Living In Black Bear Country

Earlier this week I did a story about big bears in the eastern part of the state but the reality is that bear management in this state has increased the number of bears across the entire state. The concentration of bears remains in the western and eastern sections of the state but we in the central portions of the state are coming across the occasional bear.

With the increase in bears and the increase in human populations as well as the development of land that were once undeveloped bear and human encounters are also on the rise. Over the years the black bear has not been viewed by many people with the same fear that his cousin the grizzly but that perception is changing with the numerous attacks over the past few seasons.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has issued some tips to help those living in bear country and the big one is to not purposely or inadvertently feed a bear because he’ll return time after time looking for food.

“Feeding a bear rewards it for coming in close proximity to you and your home,” said Michael Juhan, a commission biologist. “When the food becomes unavailable, the bear may resort to damaging items around your property in search of it. In addition, bears feeding on unnatural food sources around your home may cause them to lose their fear of humans and approach them – a situation that rarely ends well for the bear and could have potential safety issues for humans as well.”

NCWRC

Moving bears that have become a problem bear is not a practice that the NCWRC will do because it often does not work these bears will need to be killed. Studies have shown that bears moved from one area to a new area, even if it’s a 100 miles, will often return to the old area. Additionally bears that have learned to associate humans with food can be unpredictable and extremely dangerous.

Here are some thing we can do around our homes and camps to avoid problems;

• Secure bags of trash inside cans stored in a garage, basement or other secure area, and place outside as late as possible on trash pick-up days – not the night before.
• Purchase bear-proof garbage cans or bear-proof your existing garbage container by outfitting it with a secure latching system.
• Discontinue feeding wild birds during spring and summer, even with feeders advertised as “bear proof.” Bears can still be attracted to seed that spills on the ground.
• Do not “free-feed” pets outdoors. If you must feed pets outdoors, make sure all food is consumed.
• Clean all food and grease from barbecue grills after each use. Bears are attracted to the food odors and may investigate.

NCWRC has additional resources on how to co-exist with wildlife that is worth checking out.

Fatal Accident At Windy Falls

James Karpinos a student at UNC Asheville fell to his death off of Windy Falls in Transylvania County while hiking this past Saturday with his girlfriend Lindsay Mirkin. Both of them have extensive outdoor experience and met while working as troop leaders for the University’s outdoor program.

Mirkin, a teacher at Reynolds High, said the couple arrived at Windy Falls about 11:30 a.m. with two dogs in tow. He had wanted to take her to the falls for weeks, she said.
They hiked through the first few falls, stopping to swim in a pool at one point. He had never hiked to the fourth and fifth falls, so they decided to continue, she said.
Mirkin stopped to rest, while Karpinos continued to walk along the rocks.
“He kissed me, and I said, ‘Be careful,’” Mirkin said.
She had her head down, raising it just as he slipped on a large rock, she said. He was able to stop himself for a moment but eventually fell into the water below.
Mirkin rushed over the rock that bore tracks of mud from the Crocs shoes he wore. She said the rocks were very slippery.
“I couldn’t find him, and I saw his shoe floating at the bottom,” she said. She thinks he fell about 4 p.m.
“My legs wouldn’t work, and I had to crawl on hands and knees up the mountain” to find cell phone service, Mirkin said. She got through to emergency workers at 4:30 p.m.

Citizen Times

According to news reports it took rescue workers a half a day to get into the base of the falls. According to the World Waterfall Database Windy Falls drops 720 feet;

Windy Falls is a long series of cascades on the Horsepasture River. There does not appear to be any vertical portion of the falls over 20 or so feet, and the tallest individual cascade is only around 80 feet tall. The falls drop just over 700 feet in about 1/2 a mile’s stretch of river, and thusly appear to be nearly impossible to see in entirety from one place.

I’ve read a number of hiking and outdoor travel sites about this particular waterfall and almost all of them urge extreme caution while hiking there because of the dangers. We who love the outdoors sometimes forget how unforgiving nature can be if the worst case scenario befalls us. James Karpinos funeral will be latter this week in his hometown of Chapel Hill North Carolina.

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Bruiser Bruins In the Old North State

If you wanted to kill a bear that tipped the scale in access of 600 lbs where would you head? Now I’m talking about a black bear not a brown or a grizzly so that narrows your choices downs a bit. North Carolina should be at the top of your list and eastern North Carolina to be more specific. The North Carolina Wildlife Commission has done a phenomenal job at managing the black bear. The eastern part of the state of North Carolina has some of the best bear habitat anywhere and the bear population is booming there and the photos I have to show you will prove we have some monsters walking around.

This bear is being called “Maximus” and rightly so when you look at these photos. I acquired these photos from Mike Noles owner of Conman’s Guide Service. I’ll admit that judging the size of bears can be difficult but this bear is huge. This bear will easily go over 600 lbs and Mike believes it is in the 800+ neighborhood and he sees a lot more bears then I do. I wonder if we might not be looking at a new state record if not possible one of the largest black bears ever. Heavens know how big Maximus will be by the time the hunting season rolls around.

Bear hunting in North Carolina is either done by two methods; stand hunting like Mike does, or hunting them with hounds. Baiting is not a legal practice in this state. When I talked with Mike this past Friday he still had a couple of openings for this November’s bear hunt. If you think this bear is some kind of a fluke check this photo of another bear that was photographed last summer.

This is obviously a different bear because of the scarring on the face and none of their hunters took this bear last year.

Two years ago a couple of 600 plus bears were taken just a day apart at Conman’s so he certainly has the habitat to grow’em big.

Jim Delpapa – 11/13/06 – 663 lbs

Charles Miller – 11/14/06 – 616 lbs

If you want to bust a big bruin head for eastern North Carolina and if you want someone with a proven record for putting folks on some nice ones give Mike Noles a call.

Story by Dan McLaughlin (AKA Moose) Photos courtesy of Conman’s Guide Service Creswell, NC

NC Turkey Hunters Are On Track To Have A Heck Of A Season

From my own experience and the anecdotal information from other hunters the season has been an odd one. Many hunters are reporting hearing a lot less gobbling then usual and seeing less gobblers. We know that the past two hatches have not been good and that is certainly contributing to the strange season. Of course even with the bad hatches the ever expanding turkey flock across the state has given more hunters opportunity to hunt turkeys.
In today’s N&O Outdoor Section Alex Webb had a great article about how the season has been going and some suggestions on tactics to bag a late season gobbler. What really caught my eye in this article was NCWRC information on the number of birds tagged in the first 6 days.

Evin Stanford, the surveys and research biologist for deer, turkey and boar with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, looked at harvest figures through the first six hunting days of the season and said there had been 4,268 gobblers shot compared to 3,950 in 2007 and 4,475 in 2006.
“It looks as though we are going to have a pretty strong season. Of course, if we have really rainy Saturdays from here on out, then that can affect harvest. But if we just have normal weather conditions, then it looks like we are going to have a pretty strong harvest this year, probably above last year,” Stanford said.

Well that’s great news and why we shouldn’t put much stock in anecdotal information because I would have bet the kill was way down. It appears that we are entering the second gobbling phase where the gobblers will gobble more and be more apt to seek out hens because many of the hens have gone to nest. Even with this phase it is not necessarily any easy because you got to factor the past two weeks of education on calls, decoys, and hunters the gobblers have gotten. I think late morning and early afternoon will be the best bet for finding a lonely gobbler so good luck.

Story & Photo by Dan McLaughlin (AKA Moose)

Blue Ridge Parkway’s New Destination Center is Open

One of the most scenic rides in the country is the Blue Ridge Parkway through the mountains of North Carolina from Georgia to Virginia. No matter what the season the views are breathtaking all along the Parkway.
A new center has opened in the Asheville area of the Parkway called the Destination Center. One of the purposes of the new center is to link travelers with additional activities in the area so they increase the time they spend in the area.

The center is beautiful and environmentally friendly with many green features. This past weekend when I was visiting they had a Scottish Dance group performing in the auditorium.

There is some wonderful informative displays about the nature in the area A very good display that explains the Chestnut Blight and the devastation of that disease on a very important mast crop for much of the Appalachian Mountain Range. There have been some blight resistant chestnut trees discovered across the range including the Blue Ridge Parkway that are currently being studied with the hope to one day restore this important tree.

Over the past few years like many of the National Park managed properties the Blue Ridge is in need of much of funding for upkeep and maintenance. Groups like the “Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway” are working to preserve the park through volunteer projects and fund raising.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of my favorite places to visit and I’m sure the winding mountain road with the beautiful vistas it can be one of yours as well.

Story & Photos by Dan McLaughlin (AKA Moose)

Moose Finds A Little Luck and Ruins Tom’s Day

As turkey hunts go this was quick if you only look at today’s hunt but I had already spent a fair amount of time attempting to be in the right spot. Mistakes while turkey hunting are usually costly but today I was able to over come a big goof and still wreck Tom’s day.

The alarm clock going off at 3:30 this morning woke me up from my very short slumber as I got ready to go hunting. This was the second morning in a row I answered the bell so early and to think it’s my day off from work. Rick was waiting for me when I pulled into our Alamance County lease he hunted here yesterday and had some pretty good action while I hunted in Caswell County only seeing hens. We split up based on where the birds had been the day before so hopefully one of us would be in the right spot.

I was sitting in a blind on the edge of one of our food plots with a hen & Jake decoy set out. I hadn’t been in the blind long when the first gobbler in the woods behind me sounded off. As the light increased so did the gobbling and it appeared that the birds were basically in the same places they had been the morning before. All in all it seemed we had 4 or 5 gobblers all around us so the morning was looking pretty promising. I did some soft calling once I was sure the gobblers had hit the ground. I heard a number of hens calling and moving towards the gobblers and away from me and towards the front end of the property. I just hoped one of the gobblers would come to this field.
One gobbler in particular got my attention as he gobbled and gobbled getting closer and closer to my set up. As long as he seemed to be getting closer I just kept quiet and watched the woods line where I felt he would come out. After a few minutes he didn’t show and I hadn’t heard him I switched to the slate side of my Away Hunting Fatal Attraction call and did some soft purring. He then sounded off much further down in the woods headed to the creek bottom rather then the field I was set up in.
After another brief period of silence I started to purr again and that’s when I heard him drumming as he came through the brush behind the blind. Before I could really react he was in front of the blind headed for the Jake decoy. I picked my 12 gauge Mossberg off my lap but couldn’t bring it all the way up to a shooting position because he would of busted me. Tom goes into full strut and as he turns towards the Jake decoy with his tail towards me I bring the Mossberg up to the shooting position and I eased the safety off. As he clears the decoy and puts his head up I squeeze the trigger and hear the frightful sound of my firing pin “CLICK” but no boom. Tom is now looking at me and I don’t dare move despite my urge to chuck my gun at him.

Tom is nervous and I’m sure he is about to take flight at that moment a breeze catches the decoys and they move ever so slightly and Tom goes back into strut. My lucky day so I rack the pump ejecting the shell and putting a fresh one in. There is no hiding this noise and Tom starts trotting straight away I re acquire my target and yell “Hey” enough to get him to hesitate briefly and turn his head giving me a better target this time as I squeeze the trigger the boom of the shell going off drowns out the sound of the firing pin. Tom immediately flops and my hunt is over. I look at my watch and it is 6:57 for a brief moment I think if I hurry I could get to work and not use a vacation day.. Not.
After I notch my report card to make my kill legal I go back to the blind and pick up my shells and see why my first shell did not go off. There is a dent in the primer but on closer examination it is not as deep as the one on the empty shell.

My mind goes back to early in the morning as I loaded my gun and I tried to be as quiet as possible as I racked the shell into the chamber. I believe that I didn’t get it fully closed and that small fraction was enough to prevent the firing pin from striking the primer hard enough to fire the gun. That was almost a costly mistake and one I can assure you I’ll remember in the future.

This gobbler is the biggest one I have ever taken; 11 1/4 beard 1 1/2 spur on one leg and a 1 1/8 spur on the other one that appears to have been broken off at some point, it weighed just a shy over 19 lbs.

Not one that usually believes in luck I got to wonder if my new hat is lucky. A few months ago Linda from Mace Sports gave me a new camo cap with a moose on it. I hadn’t been wearing it hunting but after a day in the rain on Monday the hat I had been wearing was wet and who wants to wear a wet hat so today I wore the Moose Hat. This is the same hat I was wearing at a quail unlimited banquet last night when I won a rifle. So who knows maybe it is lucky.

With one tag left you know these next few weeks I’ll be wearing my “lucky moose hat”

Mississippi Turkey Hunter Kills a 7 Bearded Gobbler

Killing a gobbler with multiple beards is a rare feat but taking one with 7 beards is unbelievable.

Jerrell Keele knew his turkey had a pretty good beard on him when he shot him last month. He could see the black hairs hanging from the gobbler’s neck when he shot him from 37 yards away.

But the 67-year-old Burnsville resident didn’t realize that the 17.28-pound turkey actually had seven beards and scored enough points to make it a state record in the nontypical division.

There were so many beards that the registration form had to be altered.

“The form only has room to write in six beards for each turkey,” said Keele, whose turkey scored 151.155 points. “Jerry Hazlewood (the Northeast Region wildlife biologist) wrote in the seventh beard on the side of the form.”

NE Mississippi Daily Journal

Congratulations Jerrell that is a once in a lifetime trophy.

A Decision On The Outer Banks Access

A short Video to give you an idea of what is at stake.

This is a follow up to an earlier story I did about the court case that could potentially end the long standing practice of driving on the beach to access the area for recreational activities, the decision is in.
A decision that certainly seems to favor the special interests groups and seems to push sportsmen out. The beach access is supposed to be preserved for human recreational access and not to preserve habitat and species. Now I don’t think there is many sportsmen that would oppose sensible restrictions but to set up a distance equivalent to 11 football fields around a shore birds nest to me seems to excessive. At least my quick reading on the subject seems to suggest that is the distance that will be required.

It is also very concerning to me that little if any public input was sought and basically the special interest groups seemed to have the most voice. If I understand it right these are temporary rules while the National Park Service draws up the official rules. I have little faith in the National Park Service because access does not seem to be a high priority for them nor the desires of sportsmen.

Some Important Links to Check out; Tommy over at Carolina Region has an updated story and he has much more information and details about this story. So please check out his blog. The second link you should check out is SAVE HATTERAS & OCRACOKE ISLAND. Even if your not one who normally access the outerbanks please speak out and support your fellow sportsmen and an entire regions way of life.

The Death of a Great Adversary… The legend of Ol’ Huey

Over the years a legend has been born around the campfires of our turkey hunting camp about the gobbler hence known as Ol’ Huey. He got that name because he was considerable bigger then the other birds and when he took to flight he sounded like a helicopter taking off. Ol’ Huey lived on some land owned by the uncle of one of my hunting partners (Rick) and on occasion his Uncle would invite us to hunt this tract of land. Saturday was the opening of the turkey season and there were a number of guys hunting that land. Rick and I were hunting our lease that was some 15 miles away so neither of us was witnessed to what happened. Here is the story of what happened as posted by Rick;

Today was a BAD day for Ol’Huey and a VERY good day for Matt of Faison, NC. Matt shot the biggest, smartest bird I’ve ever hunted this am at 6:45 from my ground pop-up blind in Caswell County. I just talked to Matt’s cousin who verified that Ol’Huey is indeed dead. Matt’s bird measured 5 feet from the tip of his fan to his beak, weighed 24 lbs,, had 2 inch spurs on each leg, and had a beard that was worn off, but still measured slightly over 14 inches long. And he killed Ol’Huey without making a sound . Oh well, an ambush was the only way this king of gobblers would ever be taken anyway. Matt left before I could get there to take pic (and yes, even I would have taken 2 rolls of pictures alone of this one grand OF of a bird!!). A bird like this was a fine opponent and an even better teacher of turkey survival behavior for this OF. I feel honored to have been able to hunt him for the past 6 years. Ol’Huey was at least 8 years old and probably would not have survived too much longer. My sincerest congrats to Matt on taking this grand old gobbler. Ol’Huey, it won’t be the same without you–Rest In Peace in turkey heaven.

If these measurements are accurate, which I think they are not, but more close to guesstamates then this bird would be in contention to be one of the highest ranked and possible a new state record. The shame is that it appears that no one on this hunt had a camera to get any shots of this magnificent bird.

I’ve hunted this farm a number of times over the years and always am grateful for the invite no matter what we are hunting being deer, turkey, waterfowl or small game. I know there is a big bird running this property (or was) How Big? I can’t rightly say other then bigger then your average turkey. To me the difference in size between a good turkey and an excellent turkey are so slight that you can’t tell until you ground check the bird.

The bird I’ve seen on this property seemed to be about a foot or more taller then the other gobblers around him when I’ve seen them feeding in the fields.

I did not see this bird after it was killed either so who knows if it was Ol’ Huey or not. I’ll tell you this if I get an invite to hunt this land again I sure hope the bird I’ve seen in the past is still running about or maybe even some of his offspring.

The death of Ol’ Huey maybe like the death of Elvis who knows if it is real. Elvis sightings happen all the time so maybe O’ Huey somehow faked his death too. I’m sure as often as we gather to swap stories and lies Ol’ Huey will have his place. Who knows maybe this is the turkey season I’ll get Ol’ Huey myself. The legend continues…

Taking Aim Against Guns

This week is the one year anniversary of the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech and a renewed call for gun control. Our right to bear arms is guaranteed by the US Constitution and if we fail to fight to keep it we’ll lose it for sure. Across many college campuses there will be protests and calls for additional gun control. The University of North Carolina is no exception and given the recent high profile murder of their student body president.

On Wednesday, 32 protesters will lie on the ground on Polk Place near Gardner Hall for just a few minutes to illustrate symbolically how little time it takes to buy a gun.

Wednesday – April 16 – is the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting.

And one year later, not much has changed in terms of gun control, both in North Carolina and in the nation at large.

Why should there be any changes in the gun laws? It is one of the most regulated products out there. Myself I think we need to loosen the laws to make sure people have access so the scum that perpetrate such violent acts might have to think twice before they go on their crime sprees.

Gun control advocates often take the approach of having “sensible gun laws” that include gun registrations, waiting periods on purchases, limits on purchases etc. For what? They only penalize law abiding citizens and work to limit the number of law abiding citizens who can afford and meet all these requirements.

Why do we oppose gun registration? We know that at some latter date that information could be used to confiscate our guns. We only need to look at what happened in Canada and Australia when gun bans took place. New Orleans after the hurricane Katrina where law abiding citizens had weapons confiscated by authorities and then they were left unarmed in an area that was lawless and overrun with mobs to fend for themselves. That’s why we oppose any type of gun registration.

Today WalMart has announced that they will set up their own gun registration process to track all guns they sell. This is a significant cave on part of a major retailer and not really surprising given that they have scaled back many of the gun sales by eliminating them totally from their sporting goods section. What will the fall out be? I don’t know but we’ll follow it for sure.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Written by Daniel "Moose" McLaughlin · Filed Under Antis & Wackos, Crime, Politics, Right to Bear Arms 

Update on Wildlife Art Contest for Kids

April 13, 2008

Thanks for the comments on my earlier story and here is some updated information. First of all the contest is over but I found the original rules and this contest was only open to children from North Carolina.
The winners have been announced and their art work will be viewable next month.

The winners, age, hometown and art subject are:

* Jennifer Sieredzki, 6, Clayton, Little metalmark butterfly
* Alexandra Barsony, 7, Winston-Salem, Red wolves at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
* Colby Whaley, 7, Smithfield, Northern water snake
* Lila Winter, 9, Raleigh, Blue jay
* Madisyn DeCant, 9, Shawboro, Barn owls
* Lauren Puckett, 9, Charlotte, Raccoon in snow
* Christopher Williams, 10, Durham, Great horned owl
* Asherel Kaseorg, 10, Charlotte, Eastern gray squirrel
* Devin Whitlark, 11, Greenville, Mother bird and two chicks
* Logan Beyer, 13, New Bern, Sea turtles
* Tucker Besosa, 13, Asheville, Black bear family
* Kerchuan Soong, 15, Charlotte, Red fox

As soon as the art work is posted I’ll link to it.

Written by Daniel "Moose" McLaughlin · Filed Under Enviroment, NC Wildlife Resource Com, North Carolina, Youth 

Day One of Turkey Season

April 13, 2008

The opening of turkey season was a bust for me but it appears others across the state did well. The front that came through on Saturday gave us a cloudy overcast day with a number of thunderstorms throughout the day.

I was at the hunt camp up in Caswell County with a couple of friends for the opener none of us had any luck. I had a plan of where I wanted to go because the week before we had heard gobblers in this particular area and it’s one of my favorite places to hunt so I decided to go in there. I hadn’t been in there in a while and there is a thick stand of pines to get through that is easy to get turned around in the dark. I normally go in every year just before deer season and re-blaze and re-mark the trail but being sick last summer I didn’t do it. I was confident that my memory and the old trail markings I could slip in well before daybreak and be in position to listen for gobbles. Besides if I got confused my GPS would back me up.

Well best laid plans don’t always work out. I got about halfway through the pines when I lost the trail and after moving the general direction I thought was right I realized that I was off the trail. There were a number of trees and branches down and I was trying to pick my way through quietly because turkeys often roost in this area. I had a clear view of the sky when I looked up and I fired up my GPS. After what seemed like an eternity but was really just a few minutes I got a lock on the satellites and I quickly hit the search for the nearest waypoint. My big mistake was not looking very closely at it because I knew it was the nearest point because of the deer stand. Latter I would remember that I had replaced my GPS and this particular deer stand was not in my new GPS but at that moment I headed off in the wrong direction. I went a little ways and knew I should be out of the thick cover but I wasn’t. At that point I knew something was wrong so I dug out my compass and got a bearing that should take me to the opening where I wanted to set up if I missed it I knew I would hit the creek and I could set up there. Well I hit the creek having missed the opening by only 200 yards or so. Once I hit the creek I knew exactly where I was and I could back track to the opening but given I hadn’t busted any turkeys with my roundabout trek in that I didn’t dare push my luck by doubling back up the ridge to the opening. I set up on the creek bottom and waited for daybreak.

Daybreak came and went with out the first gobbler sounding off. There was plenty of noise to entice a shock gobble between the crows and the geese not to mention the occasional roll of thunder. With no turkey noise at all I settled in on the creek bottom knowing the gobblers often use it as a travel route. I did the occasional calling hoping to have a gobbler check me out. I heard some noise behind me coming from the area I had originally wanted to hunt so I started to turn around slowly. A few minutes latter a fat grey squirrel came bounding off the ridge. I started to turn back around when I heard him, a Jake looking for that hen he had heard. He circled above me and back into the pines without making a sound.

That was the only turkey I saw all day. The afternoon I sat in a blind on the field edge and never saw or heard anything. As the sun was setting the walk back to my truck was a lot easier then my morning walk in because I just had to cut across a couple of fields and up a field road to my truck. I can assure you I’ll re-blaze and re-mark the trail in the near future so I don’t get confused my GPS has already been updated.

Written by Daniel "Moose" McLaughlin · Filed Under My Hunting Trips, Turkey 

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