Laurel Ridge Farm: December 2018

Friday, December 28, 2018

Bears in the Neighborhood?

Unfortunately, this one got hit by a car not far from the farm. It was a 261 pound male in mid-winter. Most of the previous accounts that I had heard about were young males in spring/summer. The young males get pushed out of momma's territory to go find their own breeding partner or territory. So they sometimes swim the Ohio River from Kentucky. The fact that this guy was wintering over here may mean we have a resident population. Or, at least we did until his encounter with a vehicle. Here's some other recent local bear news.

Article on this event

Sighting Nearby Last Summer

Another Local Sighting

General Interest Ohio Bear Article

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Another Mouse, Bobcats, Wolves etc

As you may notice in My Blog List, I follow a number of other nature bloggers that I have stumbled across from time to time. I thought this post was interesting given that I have recently been having bobcat sightings at my place. Julie Zickefoose Bobcat And here's a late addition - her second post on the bobcats Julie 2nd Post on Bobcats

And then I saw this article from Utah. Mr. Murderbritches

In other wildlife news, I saw this article on a wolf. Huffington Post on Beloved Wolf "Spitfire" Wolf and grizzly management are about as divisive an issue as exists in the Montana, Wyoming, Idaho area. It's pretty obvious which side of the issue that Huffington Post is on. I recently read this book about the reintroduction of the wolves in Yellowstone and I thought that it was a worthwhile and fairly balanced account. Decade of the Wolf It had some interesting stuff like each wolf kills about 1.8 elk per month, wolf mortality is much higher in the packs that specialize on bison, wolf kill success rates vary by season (low success in fall when prey is fit and strong, high success in late winter while weak), deep snow favors the wolves who walk on top versus elk and bison that sink in and lots of other interesting stuff. There is a lot of reporting on wolves that has turned them into Disneyesque personalities that are saving the planet by re-establishing balance to ecosystems. Makes them loveable and cuddly personalities. Decade of the Wolf seems like a more accurate description of an apex predator doing its natural business (killing, competing and mating) and occasionally conflicting with human society.

This is a pretty depressing report on the state of wildlife in the world. WWF Report on Wildlife We humans are leaving our mark on the planet. And the more of us there are, the more significant the impact.

On that high note, here's another report on my own personal human-wildlife interaction. I had more success with marshmallows on the last morning at the farm.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Bonus Weekend Bust

We had a monsoon on Friday into Saturday. Everything was soaked but temperatures and wind weren't too bad.

Dave and Grant were in the main field stand on Saturday afternoon and I was in the pond stand.

The visibility came and went. Dave saw a doe and six point buck and then Junior showed up coming out of the tree line at 70 yards. He gave Dave a broadside shot and he took it. Dave saw him head back into the woods and jump the barbed wire. He took a look before losing light and found no sign.

I saw a spike and a button buck before the visibility diminished. There was 15 minutes of shooting light left when I took this shot. We took a better look in the dark with flashlights and still found no sign. Dave was starting to question whether his scope could be off.

This was our biggest kill. Marshmallows do seem to work best.

We hunted the morning and didn't see anything. Then we went to the range and checked Dave's gun. It was about 2" low and 3" to the right from 100 yards. Should have been plenty good to kill on a broadside shot at 70 yards.

So we went to the spot and tried to track him. In daylight, visibility was great in the woods. We tromped all around and never found a sign. We covered all of the woods below the main field stand.

I also decided to unload my muzzleloader. It misfired twice - glad that I hadn't seen a buck. I loaded it before gun week and never unloaded it. It had been in the rain etc. No surprise really. I also checked the 45-70. It was right on.

This is Junior that Dave had at 70 yards. He's a very nice deer. Really wide.

So Sunday evening I was on my own with the 45-70. Visibility sucked and we had pretty well mucked up the area around the main and pond stand. So I went to the driveway.

Other than the fog, it was a decent night. Light winds. Visibility came and went. At last light, I could see 4 deer bodies in silhouette up right under the main field stand. Figures.