Curmudgeon

I planted bur oaks - in the white oak family - that had acorns within about 10 years. However, they needed to be protected from the deer to get big enough in the first place. If you have a lot of deer, they may never get big enough. A lot of the larger oaks grew when deer numbers were lower.

LEAD BULLETS AND ALTERNATIVES – A PANEL DISCUSSION COBLESKILL-- The SUNY Cobleskill Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society will host a panel discussion on lead bullets, their potential impacts on humans and wildlife, and non-toxic alternatives. The event, which will take place Thursday, October 20 at 7:00 p.m. at SUNY Cobleskill, will primarily focus on bullets used for deer hunting. Lead is a well known neurotoxin. Bullets made from lead lose mass on impact, sometimes sending fragments long distances from the wound channel. These fragments can contaminate the internal organs of the target animal, and possibly meat consumed by hunters and their families. Internal organs are typically left in the field and scavenged by wildlife, including eagles. Discussion will follow a screening of the short video Lead Ammunition: A Needless Danger to Eagles and Ourselves, produced by the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society. Following presentations by each panelist, the discussion will be opened to questions from the audience. Confirmed panelists include Peter Nye, former head of DEC's Endangered Species Unit and one of the individuals most responsible for the recovery of bald eagles; Tom Salo, a hunter and Co-Chair of the Franklin Mountain Hawk Watch; Dave Simkins, Town of Broome Supervisor, member of the Schoharie County Conservation Association and an active sportsman; Kevin Hynes, from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; and Gregg Recer, New York State Department of Health. The event will be held in Room 101 of the Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. The public is invited. Other event sponsors include the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society and the Schoharie County Conservation Association. For more information visit www.facebook.com/groups/CobyWildlife/

The Republican Party is not a cohesive whole, and this may fracture it into its component parts.

http://www.uu.se/en/media/press-releases/press-release/?id=3454&area=3,8&typ=pm&lang=en The Psychology Behind Climate Change Denial Climate change is a serious threat to humans, animals, and the earth’s ecosystems. Nevertheless, effective climate action has been delayed, partly because some still deny that there is a problem. In a new thesis in psychology, Kirsti Jylhä at Uppsala University has studied the psychology behind climate change denial. The results show that individuals who accept hierarchical power structures tend to a larger extent deny the problem. In the scientific community there is a strong consensus that humans have significantly affected the climate and that we are facing serious challenges. But there is a lot of misinformation about climate change in circulation, which to a large part is created and distributed by organised campaigns with the aim of postponing measures that could combat climate change. And there are people who are more prone than others to trust this misinformation. Previous research has consistently shown that it is more common among politically conservative individuals to deny climate change. In her thesis, Kirsti Jylhä has investigated this further and in more detail. Her studies included ideological and personality variables which correlate with political ideology, and tested if those variables also correlate with climate change denial. The results show that climate change denial correlates with political orientation, authoritarian attitudes and endorsement of the status quo. It also correlates with a tough-minded personality (low empathy and high dominance), closed-mindedness (low openness to experience), predisposition to avoid experiencing negative emotions, and with the male sex. Importantly, one variable, named social dominance orientation (SDO), helped explain all these correlations, either entirely or partially. Social dominance orientation is a measure of the acceptance and advocating of hierarchical and dominant relations between social groups. This acceptance of hierarchies also extends to accepting human dominance over nature. The correlation between SDO and climate change denial can perhaps be explained by considering the many injustices of climate change. Our current wealthy lifestyles are the primary cause of climate change, but the most serious consequences are affecting mainly poor countries and people, as well as animals and future generations of humans. According to Kirsti Jylhä, it is possible that individuals who accept the unequal distribution of the risks and benefits of climate change, more easily can keep demanding more evidence for climate change before admitting and addressing it. The question then is how the issue of climate change can best be presented to people with a high SDO to convince them of the need for action.

When Hillary is elected, I will blame the Republicans. If Trump were elected, I would blame the Democrats.

Excellent. I actually saw something similar. A redtail went after a turkey in deep grass. I think the hawk could only see the head moving, that it did not realize how big an animal it was after. That wasn't the case with your bird.

This debate is not about science. It is about whether acknowledging the impacts of lead bullets will lead to more restrictions on gun owners and hunters.

Life had been a little challenging lately. Sorry if I have been scarce. Things should improve, sometime.

I am starting this thread for people to post photos from their gut piles and bone yards. We butchered lambs a week ago so there are still vultures around. By the time the southern zone firearms season opens, the vultures will be gone from this far north. All my good cameras are out looking for deer so I used an ancient Moultrie I60 for the bone yard. It took plenty of photos but started doing something weird: many of the daytime shots are B&W just like an IR photo. I didn't post any of them but in some the sun is shining. Common Raven - Note the head shape and huge beak. One of my favorite species of NYS fauna. Turkey Vultures and a raven. Note the head color of the hatch-year (juvenile) bird on the left. Red-tailed Hawk

I don't know what is going on with the case but he is still in business. I heard thru the grapevine that venison donation program deer were going in but the meat was not coming out. It seems he wasn't just skimming from customers.

Never experienced them but a couple of family members got into them on vacation this past summer . Insane itching. Glad they aren't in upstate NY. Hopefully, they will stay away. In this warming world we now have deer ticks. Who needs another parasite.

You may want to identify the obvious plants, looking out for invasive species. In some areas they are a serious problem. I am making a distinction between non-natives that are not a problem and invasives which provide little or no benefits for wildife, or your timber, and can take over your habitat. High numbers of deer exacerbate the invasive problem by eating the native plants thus removing those from competition and encouraging the undesirables. I ended up with a serious glossy buckthorn problem because I could not ID it. It was taking over the understory - it is good cover - providing no other benefits to native wildlife. By the time I figured out what it was, I needed herbicides to bring it under control. Another serious problem for me was its suppression of desirable timber species. Downstate seems to have more terrestrial invasives but we have our share. I also regularly control bush honeysuckle, multiform rose, garlic mustard and wild parsnip.

Actually, I didn't not look at the date. It showed up today in my unread content. I wasn,the hunting around. I don't have the time for that. Sorry.

I take head shots on lambs from 2 inches. Not on deer. Chest, double lung on them if possible.

Al - Most of the time, you make sense (at least to me). You have done so numerous times in your insistence that hunters can remove most of the lead from their meat. However, in calling this a "phony narrative" and about "poisoning" - as most people understand that word - you went off the rails. Lead is in venison. Certainly more in commercially processed meat than hunter processed but it is there. I am certain my children consumed some. I know I did. There is no safe level for kids so all those small game shotgun pellets I pulled out of my mouth when I was young means I am not as smart as I should have been. That is not a "phony narrative", it was my diet. The level that can affect children is so small that you would refer to those amounts as exposure rather than "poisoning". The impacts are incremental and being such are measured in populations of individuals. It is hard to know what caused a 5 or 10 point IQ difference, especially if the baseline IQ for a family is high. As far as the Peregrine Fund conspiracy, I am on a first name basis with one person who works in their main office. She is a deer hunter. You probably won't be surprised to hear she only uses lead-free ammo. She is strong too. Drags out her own deer.

I have been busy and ignoring this stuff. I have a couple of minutes to look at this and find I have no idea why this pissing match continues. It is not productive. No minds are being changed. I agree with a lot of what Vly says. I also agree with a lot of what Rattler, Al and AT have to say, and some others too. It looks to me like the people here are speaking different languages. What do you actually disagree about? Concerns that knowledge will lead potentially to a ban? Is there anything else? Lead is bad for humans and wildlife that consume it. Bullets fragment. You can reduce your intake of lead through proper butchering. However, you cannot eliminate it all. It is worse if you grind meat it because even a single piece will then get mixed into a batch. Eagles die from eating gut piles and butchering scraps. This is not a population level threat for one species of eagle. It may be for the other. There should not be a ban on lead ammo for hunting in NY. However, every hunter needs to be well informed of his/her choices: how they behave; how they perform. My hope is that every hunter will be informed, and I will continue to work towards that goal.

Bait? What bait?

My brother in Chenango Cty says Pharsalia is almost abandoned after opening weekend, and gets little use away from the roads.

In my time on this forum, I have occasionally read blanket statements saying public schools teach anti-hunting. I have argued that this is certainly not true in our rural town. Today my Special Ed Teacher spouse brought home the class copy of Outdoor Life for me to read. Yes, she subscribes for her students, and has done so for some time. I just didn't know. She needs reading material that interests her students and Outdoor Life fits the bill. When I expressed some surprise, she told me the school library has subscriptions to a couple of hook and bullet publications. Taxpayers pay for this. There are a number of teachers who hunt and they discuss their experiences in class. This is rural life in NYS. I don't doubt that the anti attitude can be found in urban areas. BTW - The article she wanted me to see is called "Shoot a Coyote, Save a Fawn?" (September issue). It is good to see Outdoor Life attempting to explain the complexity of trying to manage game species by shooting predators.

Altitude it relative to the area around you.

In Otsego County we did not get a late frost, we got a HARD FREEZE in early April - single digits. Any fruit buds that had swelled from the warm winter and early spring were killed. No pears. Apples are scarce but there are some depending on the elevation. The higher trees have more apples. I think they may have been delayed so had less damage. The blueberry crop was good.

For those of you interested in raptors, watch this webcam video of a Bald Eagle taking a nestling Osprey. http://www.audubon.org/news/this-rare-video-bald-eagle-attacking-osprey-nest-incredible-display-speed-and?s_src=20160819-wingspan&utm_source=engagement&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160819-wingspan

Thanks Grow.

I want to build one. I love herps. I have a good location on a piece of land I just bought. Do they recommend the logs, rocks, etc? If Dad has any good links on how to build one, please send them along.

I find the creatures fascinating but after a visit to the ER, 2 shots of epinephrine, and several days of recovery, I give bald faced hornets a wide berth.