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June 16, 2022

ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray

If there were more fools who count stars…
–Mirela Brailean (Iasi, Romania)

* * *

night bus
to the Milky Way–
leaving alone
–Florin Golban (Bucharest, Romania)

* * *

heavy traffic
the bus driver unscrews
your thermos
–Stephen Toft (Lancaster, England)

* * *

faint odor
of the night sky–
forsythia
–Helga Stania (Ettiswil, Switzerland)

* * *

after hunting
a tent in the mountains
full of starlight
–Goran Gatalica (Zagreb, Croatia)

* * *

two humans
against a small mosquito
there is no clean war
–Marie Derley (Brussels, Belgium)

* * *

A drop of pine falls
Two carp waving their tails
under the glow
–Jasper “wormwood” Martínez (Hidalgo, Mexico)

* * *

north of the pond
probably in quicksand
his soul remains
–Richard Bailly (Fargo, North Dakota)

* * *

loneliness
a walk in the snow
of spring
–Susan Bonk Plumridge (London, Ontario)

* * *

an old man ties me up
lady lace up and out
swaggers with confidence
–Jerome Berglund (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

——————————
OF THE NOTEBOOK
——————————

Parisian party…
James Joyce and Marcel Proust
speechless
–Ed Bremson (Raleigh, North Carolina)

The haikuist celebrated Bloomsday on June 16 and wondered why “Proust and Joyce met at a party but didn’t have much to say to each other.” James Joyce’s 1922 novel “Ulysses” tells the story of Leopold Bloom’s life in Dublin on June 16, 1904. Luciana Moretto lamented not having lived life to the fullest in Treviso, Italy.

unsealed letter
never shipped
I dare not bloom

Reading “Ulysses” in Jibou, Romania, Mircea Moldovan was inspired to compose a haiku about “the beach scene” in the 100-year-old story that he said was “full of eroticism.”

twilight rose
beyond the beach rock
wild flowers

Tomislav Maretic wrote to say that “his uncle Zvonimir lived in the same house” as James Joyce in Pula, Croatia, from 1904-1905. Every morning, the Irish author reportedly walked under a Roman arch to reach a tall building where he worked as an English teacher. This smooth-flowing poetic line from Joyce’s “Dubliners,” which was published in 1914, inspired Maretic’s haiku: “The light music of whiskey falling into glasses made a pleasant interlude.”

whiskey music
falling into glasses–
Arch of the Sergius

Vandana Parashar started her day early in Panchkula, India: a crack in the egg and dawn breaks.

Aki Yoshida prepared his morning haiku in Sapporo while reminiscing about the children’s story of Sambo, a boy who used his wits to survive after being stalked by tigers. Published in 1899 by Grant Richards (the firm that launched the James Joyce classics), Scottish author Helen Bannerman’s book was a hit in Japan when it was published in 1953. Still, the title was later pulled from shelves in 1988. for their racist stereotypes.

four running tigers
round and round all melted in
my pancake breakfast

Charlie Smith shared this haiku with his colleagues at the 50th meeting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

new spike protein
another new mutant
tired of this novel

Minami Koyanagawa posed for a photo during her final year as a creative writing student at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo.

a quiet classroom
chairs arranged in the gym,
white graduation album

Keith Evetts had a lovely day. Derley celebrated the day his “stepdaughter turned ten” in Ath, Belgium. Marilyn Ward took a deep breath in Scunthorpe, UK

spring
the labia
in its

* * *

Easter day
under Ella’s shirt
two small eggs

* * *

twelve candles
on the birthday cake
water glaze

In his stress management guide, “Mindfulness on the Go” (2014), Padraig O’Morain recommended counting 5-7-5 as a breathing technique: inhale slowly while counting to five, then exhale while counting to seven, and so on. “for a few minutes a few times a day.” Here is O’Morain’s haiku sent from Dublin dedicated to the Irish poet James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941).

on every shelf
unfinished ulysses
yes i will read it yes

At last month’s Tech Games hosted for alumni during commencement ceremonies at MIT,
Smith’s math class won the haiku event 5-7-5 for this haiku.

discarded masks
daily garbage recycling
squirrel nest futons

Satoru Kanematsu made it 3-5-3 despite suffering from a spring cold that made it difficult for him to breathe.

vitamins–
counting syllables
spring fever

At the end of a long day in 1897, Natsume Soseki wrote this haiku about breathing out just before leaving his friend Masaoka Shiki behind in Matsuyama: nagaki hi ya akubi utsushite wakare yuku.

long spring day
an exchange of yawns…
our way

Prijono Tjiptoherijanto said a tearful goodbye in Jakarta, Indonesia.

crying eyes
leaving yesterday
a true old friend

Golban did not seem to mind his late trip. Evetts camped overnight. Berglund enjoyed a Sunday walk.

night bus
in the air
rhythm and blues

* * *

spring sunrise
a little dew
gets in the eyes

* * *

on sundays there is no one
the road, never difficult
enter the church

Carmela Marino counted seven days from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday in Rome, Italy.

hoping for
between seeds and shoots
seven sunsets

* * *

Holy Week
ants attend the funeral
of a seed

Luciana Moretto was revitalized listening to the rhythmic waves of Franz Schubert’s 1823 composition “To Sing on the Water” and reading Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg’s swan song poem of the same name. Kanematsu rejoiced.

a miserable spring
the song “Over the water”
atmosphere of clarity

* * *

Hydrangeas–
our blessed planet
with water

Instead of water, Maretic suggested drinking Croatian red grape wine or Irish whiskey to celebrate the end of a long day. Mario Massimo Zontini sipped sunlit ruby red wine in Parma, Italy.

drinking with bloom
near the Arch of the Sergius–
Jameson or Teran?

* * *

hospital house
spring light in the kitchen:
I drink a glass of wine

Slobodan Pupovac saw a contender bite the dust in Zagreb, Croatia. Carl Brennan was horrified by his prowling cat in New York. Elena Malec mistook a flower for a butterfly in Irvine, California. Kiyoshi Fukuzawa was puzzled in Tokyo.

rodeo
the clumsy cowboy
swallow dust

* * *

manly assault
the fortress of flying leaves,
behead the mole king

* * *

collector’s frustration
snatching the net
of the lilac bush

* * *

pure honey hunting
How did you get to the food counter?
from Ukraine

Christopher Calvin found no answers in Kota Mojokerto, Indonesia.

winding clouds
imaginations… thoughts
why don’t they stop?

Richard Evanoff looked to his favorite news provider in Tokyo for a sign that something might be about to happen.

a blackbird
general expenses–
my herald

Isabella Kramer probably enjoyed a wonderland-like tea party outside her home in Nienhagen, Germany: milky clouds meeting Alice in my teacup.

Tsanka Shishkova hinted that there is no place like home in Sofia, Bulgaria: the freshly mown lawn enhances the feeling of home.

Jessica Allyson finally made it home after a long day in Ottawa, Ontario.

domestic cats…
I turn my key and
the scolding begins

————————————————– —————————

Meandering reflections in http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of Asahi Haikuist Network appear on July 1, 15 and 29. You are invited to send a haiku related to Africa, Asia, or Australia in a postcard to David McMurray at Kagoshima International University, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima, 891-0197, Japan, or email (mcmurray@ fka.att.ne.jp).

* * *

David McMurray has been writing the Asahi Haikuist Network column since April 1995, first for the Asahi Evening News. He is a member of the editorial board of the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, a columnist for the International Haiku Association, and the editor of Teaching Assistance, a column in The Language Teacher of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT).

McMurray is a professor of intercultural studies at Kagoshima International University, where he lectures on international haiku. At the Graduate School he supervises students researching haiku. He is an English Haiku correspondent school teacher for the Asahi Cultural Center in Tokyo.

McMurray judges haiku competitions organized by Kagoshima International University, Ito En Oi Ocha, Asahi Cultural Center, Matsuyama City, Polish Haiku Association, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seinan Jo Gakuin University, and Only One Tree .

McMurray’s award-winning books include: “Teaching and Learning Haiku in English” (2022); “Only One Tree Haiku, Music and Metaphor” (2015); “Canada Project Collected Essays & Poems” Vols. 1-8 (2013); and “Haiku in English as a Japanese Language” (2003).

June 16, 2022

3 Calling Mistakes Every Turkey Hunter Makes

You can kill a turkey without making a call, but that’s like playing with yourself by throwing a tennis ball into the garage and hoping it bounces back. Hitting a gobbler while he’s walking, or not being able to get a single friend together to throw a ball, are kind of disappointing.

I can’t help you with the latter, but if you’re hesitant to call for any reason, there’s hope. Speaking turkey is a rocket science, but there are a few loose rules that will keep you in more productive conversations. The first begins with an old piece of advice that bears repeating.

too much too soon
I grew up hunting turkeys when the advice was to howl three times an hour and then shut up. It was terribly boring, and not entirely productive. It also pushed me into a counter kind of thinking, decidedly against the idea that less is more. That works on certain birds, but it’s not always the best move. As with most things in life, the best balance lies somewhere in the middle.

Tennessee native and outdoors writer Brodie Swisher also believes in that saying. “We all love to hear gobble,” Swisher said. “But if we call just to get a response, we often introduce a hen who is so excited the cat will think she’s on her way.”

This is the natural order of things and often results in a bird closing in and gobbling from one spot before losing interest. “The thing about this is if you’re paying too much, you’re just presenting too much emotion,” Swisher said. “So, I force myself to shut up more and more even though I desperately want to hear him respond.”

I said well?
Another mistake many turkey hunters make is not trusting that their turkey talk is working. Much has been said, but when a tom answers you, he knows where you are. Like, exactly where you are. He may be tied up right now with better prospects, but there’s a decent chance he’ll eventually pass.

“It’s so easy to talk yourself into moving too fast,” Swisher said. “When he does, he increases his chances of getting arrested, or ending up in a new place only to hear his bird gobble up right next to the last tree he had his back against.”

The best way to combat this common faux pas is to practice singing and learn to listen to real birds. The more confident you are in what you say, the easier it will be to wait for a passing bird that responded earlier but decided to stop gobbling.

echo chambers
One of the reasons social media sucks is because we’re all doing the same thing. There is nothing unique about 99.9% of posts, so they mean nothing to us. This might be a bad comparison, but the turkey call often falls into the same category. Of course, you can call many birds with verbatim sequences of howls, or technically perfect purrs, clucks, and cuts, but there is something intangible about turkey speech that goes beyond simply sounding like a bird.

“I try to find a call, usually a mouth call, that allows me to put my own spin on sounds,” Swisher said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love box calls and blackboards, but there’s a lot of versatility in a mouth call.”

This strategy is Swisher’s answer to hunting pressured birds, and it’s mine as well. There is something to be said for calling with a certain inflection, which a mouth call allows, compared to what you can create with other calls. I know there are some people who can play beautiful music with any call they answer, but most people can’t.

That makes a mouth call the best option for learning how to add your own sound to the mix. Not only does this allow you to put some emotion into your turkey’s speech, but you can create every vocalization a turkey makes with a single call.

Better yet, you can use a mouth call in conjunction with other calls. My personal favorite combo is to sound like two chickens about to get mad at each other through a mouth call and a whiteboard or box. Whether you’re mastering that multitasking sequence or just really good with your chosen calls, it’s a matter of sounding different than your competition.

Most hunters think bug calling is something simple like cutting off when you want to hear a scream or using a soft-sounding slate call when a loud, raspy box call would be better. The truth is that it is not so simple. Over-calling, under-calling, not trusting your abilities, and following the same rules as all your competitors are actually the biggest offenses.

June 16, 2022

Squirrel open season wins pardon

The ubiquitous gray squirrel dodged a bullet Tuesday in the form of a bill that would establish a year-round open season for hunting the bushy-tailed rodent in New Hampshire.

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources voted 3-2 to declare House Bill 1356 “unfit to legislate.” The measure, which passed the full House, 194-147, on March 16, will be scheduled for consideration by the full Senate.

Under current law, gray squirrel hunting season runs from September 1 to January 31.

Democratic state Rep. Cathryn Harvey of Spofford was a co-sponsor of the original bill, which would have delayed the start of the season to Sept. 15 to give lactating female squirrels more time to care for their young.

But the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee reversed the intent of the bill on Jan. 25, amending it at the request of Rep. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, to allow these animals to be shot at any time. .

On Tuesday, Harvey, who represents Chesterfield, Westmoreland, Hinsdale and Walpole, told the Senate committee that the state Department of Fish and Game has the expertise, information and responsibility for setting hunting seasons, not the Legislature. .

Declaring an open season for gray squirrels amounts to legislative excess, he said.

Harvey said the department has a good track record managing wildlife, including the turkey, which was reintroduced to select locations like Walpole in the 1970s and is now rampant throughout the state and can be hunted at certain times of the year. .

“Some of you may be saying that squirrels are not endangered, there are plenty of them, and that’s true,” said Harvey. “But you have to remember that everything that lives on this earth has a place in the food chain.

“So if we have a decline in our squirrel population for whatever reason, whether it’s hunting or some kind of catastrophic weather event, that can affect the animals that use the squirrel for food: our fisherman, our bobcats, our weasels, any number. of animals that depend on an adequate supply of squirrels.”

He also said the bill isn’t necessary because state law already allows people to kill squirrels that damage property.

Others argue that it would be better to be able to kill squirrels before the damage begins.

States throughout the region have hunting seasons for the gray squirrel. Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have shorter seasons than New Hampshire, Dan Bergeron, chief of the Department of Fish and Game’s wildlife division, told the panel.

He asked the committee to oppose the bill.

Weldon Bosworth, a Gilford resident who has a Ph.D. in biology, said squirrels can help a forest regenerate by moving seeds and nuts.

He also said it would be a bad precedent for the Legislature to remove an animal from Fish and Game’s responsibility to set seasons.

“I would like to make an analogy,” he said. “We’re talking about squirrels now, but let’s say someone came in and wanted to lower the bag limit on white-tailed deer. You go to a hearing on this and all of a sudden an amendment comes in that says the white-tailed deer hunting season is open year-round.”

Rep. Lang testified in favor of declaring the season open for squirrels, noting that there is an open season for other rodents such as porcupines, groundhogs and red squirrels.

He said gray squirrels can cause a lot of damage to buildings and farm operations and can spread disease.

“With such wide-eyed cuteness, it’s hard for many to consider squirrels the troublesome pest they really can be,” Lang said. “While they may appear soft, fluffy and harmless, the gray squirrel is nonetheless a nuisance pest.”

Rep. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, also urged the panel to recommend passage of the bill.

He said squirrels damage the sap lines at his large maple sugar operation and eat his pumpkin.

“The gray squirrels and the other squirrels and the chipmunks are a big nuisance to us,” he said. “Red squirrels are not in season, and we can take them any time of year, but gray squirrels are in season and I personally don’t see the difference.”

Gray squirrels, which are larger than red squirrels, are sometimes hunted for meat.

Senator James Gray, R-Rochester, spoke of the squirrel kitchen.

“When I was a child, my mother was very, very sick with the flu,” he said. “And one of the best childhood memories of hers is her father going out and hunting a gray squirrel and making squirrel soup out of it for his recovery.”

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567. These articles are being shared by partners at The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit www.colaborativenh.org.

June 16, 2022

Every MeatEater Trivia VII Question

This is MeatEater Trivia, the only game show where conservation always wins.

If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s a bonus podcast that we release several times a month on the MeatEater Podcast feed. These are trivia you won’t find on Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy, because these questions come from our four departments: Hunting, Fishing, Conservation, and Cooking. I’m the show’s creator and host, Spencer Neuharth.

Episode 329: Let’s play, idiots! MeatEater Trivia VII just released today. It features Steve Rinella, Ryan Callaghan, Brody Henderson, Sean Weaver, Kevin Gillespie, Kimi Werner, Hunter Spencer, Chester Floyd and Corinne Schneider vying for the title of trivia champion. And, as always, the winner chooses which conservation organization MeatEater will donate $500 to on their behalf.

Here are the 10 questions on this week’s show. If you want to play along and find out the answers, be sure to listen to the latest episode of MeatEater Trivia.

1. Mountain Men: By some accounts, Kit Carson’s last words were, “I wish I had time for one more _______.” (Kiss From My Third Wife, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, Chili Bowl, or Mexican Sunset?)

2. Turkeys: An immature male turkey is named Jake. What is the name of an immature female turkey?

3. Dogs: According to the United Kennel Club, there are seven types of coonhounds. Name one of them.

4. Fishing: These three states that border each other are the only states in the United States with a record breaking 100+ pound flathead catfish. Name one of them.

5. Cook: Which fast food chain sold venison sandwiches as a hunting season promotion in 2016 and 2017?

6. Equipment: When it comes to the .30-30 Winchester, the first 30 represents the caliber of the bullet. What does the second 30 represent?

7. Conservation: According to the USGS, there are five states west of the Mississippi River in the lower 48 where CWD has not been detected. Name two of them.

8. Fishing: According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, this is the smallest and most abundant of the main commercial species of tuna.

9. Foraging: Which collected item is nicknamed “green gold” because it is worth around $500 per pound?

10. Conservation: Which Great Lakes state has the most plants and animals on the endangered species list?

June 16, 2022

Public squirrel and bass seasons open May 28 – Chillicothe News Constitution-Tribune

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reminds hunters and anglers that the squirrel and black bass seasons open on Saturday, May 28. SQUIRRELS The eastern gray squirrel and fox hunting season runs from May 28 to February 1.

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June 16, 2022

An audience at Jane’s Crum Squirrel Survival State

An audience at Jane’s Crum Squirrel Survival State – The Phoenix

The Fenix

Posted on June 16, 2022
Squirrel Hunting Season Opens May 28 in Missouri | KSNF/KODE

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, hunting season for eastern gray squirrels and foxes begins later this month.

Squirrel hunting season runs from May 28 to February 15, 2023. The daily limit for hunting and trapping squirrels is 10 and the possession limit is 20. Hunters must have a valid small game permit or be exempt.

Catch a fish in Kansas, get a gift card

Hunters may use shotguns, rifles, and other legal firearms, as well as archery equipment, slingshots, or atlatls when hunting squirrels. Squirrels can also be harvested with the use of cage-style traps during the season.

The black bass season also begins on May 28 and runs through February 28, 2023. During this time, anglers can catch and hold black bass, largemouth bass, and speckled/Kentucky bass. The MDC says the daily limit for black bass is six; fish must be at least 12 inches long. Catch and release is allowed throughout the year. Some additional regulations may apply in specific waterways or areas. All anglers must have a valid fishing permit or be exempt.

MDC’s Mo Hunting and Mo Fishing mobile apps allow hunters and anglers to keep their licenses and permits accessible through their smartphones.

Posted on June 16, 2022
The most underrated type of food parcel

Security, coverage, and high-quality forage are key to whitetail management. Provide those features and you’ll immediately improve the hunting ability of your food plots and the frequency with which deer use the space. However, you should also consider crop height, cover screens, protein levels and soil nutrition when choosing warm and cool season plantings. Sunn hemp checks all those boxes.

Sunn hemp is a subtropical, bushy, branching legume native to India that doesn’t get much attention in hunting space, but thrives in the southeast. By no means is this warm-season annual a panacea, but it certainly is an excellent addition to habitat diversity, wildlife safety, protein forage, and soil health. It has been a staple on our farm for seven years.

The thick, imposing cover is my favorite aspect of the legume. Personally, I love losing sight of deer as they cruise through a field. You limit shooting opportunities, but you also absolutely increase daylight movement. You can use a tractor to create openings by cutting draft lanes or keeping an overall lower height. Those goals depend on the size of your plot and the configuration of the booth.

Deer feed on the bright green elliptical leaves and the tender budding tips. The stems will continue to grow after being cut until the first frost, which is usually early November in the Southeast. Once the stem becomes thick and stringy, it is less palatable. The deer will then eat all the remaining leaves up to 3 or 4 feet from the ground.

Not much evidence exists on sunn hemp, but estimated levels of crude protein exceed 25% to 30% according to the National Deer Association. As a comparison, in Food plots for wildlife and early successional plants, Dr. Craig Harper reports that soy offers 36.5%. Crude protein content is imperative for land managers to understand in order to have a healthy, well-balanced herd. For example, the Mississippi State University Deer Laboratory recently published the following crude protein requirements for deer: late gestation needs 12%, a lactating female needs 14-16%, developing of antlers requires 16% and fawns after weaning need 1.5%. years demands 17% to 25%.

Based on these numbers, sunn hemp and soybeans are excellent supplemental food plot options for whitetails. Combined with prescribed burning and early season plowing, you will not only see more deer during the fall, but also improve herd health. The latter should be the ultimate goal of conservationists and land managers. Food diversity will attract more deer to your landscape, especially during high-pressure hunting seasons.

According to Anne C. Randle’s article Sunn Hemp: Forage and Soil-Building Superhero, “Sunn hemp possesses many soil-building characteristics, including high rates of biomass production, more than 20 percent higher than crimson clover, and the hairy pea in research trials. Not only is it resistant to plant root nematodes, it actively suppresses them. In just 60 to 90 days, it can produce 120 pounds of nitrogen per acre and can suppress weeds by up to 90 percent.”

Those are staggering and impressive statistics when seed and fertilizer costs are considered.

Hemp grows well in sandy soils and is relatively drought tolerant, which is a big plus in the Southeast. It also flourishes in warm, humid areas with a heavy taproot and well-formed root system. The legume can minimize soil erosion, conserve water, and recycle plant nutrients from the subsoil to the topsoil.

Depending on your goals, sunn hemp may need more maintenance than most annual food plots, growing about an inch a day to maturity. This is a big difference between soybeans and most warm-season wildlife plantations. It may take the deer a little while to zero in on the hemp, but they will find it the first year. Activity will continue to pick up year after year. On my farm in South Carolina, deer have been hammering the tips of succulent stems since the second year of planting.

I suggest starting with several test sites and evaluating the results before planting in the second year. Using the plant for cover screens is ideal around larger fields or open areas to direct the flow of play. Cowpeas are perfect for blending, as the sunn hemp stems provide structure for the vines to wrap around and spread out.

Early shoots are very attractive to deer and could be a problem if the crop is not established first. Monitor and, if necessary, cordon off plots or add milorganite fertilizer to keep deer at bay until the plant reaches 2 to 3 feet. At that time, the plant will become tolerant to browsing as long as its area receives enough rain. After the season, cut off standing stems and allow organic matter to decompose in the soil bed.

Posted on June 16, 2022
The Brutal Story Behind Squirrels and Squirrel Wars

That’s why Modoc County enlists the help of hunters for pest control.

CEDARVILLE, Calif. — In April 1918, the State Horticultural Commission enlisted the help of California schoolchildren to help reduce the population of invasive ground squirrels that were decimating farmers’ fields at an astonishing rate. The commission estimated that $30 million was lost annually due to ground squirrels.

The hungry rodents caused food shortages across the country and ultimately affected the war effort. The horticultural commission paid thousands of dollars to kill ground squirrels and held a contest known as “Squirrel Week, Spring Drive”, which urged children to poison or kill ground squirrels by any means possible and bring their tails as prizes.

The war against the squirrels was not a joke. It was a real part of California history, and a version of that history lives today on the easternmost edge of Modoc County.

Every spring, hunters from around the state travel to the small town of Cedarville for the annual squirrel war, “Squirrel Roundup.”

In Modoc County, the ground squirrel problem never went away. In fact, when the poison was banned, the population exploded. Now the only humane way to manage the population is to hunt them, and the family of farmer Jon Arreche has been welcoming hunters to their land for generations.

“In the 1980s, they got really heavy here. My grandfather has always fought them,” said Arreche.

Not to be confused with tree squirrels, these are Belding’s ground squirrels, a rodent that lives in underground burrows in farmers’ fields and then eats their crops.

“I would say that we lose 30% in these fields. Some fields like our rainfed fields, our grains, we lose from 50% to 70%”, said Arreche.

The mounds of dirt made by ground squirrels also damage expensive farm equipment, and the holes injure the legs of livestock.

Ground squirrels can have more than 15 offspring a year. Predators such as coyotes and birds cannot keep up with the population in Modoc County.

In special circumstances and under the watchful eye of the state, specific ground squirrel poison is an option. With state approval, licensed herbicide providers like Chris Wilson can apply approved poison to kill squirrels.

“We are going in and putting zinc phosphide. It’s a powdered poison,” Wilson said. “So if a raptor came and ate the squirrel after the squirrel ate the poison, he wouldn’t kill it.”

Farmers like Arreche have had great success with the poison. There is, however, a problem. If your neighbor doesn’t, the squirrels come back.

You don’t need a license to kill ground squirrels, and there’s no limit to how many you can kill, making hunting them the most viable option for population control right now.

Unfortunately, kill rates aren’t recorded, and if you attend the annual Squirrel Roundup barbecue, you’ll hear plenty of hunters talking about how many they killed, but white lies are all fun.

Actually, today’s squirrel wars are more of an economic boost to Cedarville and Modoc County.

We may never know if hunting is really taking a toll on the ground squirrel population, but the tradition lives on.

If you want to read more about Modoc County’s battle with the squirrels, check out the book “Squirrel Wars” by local author Jean Bilodeaux.

Water ski squirrel ‘Twiggy’ at the Sacramento County Fair catches waves

ABC10: watch, download, read

Posted on June 16, 2022
How to hunt turkeys in strong winds

Spring weather equals fronts, and fronts mean wind. This is the reality of turkey hunting, no matter how much we wish for calm days with blue bird skies. While it may be tempting to skip windy days, don’t. There’s still a good chance of filling your label even in less than ideal conditions.

To do this, you need to understand what the turkeys will be doing at the time in the neck of the woods and how strong winds will influence their actions. It’s a weakness you can exploit, but first you need to understand why turkeys are averse to strong winds.

Find out what turkeys hate
I shouldn’t be speaking for the turkeys, but I will. They hate being outdoors where the wind just blows. But they also hate being in dense cover when it’s windy, probably because it’s much harder to spot approaching predators. This leaves them on the hunt for semi-protected areas.

Whether he’s staying home or traveling to other windy states like Nebraska, Colorado turkey hunter and outdoor writer Jace Bauserman spends a lot of time looking for these places. “You can expect strong winds where I hunt,” Bauserman said. “The birds I target seem to respond to this by heading to semi-open areas where they can feed and lounge.”

Finding areas where birds can do their thing but still spot danger around them before they get too close is key to this strategy. That, Bauserman noted, is how he and his hunting partner tagged each other on a bow hunt in Nebraska earlier in the season this spring.

“We observed a large flock that was routinely visiting a farm field suddenly drop into a 150-yard-long clearing that was sheltered from the wind,” Bauserman said. “They wanted to be at the food, but the wind had them nervous so they opted for safety. We used that knowledge to slide in and put up the blinds, which led us to call a row of longbeards in that clearing.”

Location of quiet areas
It doesn’t take much wind reduction to place turkeys in specific locations. A low area in a field will cut the wind by 20-30%, which might be enough. At least it was for my twin daughters when I took them out for their first two afternoons of our Minnesota season this year.

After several days of exploring, I knew we would be dealing with flocked birds. He also knew that they would congregate in a low spot in a cornfield when they left the chicken coop and when they headed back to bed at night. It took my daughters two short shifts to fill out their labels, even though we battled winds that blew up to 35 mph.

Take note of where you see (and hear) birds when the wind is blowing, as well as areas you are in that appear calm during windy conditions. Those places are vital for finding birds when the forecast calls for more wind.

Windy Gear Realities
For the run and gun crowd, the worst thing the wind will do is spin lures if they are not set up correctly. I tend to reduce the size of my spread for windy conditions and always stake them low to the ground with sticks on either side of the tail to keep them from spinning. This allows for a little movement, but not the helicopter that scares birds of a loose lure on its axis.

If you plan to dodge the bursts blindly, you need to think about your decoys and your temporary hiding place. According to Bauserman, this starts with an unconventional move.

“Take the stakes that came with your blind and throw them in the trash. Take real stakes, like the ones that are screwed into the ground or even real trampoline stakes, and then pin the inside corners and outside ties of your shutter with pins.”

High winds can easily collapse a center or uproot a poorly staked shutter and send it like a tumbleweed across the landscape.

You must also consider your vocation. Make sure you call loud enough. Soft purrs and clucks on a pot call won’t cut it. Turkeys may not be able to hear you if you are not using a box or mouth call during high winds. The louder you can go with your howls and slashes, the more likely you are to rise above the wind and be heard by nearby gobblers.

conclusion
Turkey hunting in high winds sucks, but not as bad as turkey hunting.

Consider where birds will choose to spend their time during these conditions and plan your hunts around them. Pay attention to bird behavior during headwinds, and then use that information to plan future hunts. Lastly, make sure your gear and calls are up to scratch when you go out.

Once you do, you’ll realize how callable and killable turkeys can be in high winds.

Featured image via John Hafner.

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