My Land Tour...The Big Woods

[H20fwler]

Also saw a bunch of pollinators hard at it, I bet I saw six different kind of bees from bumble bees to little bees the size of a grain of rice along with wasps moths and butterflies. Tried to get some good pics, the place was literally buzzing with activity in the fall flowers.

Last year we put a bunch of pumpkins/squash/gourds out for the deer to eat and ended up having a bunch of volunteer plants this summer. The wife went out last night and picked some for her table decoration.

 

[H20fwler]

Put ten quail out for Darcy today to see how she would do in a heavy wind with spitting rain in cover. She must have been on sensory overload because she bumped a couple and broke a few times...it had to be like a crackhead in a crack house for her the way she loves quail. Including the reflushes she did point everything (a couple really stylish points), going to give her another run at it with the rest of the quail this Saturday. Then we are into full on hunting season in a couple weeks taking her north for grouse/woodcock/pheasant.

 

[H20fwler]

Being on vacation the last few weeks I have deer hunted out at this farm a lot, I have to say the millennium 110's are very nice stands to spend time in!
Saw plenty of deer but nothing I wanted to shoot, it was still great just being out there deer watching and seeing all the different wildlife... squirrels/coon/fox/ducks&geese/birds, there was always something to keep my interest up.

Also a couple nice ones on camera to keep me sitting in a tree.

This one has some cool junk around his bases;

The daughter and her husband had their Christmas card pics taken a couple weeks ago by the front pond.

While the daughter was doing the picture thing I got a fishing pole out and took a look to see if anything survived the drought we had and the water going down. Just a few casts and I hooked into a couple fat green sunfish, had a bunch of misses at least two were bass they came half out of the water so I got a good look at them. We have had some good rains this fall the front pond is only down about a foot now.

We also finished straining the rest of the honey and have it ready to give out to friends and family.

 

[H20fwler]

Had our traditional Thanksgiving pheasant hunt out at the farm Thanksgiving morning. This year with both my boys approval I invited one of my oldest friends and his son along with us to enjoy the morning.

I have been friends with this guy since the second grade when we first met in 4H,we grew up hunting pheasants bunnies and coon together... over the years we have literally hunted together hundreds of times ina few states and he is an excellent shot. His son for whatever reason had never been pheasant hunting. His boy is the same age as my youngest 26 and has waterfowl dove, deer, coyote hunted and fished with us many times, he also played football against my youngest being from neighboring towns and both my boys have grown up friends with him.

So I was excited as his Dad to see him get his first rooster, I had released over a dozen a few days before to give them a good head start. So we met up around 8:00 am did a little catching up then put the dogs down. It was kind of a drizzly morning with plenty of wind and pheasants being pheasants...they ran! Had a couple flush too far out and others kept circling giving the dogs fits, after about twenty minutes the dogs almost got one to sit and up it went in range to a quick barrage of shots and a fast retrieve. Dogs got birdy again and both were in a thick swale of bluestem when another rooster cackled towards the sky...my buddies son shot once...miss...twice and down it came! Seeing that standing next to his Dad and the smile on the kids face made my week. A couple birds later one popped up on my buddies side twenty yards away and he proceeded to miss it three times in spectacular fashion to the jeers of everyone! Like I said...normally this guy is a gunfighter but having not shot at a pheasant for twenty years it took him by surprise and couldn't have happened to a nicer guy in front of all of us.
Well, we all got some shooting but not at all what I expected and I'll chalk that down to the weather...we only saw about half the birds I put out, they just ran. After the hunt my buddy said that the last pheasant he had shot was years ago with me, his son said that it wasn't anything like what he had expected...he thought it was going to be some planted pheasant cake shoot not more like hunting wild birds.
I think that we have started a new tradition for them now, doing the father son pheasant hunt thanksgiving morning with us from now on. For whatever reason, I think to much bullshitting no-one took any pics and I kick myself for that.

The next day I took my neighbor out to see if we could clean up some of the runners with Darcy. This guy is an Army veteran two tours in Afghanistan one in Iraq and is one of the nicest guys I've ever met would give you the shirt off his back. I first hunted with him last year during the Pheasants forever Veterans hunt and have duck/goose hunted with him a couple times this fall.
This day was the photo opposite of what happened the day before...the birds held great and Darcy pointed them right up, it couldn't have been a more perfect hunt she ended up finding five roosters. Took us about an hour of slow walking and letting the dog do her thing to limit out.

 

[H20fwler]

Took Darcy out and jumped a pond last week then swung by the farm to burn some cardboard for the wife. On the way there Darcy was still amped from retrieving a couple ducks so I thought I would let her make a quick pass through the orchard to see if she could find a rooster.

Was talking with a buddy last month at the start of pheasant season and he said he and his eighty three year old father had hunted a couple times at a put and take public spot but his Dad just wasn't quick enough to get on the flushing birds. So yesterday afternoon I had them out to the farm to see if we could get Dad on some pheasants. I figured Darcy could pin a couple down long enough to give him time to get ready and she did a great job. She had eight or ten good points, I think a few could have been reflushes. We took our time and let the dog do the work, his Dad connected a couple times the whole thing could not have turned out better.

 

[H20fwler]

We have been having a lot of fun chasing roosters out at the farm, we put birds out the week before Thanksgiving and another group about a week later. They have really gone feral and have given us a lot of entertainment and great eating. The cover in the pasture must be about perfect for them because they are able to survive and easily run circles around us or flush wild like they hatched there if its windy at all. They dive into the bluestem and switch like ticks.
I get a kick out of having friends and family out for the experience or just Darcy and I taking a little time to pin one or two down on a day off.

Last week my wife wanted to drive out to the farm to burn some more Christmas package amazon boxes from all the online ordering she has done this month, so I grabbed the shotgun on my way out the door. She asked what was going on and I told her I was going to let Darcy try and get us a rooster to honey roast. There was a little snow on the ground and I cut tracks almost immediately, the dog sorted it out pretty fast and soon a rooster flushed and was brought down with the crack of the shotgun and a quick retrieve. My wife was following along right behind me and was totally amazed by the whole thing having only seen the dog work planted quail in the summer or videos and pics of our hunting escapades. I had the one bird I wanted and called the dog off much to my wife’s disappointment, she had really enjoyed the ten minute live show.

This Mon-Tue I was able to spend some quality time with my oldest son, he had taken this week off from work and we had a blast behind the dogs at the farm.

Monday we hunted an hour or so

Tuesday with a stiff wind it took us a couple hours to bag three

Some great pheasant sign

 

[H20fwler]

I have to say that without a dog it would be almost impossible to root a bird out of the cover without a good fresh snow. After the birds get used to their new environment hunting them is kind of in between preserve birds and wild birds...the dogs sure don't care at all and it has added a whole new dimension to enjoying the property in fall. So far this year I have seen where the hawks have killed two. It is a blast hearing them cackle in the morning or evening when I'm in a deer stand or seeing them fly back into the pasture in the evening out of the patch of beans a couple hundred yards away that my neighbor couldn't get to because it was wet.


A Christmas morning rooster

Over the weekend the oldest son and I kept after them

Youngest son this morning

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

This wold make for a really nice black and white photo. I bet it would look really nice etched on a black granite tile too. (something that I do)

 

[H20fwler]

That is a great idea!
What would something like that cost?

I've got other hunting pics that might work with too.

 

[buckdeer1]

I notice you have wood duck boxes ,have you found they nest better in ones facing different directions and do they need to be in shade during the hottest part of day

 

[H20fwler]

I notice you have wood duck boxes ,have you found they nest better in ones facing different directions and do they need to be in shade during the hottest part of day

We have five of them out on this property, three box style made of wood on the ponds and two of the fiberglass capsule style in the vernal pool in the woods. The oldest ones have been out close to four years now, the ones made of wood are all out in direct sun, all of them are over water.

I researched into it before putting them up and about everything I read said to face them to the east so the afternoon sun doesn't heat them up as bad, also read where studies showed that hens preferred the wood over plastic or fiberglass.
There is a good sized river a few hundred yards to the north of our property so there is a lot of waterfowl traffic in the area, we get each box used multiple times every spring/early summer. As soon as a batch hatches out another pair seem to take over the empty site quick. I try and keep an eye on them and clean them out and put new cedar chips in them in between new renters but sometimes they get in before I can. Real early spring we get a couple of hooded mergansers using them then it's the wood ducks.

I have also tried to face the bluebird boxes to the east but don't know if that really makes as much of a difference? The bluebirds and tree swallows are in them all summer.

 

[SD51555]

H20, are you the guy that ran trail cams real close to the water on those wood duck boxes?

Also, did you mention you were digging more ponds? If so, are those just more duck ponds, or you thinking fish too?

 

[H20fwler]

H20, are you the guy that ran trail cams real close to the water on those wood duck boxes?

Also, did you mention you were digging more ponds? If so, are those just more duck ponds, or you thinking fish too?

We actually have fish in the front pond on this farm, bass/crappie/catfish/sunfish.
A few of the members on here have gotten some really good woody box pics with game cams.
But yes, I did get some good duck pics from trail cams on the ponds. I need to start doing that again.

Yes, we are putting in a new pond over at the Little Woods soon. It is going to be more of a family use pond for swimming and fishing with stone around it a beach and nice dock, it will be around an acre in size 18'-20' deep.

 

[SD51555]

Oh nice!

 

[H20fwler]

Took Darcy out for the last pheasant hunt of the season Saturday, we skirted along the edge of the woods and she found her first shed of the year. It must have been really fresh still had wet blood on it and wax ring.

So then we took a quick detour into the woods to see if we could find the other half, didn't.
Did find this nice rub;

And where something had gotten a pheasant;

Looked through the buck pis on phone and think this may have been the buck shed was from;

After going through the pasture twice she did get a rooster up and I made a long shot breaking a wing and got a show as she ran it down and brought it to me. So it was a pretty good morning with one shed and one rooster and a great hour or so with the dog.

Checked in with a friend of mine that has been putting up flying squirrel boxes he made on his farm, he has eight up now. This is something that I am going to also be doing over the winter, I think it is a great project for the boys and I.
Here are pics of his boxes and checking a couple he has up.

 

[OakSeeds]

H2O .... I have enjoyed immensely all the wildlife photos you have posted on this thread. More importantly, I admire, respect and congratulate you for sharing generously with others ... especially with seniors and folks with lesser opportunities. Keep up the good work. Best of luck in all your endeavors.

 

[fishin coyote]

H20, Can you get any other information on them boxes such as dimensions or plans?

 

[H20fwler]

H2O .... I have enjoyed immensely all the wildlife photos you have posted on this thread. More importantly, I admire, respect and congratulate you for sharing generously with others ... especially with seniors and folks with lesser opportunities. Keep up the good work. Best of luck in all your endeavors.

Thanks Oakseeds!

 

[H20fwler]

H20, Can you get any other information on them boxes such as dimensions or plans?

I sure can, my buddy printed the plans out for me I just need to get with him again to get them. We are getting together soon for a bunny hunt (he has a sweet beagle) I'll get them then and PM you pics. I've also found a couple designs on the internet that don't look quite as complicated for my dumbass to follow. I might do a blend of them when we make ours.


Here is a link to the one I'm probably going to incorporate into the plans.

http://nestboxbuilder.com/pdf/FlyingSquirrelNestbox4.pdf

 

[fishin coyote]

Thanks H20. I’m getting ready to start my annual nest box building blitz and welcome new designs and ideas.