Gopher tortoises.
An oak tree that I’ve been looking for about 6 years trying to find. It’s one of the smallest oak trees to naturally occur. Most stay under 18 inches but some reach a maximum height of 3 feet. It’s the Running Oak.
4 Likes
Found some ringless honey mushrooms yesterday and used half of them in my omelette. The eggs of the omelette are not real eggs but made by just egg the plant based company. Should note there are deadly lookalikes and even if you find the right ones you have to cook it properly or you can get very sick and to further note, even if you find the right ones and cook it correctly a decent amount of the population gets sick from eating them. Luckily I don’t get sick and can eat I guess as much as I’ve any without getting sick since at times I’ve eaten 5x as much a day for 14-20 days straight.
Also found a cute very gold looking baby alligator.
5 Likes
Awww! Little Snaggletooth,
2 Likes
5 Likes
Spent the day at a nice spot.
Found a mushroom known as the porcini-like bolete and it’s delicious. Cooked it in garlic olive oil and seasoned it with rosemary, salt and black pepper.
6 Likes
Stunning photos!
3 Likes
Helps that it was a stunning place lol. Hiked for a few miles to the spot. Then spent a few hours there just relaxing. Read a bit of the Bible and read about of my mushroom horror anthology. Napped about 15-30 minutes and then hiked back to my truck. Was a nice 71°f. Laying on the sand next to the river was super relaxing. Was alone 98% of the time other than when this random guy elderly man came by and warned me about a killer Bigfoot. Was a bit mad I did not believe in Bigfoot. Was a nice guy. Probably close to 70. He was rabbit hunting I think. Started into this odd talk about knowing government officials and sheriffs and that they cover it up to keep attracting people to this area as tourists. But it just lasted for about 15 minutes. He got on to me for not wearing orange during hunting season and that someone may think I’m a deer and shoot me. Asked if I saw anything crazy. Harmless enough. I should be wearing orange. I don’t hunt animals and so I never really think about it. Don’t know what season is what.
3 Likes
I don’t hunt, either, but the first day of gun season is off at our high school because so many students do. Even running in the wooded town park, my wife reminded me to wear bright clothes. It’s a good idea–most people are careful, but some not.
4 Likes
Not much of a hunter, went deer hunting once, processed it myself, and decided I much prefer beef from the grocery store. But at dawn around here the first of deer season, can sit outside and hear the crack of rifle fire all around, as very much the culture here.
2 Likes
Sounds like the start of the duck season here, 20th August at 12 noon. At the start of the season, there are many young, inexperienced hunters with shotguns, eager to shoot at the first sign of a duck or geese jumping to air. Sometimes their finger on the trigger is faster than their ability to identify the target, which means that there is a need to be careful close to those hunters. Earlier, when I often worked outside during that day, the sound of birdshots dropping around me became too familiar. Nowadays, I stay home during that day. Many experienced hunters have made the same decision, skipping the start of the season.
Edit:
The start of the deer and moose hunting is less intense here. It is regulated, with a need to have an exclusive hunting area of thousands of hectares to get hunting licenses to the hunting association. Especially moose hunting is done by organized shooting parties with a designated hunt leader. Deer hunting is often done by single hunters but even they have to first identify the sex and age of the potential target before they can decide whether to shoot or not - hunting licences are given by sex and age (young vs. old) to control the sex and age structure of the population. In many cases, they have to also count the number of horn spikes from males before the shooting decision because there may be restrictions on shooting males with a given number of horn spikes - less or more spikes than the restriction is fair game. That is done to spare the strongest males for reproduction. All these rules make the deer and moose hunting controlled and relatively safe for others.
3 Likes
Hunters have been selecting for survival traits in deer ever since hunting began: those with traits that make them harder to find and shoot survive better.
3 Likes
True. Intensive hunting is a strong factor in the evolution of game populations, often to unwanted directions. If hunting or fishing is directed towards the largest individuals or the males with the largest horns, the mean size of animals tend to drop and the horns become smaller. These changes may be semi-permanent as the genetic variation is curtailed.
What is somewhat different here is that there is an attempt to control the populations to the point where regional densities, sex and age ratios are all what the advisory national board wants. So far, that has worked fairly well. High production combined with tolerable damage to forestry and only few humans lost in collisions with moose and deer. A spring population of 100’000 moose yields a catch of about 60’000 hunted moose in the autumn, without a long-term reduction in the population size.
The numbers of white-tailed deer increased recently too much because hunters spared too many females. When that was noted, hunting was directed more towards females and the population size is again closer to the planned level. An increase in the number of wolves speeded the reductions in deer population sizes - the number of wolf territories in this region rose fairly rapidly from practically zero to 13.
4 Likes
Here, with whitetail deer, we see high game fences around ranches with active management for desired characteristics like big antlers, and very controlled harvest of animals, for big bucks. Literally and figuratively.
4 Likes
3 Likes
That is very interesting–I appreciate the instruction. Here in the lower peninsula of Michigan, we have too many does (female deer), and a simultaneous decrease in hunters, so there is a high rate of winter kill (starvation) and deer-moving vehicle crashes (4,000 in the county to the south of us this year). We don’t have any viable wolf populations in the southern peninsula (there are some rare wolves, but the only permanent populations reside in the northern peninsula), so the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) is trying to change licensing to select for does.
I used to love to go out hunting with my dad, brother, and grandpa, but never actually shot a deer–we used bows and arrows, and had a tradition of drinking hot cocoa and tomato soup as the first stars came out. It was mainly about being together. My grandpa, even when he developed Alzheimer’s, would sing old songs, and my dad would place him on the edge of a clearing without a bow, a few feet away, to watch for wildlife. We would see squirrels, chipmunks, partridge, and porcupines.
My father was very compassionate, and I think he cried when he did get the only deer we had when going out together. With his passing, I am not so interested–and even though I know that hunting is ecologically important without an apex predator now, I can’t do that personally any more, I think. I think it has partly to do with trying to heal people in medicine–I can’t see myself hurting or causing death.
There are studies on Isle Royale, a national park in the upper peninsula of Michigan, about how wolves and moose interact
About The Project: Overview | The Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale Unfortunately, there has been a recent collapse of wolf populations secondary to inbreeding.
I’d like to see more about Finnish wildlife studies, if you get a chance. Thanks.
3 Likes
I guess some problems are common in many places but local solutions to problems vary.
Winter starvation is not common here, except in areas with deep snow, low temperatures and small deer. When snow is deep (>50 cm) and temperatures stay below -20 C, the smallest deer need supplemental feeding or many die.
With wolves, it is quite common that people are willing to let the wolves live somewhere, as long as they do not move in the vicinity of our settlement - NIMBY.
The number of active hunters has declined also here. About 5% of the population are registered hunters but there has been strict social control of who is allowed to join the hunting parties having the licences for moose and deer. In many places, your family needs to own a minimum amount of hunting land (like 5 hectares), be willing to participate actively to hunting and arrangements, and preferably have relatives in the hunting association to be accepted as a new member. A large proportion of young have moved from countryside to cities to get a profession and jobs, and those having families are not willing to commit themselves to weekly hunts. These practices and changes have lead to hunting parties becoming too much clubs of old men.
In addition, the spread of roe deer, due to climate change (warmer winters), has affected the hunting practices. The increase in roe deer numbers have been such that there is not anymore a need to have licences to hunt roe deer. You just have to pass a shooting test showing that you can hit close to the heart of a running target. With rifle or bow, depending on which one you use in hunting. After that, if you have a legal right to hunt on an area, you are free to hunt roe deer. Hunting of roe deer has taken some motivation away from investing much in the hunting of the larger game.
2 Likes