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Archive for the ‘Wildlife’ Category

The Hawks at Home

Posted in Misc. Nature, Wildlife on December 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

As stated in an earlier blog, I always place all remains from my deer and turkey harvest back into nature. I can not casually throw these parts into a dumpster or garbage can. This tradition of mine proves a lot more work and time for me, but I feel this act is part of the respect for the animal I have mentioned in a past blog…nothing wasted!

Everything returns back to the natural world. The parts I place out in the wilds are consumed by predators such as foxes and coyotes to many specie of bird life. Crows, chickadees, woodpeckers, the tufted titmouse, nuthatches and a host of other birds are helped to survive brutal winters by eating the muscle and fat tissue supplied by these parts. Like I said, these all return to nature.

My tradition too is to place the rib cage in the trees around my property. The crows usually discover this food treasure in short order. All the birds listed above enjoy feeding  too. What I enjoy are the hawks. I have watched two red-tailed hawks eating at the rib cages.  (I haven’t been able to get a good photo yet!)

Male Cooper's hawk by my feeder

  I often see the Cooper’s hawk on my property. These fast-fliers take an occasional bird to eat. Although, I do not wish this to happen, I realize the hawk has to kill to eat… a fact of  nature! Whenever, A hawk sighting occurs on the property the area seems 100% void of bird life.  They are hiding motionless among the many limbs of the vegetation I have planted. Sooner or later the hawk flies away and seemingly in an instance the feeders are filled again with activity.

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A Hunt For Turkeys

Posted in Fall Turkey Hunting, Misc. Nature, Wildlife on November 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In Armstrong County (2D Management Unit) turkey hunting will not begin until November 13th. However, further north the season started on November 6th. My good friend, Dana Gould invited me to hunt on property of  friends. One of these friends, Shawn K. was gracious to me. He took some time to show me the procedure and devices to produce a diaphragm turkey call. Very interesting!

 Dana and I arrived in the dark hours. (I woke up at 2:30 A.M.!) We listened and walked in search of the bronze-backed beauties. We failed to find any, however, Dana and I thought we had heard some. After investigation we failed to find any birds. We are not sure as to what was transpiring. We believe we would have been able to find birds if access to adjacent properties was had.

   Many deer were observed throughout the day. I, personally, saw two nice buck with one being exceptional. Dana actually viewed this same buck trying to proceed with his rutting method. (I think you know what I mean.) We heard owls, I later watched one fly from a tree. We found an old gnarled snag and high on a limb was a porcupine. Squirrels were common too.

Porky!

I wish to thank Dana and Shawn once again for the day…a splendid day indeed! God is good!

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Morning Hike

Posted in Hikes, My Family, Wildlife on November 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

   I decided Sunday evening that I needed to spend some woodland time early in the morning.  I had a few minutes to stop at the Whitesburg United Methodist Church to spend some time at my father’s resting place. I sat in the darkness reflecting on the past and hoping life in the natural could be different. I yearn for a time of no more pain and death. Sometimes the memories are needed!!!

   I reached the edge of a woodland bench in the pre-morning dawn awaiting for whatever the world would offer. I heard the calls of a killdeer high in the sky. I theorize this lone bird must be a late migrant. About 7:20 I heard a little turkey talk. One bird came of the roost early and began announcing to the others that an intruder was near. The bird’s strong alarm putt told the story.    

Cherry Run

I retreated and walked some 400-450 yards when I heard other turkeys still on the roost. Their calls continued until 8:00. Above me I heard leaves rustling. A gobbler’s head appeared and our eyes glared at each other for several moments until the bird ducked. I quickly moved upslope and saw two gobblers. (The birds I heard earlier?)

Pennsylvania Country

  I decided to head out for another area for turkey population checks. I was doing this primarily to find places to bring my step-father, Bob for turkey hunting… hopefully not very rugged places.    

He is legal!

As the day went on, I saw six doe and one buck. I, also, saw some squirrels and watched a couple of pileated woodpeckers darting from tree to tree. The robins are still around eating dogwoods and wild grapes. I usually se them all winter long at some of these areas producing such mast.

Robin

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Pittsburgh Zoo Morning

Posted in Misc. Nature, Wildlife on September 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Laurie and I spent the morning hours at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. We arrived at the site around 8:40 and surprisingly I spotted two old gobblers walking around the parking lot. They were both old birds with long beards. Although we were at the zoo, I managed to take flower photos and several of native butterflies. I hope you enjoy a few photos.

         

    

Laurie's favorite!

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Hike At Yellow Creek

Posted in Misc. Nature, Wildlife on September 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

   My friend, Dana Gould invited me as a guest to explore a section of Yellow Creek (Indiana County) at the Yellow Creek Trout Club property. We were there for a hike and not to fish. Due to hot temperatures and low water the trout population was in a stressed state. We saw one trout. We feared the conditions may have caused a die-off.  However, we did see bass; bluegills; carp  and one muskie. These specie can with stand warmer water temperatures. 

   The hiking was superb. The day was perfect! We walked the club property and ended at the Yellow Creek Dam and spillway. The water was low. We actually walked up and over the spillway. We saw many deer and two wood ducks. We found cub bear tracks and a rare native flower known as the closed or bottled gentian. A beautiful blue flower.   

Closed or Bottled Gentian

Other sites were the many water snakes among the  rocks normally covered with water. Crayfish were numerous in the small pockets of water. One interesting site was a beech tree clawed into by a  bear in times past.

Dana while watching me trying to photograph the wood ducks looked against a log and discovered two fishing outfits and a tackle box. They were hidden some time ago since bait fishing isn’t allowed. Apparently the person became fearful of being caught and “ditched the gear!” 

Dana Gould

To contact the club call:  724-463-2122 or e-mail:

renosky@yourinter.net

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Pennsylvania Big Game Series

Posted in Misc. Nature, My Art, Wildlife on August 9, 2010| 4 Comments »

ASPEN GOLD- ELK

Last year on the first day of the Pennsylvania regular deer season I was setting in a pine forest enjoying all nature had to offer. I was doodling down any ideas that came to thought within my feeble mind. As I sketched a White Pine the idea to do a wildlife series emerged among the grey matter that many refer to as a brain. The early results from that day were a sketch of a white-tail buck with a white pine. The interesting concept was that this series was to each be painted with much white as a background. Normally, a painting would be completely covered with painted background.

DENNING TIME- BLACK BEAR

Also, I would choose a strong upright with each painting. The elk painting has an aspen for strength; the turkey art yields to a beech tree and the bear has an  oak. I have another series painting in a preliminary phase featuring ring-necked pheasants. The upright on that painting is to be standing corn shocks.

BEECH-RIDGE (WILD TURKEYS)

The viewer may notice that the species depicted are either facing right or left. This was done intentionally so two paintings hanging on a wall would have the “critters” facing each other making for a pleasant balanced view. I have many ideas and beginnings if the series would become a desired art collection. For instance with the painting featuring the black bear another one could be painted depicting a mother bear and cubs in a summer scene. Of course, these bear would be facing right as a complement to the left-facing winter scene

AUTUMN GRANDEUR- WHITE-TAIL

I am hoping to find an art printer/ publisher interested with this concept capable of handling proper promotion and distribution of prints. Please, forward this blog information to anyone where interest may be found. I would appreciate any efforts.

Other series ideas include an upland game bird series; a furbearer series and actually an endless list of paintings could be possible!  Any ideas and/ or comments would be appreciated.

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Few Hours At The River

Posted in Fishing, Wildlife on July 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I spent a few hours along the mighty Allegheny River this morning. A fog engulfed the area. I enjoy watching the fog drift past me like  wisps of smoke from a wood fire. One never knows what might appear as the fog lifts.

I didn’t have a lot of worms, but, I did manage to catch a couple of nice smallmouth bass.  I had some subtle nibbles at times. The end of the pole would dance, but ever so slightly. Suckers?   I used to catch a lot of Eastern Sand  (We would call them Sand Pikes in our youth.) Darters. is fish never grew to over nine inches or so. They were difficult to catch. Their mouths were small so bigger hooks caused many a miss. I had one interesting thing happen. A muskie followed one of my retrieves to within six feet of me. The Two-footer remained in site for several minutes.

Mother mallard (Notice the yellow duckling.)

Other critter sightings included a mother duck with two ducklings and various small birds. I quit around 9:00 in the morning and eventually went to the church to prepare a 16 foot 18th century-style cardboard ship for vacation Bible school.

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“COONS”!

Posted in Wildlife on May 27, 2010| 1 Comment »

Laurie ran into the house shouting “baby raccoons in the back yard”. Of course, I see a great possibility for photos. The two little critters were about the landscaping. I imagine the parents are the ones that sometimes clean out the feeder. I hope they can manage to survive.

     

About twenty years ago, a similar experience happened in the yard. However, the raccoon was bigger. I placed my hand towards the ‘coon to make it move for a photo when teeth entered my hand. Two weeks later the neighbor saw a sick one. Needless to say, I ended up in the hospital going through a series of rabies shots. A LESSON LEARNED!

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