and 4 or 5 ravens and went to see what they were up to.) 2: There are now about 700 acres across the road from me where NO hunting is allowed. In the middle of those 3 properties that are safe zones is an 80 acre chunk owned by a guy from LI who hunts alone opening weekend. If you call a score of short ATV trips each day hunting. 3: I have permission to push deer off a 60 acre piece kitty-corner to my property where no shooting is allowed. I unload my rifle when I cross the line. I pushed it the afternoon second day of the regular season in the storm and strong NW winds. It was a shooting gallery. Deer were standing all over, broadside, downwind of me, staring at me, 30 yards away, 40 yards, all close. Attempts to move them to my guys just caused them to go around me and back into the wind. I moved 22 individual deer in a hour long slow walk. We shot none that day. 4: Deer damage to Christmas trees have been relatively light the past 2 winters. If conditions are just right (enough snow to cover the grass but still easy walking), I will get hammered. The deer spend their days on the east side of the road. They come to the west side at night to eat fir. I don't like to do it but I may have to resort to nuisance tags and night hunting. I have only done this once before. 5: Occasionally you will read rants about coyotes on this forum. When it comes to killing deer, 4F coyotes are absolutely incompetent. Yeah, they kill a few fawns in the spring. Other than that, they only seem successful at killing small deer in very specific conditions - deep snow and a good crust. Given what I read from the He Man Coyote Haters Club members on this forum, I have determined that 4F coyotes must be a different species. 6: Last evening at 3:45 a tree customer told me there was a buck and 3 does feeding near the road a 1/4 mile from my house, just across the road. ARRRRH! 7: While filling a bunch of freezers is high on my priority list, I declined to shoot a young buck opening day. I was figuring we would have a pile of does, and it wasn't a perfect shot. That can make a difference with me. I don't care about trophies. I care about clean kills and lowering the population. At the pace it was walking, it took it 5 minutes to get to the guy south of me who shot it. Why let these little ones go when almost everyone else in my neighborhood shoots them? 8: End Rant!

My suggestion is: listen to your wife!

Roundup Ready refers to glyphosate resistant, patented crops that have been genetically modified. There are a number of different crops You can spray Roundup or other glyphosate products on it without damaging it. Personally, I would never use glyphosate on crops for food, for myself or my animals. As time goes on, concerns about its impacts on health have been growing. I do use it to control invasive species. The Wikipedia article on glyphosate is a good primer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_(herbicide)

Yes, I am agreeing with your post and you got my point. Reading the responses, I am not sure everyone got yours. I thought using an example of a major change in the size of a species, induced by human behavior, in a very short time might be helpful in illustrating what you are talking about. I also think hunters sometimes fail to realize that what they desire in a deer has nothing to do with how deer evolved. What is "best" for those seeking trophies has nothing at all to do with "natural selection". Efforts to manipulate the gene pool for big antlers is quite the opposite. It is unnatural selection with the goal of some idealized, abstraction of a deer.

Realize that "mother nature's" method of determining what is best for the herd is simply by how well it reproduces. Big antlers serve a purpose for the deer. However, if they attract predators (hunters), that may in any way limit reproduction over their lifetime, they are not good for the individual. They become something you don't really want if you are a buck that wants a long life with lots of offspring. There is a flower in the Himalayas that was gathered for the live plant trade. So many were taken that there was concern it would become extinct. What ended up happening is, the smallest plants were missed by the gatherers and continued to breed. In an incredibly short time, the whole population shrunk. The larger, more desirable plants no longer exist in the wild. There is a population of miniature plants out there. The major factor limiting deer populations in most of the state is hunting. Thus, the traits that are best for the deer herd - as opposed to a subjective view of large bucks as best - are those that allows the herd to reproduce most successfully under current conditions.

I want to shoot does. I will kill a buck occasionally if meat is needed by my extended family. However, killing does protects my crops, improves the odds of healthy forest generation, stops the selective browsing that causes invasives to dominate native vegetation on my property, and helps improve habitat for a host of other wildlife species. The resistance to killing does is an atavism left over from a time when deer were scarce. Anyone living in an area with too many deer is a true conservationist when they kill does. Get some tags. Kill some does, eat well, and feel good about it.