Curmudgeon

Genus matters. Common names, colloquial names and species names do not.

Mike - I'm just speculating but it seems financial pressures on DEC could threaten the raising and release of game farm pheasants. It is expensive and strictly "put and take". Doves on the other hand are plentiful and self sustaining. In other words, doves may fill a need for a replacement game bird considering the loss of wild pheasants. It is possible this argument may actually appeal to some non-hunters who object to the "put and take" approach but don't object to hunting.

Sunn Hemp is a different genus - Crotolaria not Cannabis - so no problem.

Different cultivars, still illegal.

I just posted some more bird photos. I'm not sure I know what I am doing.

Rand and Ron Paul are libertarians.

Funny, my father - libertarian and retired NYC police captain - was advocating legalizing it in the early 70s.

Is the result any different from having their heads glued to their smart phones 24/7?

Who cares what people do in the privacy of their own homes as long as they don't hurt anyone?

Actually Obama is extremely intelligent. You just don't like him. You don't get to head the Harvard Law Review by being a dummy. I agree with Phade - Bush #2....... When he wasn't AWOL he was drunk or high.

The attrition problem is big. I traded in a tractor on a UTV a couple of years back. The tipping point was my Dad's ability to get in and out of the woods. It's his all during deer season and has added years to his hunting life. How do replace the aging hunters, or those who have lost interest? Urban/suburban kids frequently don't have the tradition and/or opportunity. In rural schools, sucess is defined as getting out - leaving. Now that my daughter lives in a city, she has an interest in hunting. When she lived at home, she did not. It's too late for her to learn from me. She is 2000 miles from here. The only new demographic group of hunters I am aware - that could be recruited - are the foodies. Those that want local, safe food, that they acquired. They have different values, and many are women. The young woman I have been mentoring has felt belittled and disrespected at the gun club she joined near an upstate city. I won't say where. Maybe it's your club.

There seems to be some cognitive dissonance in that line of thinking.

Not all are anonymous. I have no objections to sharing what I wrote. The animal rights folks are already lurking because of the bear and swan discussions.

No matter what any of us want, DEC - like any state agency - is subject to political pressures. The Commissioner needs to answer to the Governor. The biologists are not to blame for decisions that trickle down.

They meet every 5-10 years and are assembled from various interests groups within each WMU. If you want to be on the next task force, contact your regional wildlife people.

Don't forget how Costner started that Open Range gunfight. No hesitation. Blew the bad guy away without warning.

How many people would look at a raptor on prey and think it wasn't wild? Unless she noticed jesses or was very skilled at ID, it is unlikely she did. If it was wild and she knew it she was wrong. If it wasn't wild and she knew it she was wrong. I'm just wondering what law they would use against her. They couldn't convict her of harming a non-native bird under F&W law. She probably thought she was doing a good deed. She may not have been completely malicious but she hit it with those beads hard enough to fracture its skull, break a leg and kill it. Birds have very light bones that break easily. Juvenile mortality is very high, and among peregrine falcons the most common cause of mortality by young comes from breaking a leg when impacting prey improperly. One mistake is all they get.

All native raptors are protected. The only possible native species it could be is gyrfalcon but I suspect it is a hybrid. This bird is more akin to Twax's retriever, and worth a whole lot more.

Good ideas. I have a growing pile of dead cameras with my electronic recyclables. Bait. I like it.

The farmers have been spreading manure for a week. Turkeys everywhere where there is manure, and some on open ground elsewhere. No big flocks.

Western 4F - A foot of dense snow average. Bare in spots. 3' drifts in spots.

The concern is not what they think. The concern is how they affect the general public's perception of hunting with their propaganda. Those on both sides of issues relating to hunting (animal rights, gun rights) are constantly communicating to the public - intentionally or otherwise.

I just read a bunch of those linked articles. Several things are not clear to me. Did she know it was a falconer's bird? It doesn't seem so. She may have attempted to do exactly the same to a wild bird. Is it a protected species? Unless it is a pure gyrfalcon, it could be a hybrid - possibly a gyrfalcon cross. It could be a cross with a Eurasian falcon but is so dark a dark morph gyr is most likely. A pure gyr would be a protected species - if wild. I can see a lawyer having a field day with fish and wildlife law over a saker-gyr cross. Starting prices for a gyrfalcon is about $3000. I hope he takes her to civil court.

I have a similar situation to Phade's - his being almost an order of magnitude higher than mine. The amount of land where no hunting is allowed created deer preserves where the large population is never culled.

In some areas there was a lot of drifting. Some areas are bare. I was near Cooperstown today and went into snow up to my knees.