Predators

Coyote 

Bobcat

This week has been a week where we have pictures of large predators.  The fawns have done fairly well this time even with the pressure they have felt from the predators.  I am including a few pictures here but more can be seen under the wildlife tab.

Assorted Things

     On Tuesday of this week I attended a meeting at a friends place in Cleburne County.  He had an archaeologist from the NRCS visit him and talk about landowners and archaeological sites on a landowners property.  It was a very informative talk and demonstration on where to look for these sites.
     Today I have a Forestry Planning Committee meeting at 3:30 at the Forestry Commission Office but yesterday  I took my Dad to Sellwood Plantation to shoot skeet.  Matt Williams and his dad Jeff also went to shoot.  It was a cold windy day but we had fun.  We will be doing this again!
     Lots of deer are now being seen since the wind and rain have been knocking acorns off the trees.

Pawpaw shooting at a rabbit skeet.

Pawpaw looking for the skeet to fly out.

Shoot, shoot!

Meetings

Last Monday we were in Montgomery and stayed over night and had a policy development meeting for the Alabama Farmers Federation but before we left home on Monday morning I took a picture that said " Fall is Here".  Do you know how many spiders live in the forest?  The dew shows all their webs.

Then on Thursday drove to Tuscaloosa for the State Treasure Forest Conference.  On Thursday night we had a board meeting, on Friday we had seminars on forest management, then on Saturday we had a tour on the McGiffert Property.  They have a high fence around about 1700 acres.  They said to keep things out.  There are three brothers that own the property and one is into quail hunting, releasing about 3500 quail a year.  Another brother is into duck hunting and they have a 7HP pump to flood the field they plant food for ducks.  The other brother is the deer hunting brother.  They only have Alabama deer in their fence that were native to the property.  They feed tons of high protein feed to the deer each year.  The brothers also have a big dove hunt each year where they have added some power lines for the doves and they do some turkey hunting on the property.  The brothers are engineers and do public water systems.  They had an interesting story to tell.

Tour about to began on the property.

Some of the deer in their camp house.

More deer.

This deer was found dead on the property.  It scored in the 180's.

This deer was an old deer that they had taken out, probably about eight years old.  The base was huge but it would have looked like a spike in the woods.  They had pictures of it and knew it need to be removed.  They said they had about 300 deer on their property.

They had rattle snakes too!

This was one of their mounts in the room.

You can learn so much from other people.  This is why we belong to forestry groups and spend money on these trips.  The people you meet are always nice and don't mind sharing what they do to improve their forestland.  

Let me know if you are interested in being a member of any of these groups and learn more about management of your property.

Interesting Two Days

Yesterday and today has been an intresting day on Dewberry Lands.  There will be pictures we took yesterday added to wildlife and wildflower pages but I thought I would put a few here.  Go to the other tabs to see more pictures.  First is a picture of a grasshopper that is being attacked by yellowjackets.

Next is a picture of one of our hens with a beard.  She is not the only one, one of her little ones from last year, now has a beard also.  They were both out back but I only got a picture of the old hen.

Yesterday we saw some mushrooms that were over a foot tall.  I have never seen any like this.         (Pictured below)

Yesterday there was a fawn that came out and ran around in the woods putting on a show then it joined the doe.

Last picture happened this morning before we left for church.  It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining bright.  Seven hens came out and feed then eased back into the edge of the woods.  Then the five one and a half year old jakes came to feed and they saw the hens.  Their heads turned red and one started to strut.  This started something and all at once all five started to strut and it is September 25th.  This was an amazing site.  They strutted as they followed the hens off into the woods.  For more pictures click tabs.

Busy day!

Day started at 5:00am this morning in Blount County.  Stopped and bought cool season vegetables before getting home.  Planted vegetables first after getting home then I worked on the bushhog putting new bearings in the tire.  Loaded the 4 Wheeler and seed and after lunch planted McCollum and most of Bowden Grove.  It was cool, cloudy, kind of dark over there and very quiet over there by myself in the woods.  I planted mostly crimson clover mixed with some ryegrass, wheat, and white clover (pictured below).  Need some rain now!  Saw no snakes today.

When I was about to unload the 4 Wheeler a doe walked out in the road where PawPaw and I saw one last week.  I started walking toward her and made picture.

As the doe ran her fawn walked out in the road and followed her.

Seed mixture.

Another Timber Rattler

After bushhogging Thursday and getting two snakes we went back early Friday morning to finish everything except Skyview Road.  Matt was bushhogging at the tripod below cabin at the foot of the mountain and got another big timber rattler with the bushhog.  You had better wear snake boots or chaps over there this time of the year if you are going to be in the weeds.  This snake was about four and a half feet long.  Well, this is three less we will have at Bowden Grove.

September 8, 2011

Today was a bushhog day.  Matt had his tractor and that helped me so much.  We accomplished much but we will be back at it again in the morning.  Things are looking better and deer are everwhere!  Dad came over after we had left and he said he saw a small rack buck.  As I drove in this morning I saw 9 young turkeys, Matt saw a doe coming in, I saw a doe in the road while bushogging and I saw a fawn at the kudzu patch. 

I wish James could have been with me because he liked the snakes at the zoo this weekend.  He would have liked seeing the two we killed pictured below.

This was a 4 foot copperhead we killed in the bottoms out from the tree stand.  The bushhog got him.

This was a timber rattler, about 5 feet long, we also killed in the bottoms.  Matt got him with the bushhog.