Moose Droppings

With Thanksgiving approaching very soon I guess it shouldn’t be surprise that a wild turkey would seek refuge in Indiana church.

“That turkey was no dumb turkey,” Deacon Robert Henderson joked during Sunday’s service. “He was looking for a refuge. He was looking for a hiding place. He knew where he needed to be.”

Indy Star
The hen turkey showed up for the mid week prayer service but became a real nuisance on Sunday when she made numerous attempts to follow worshipers into the church.

Nobody knew where she came from. She peered in church windows, accompanied people leaving the church to their cars and tried unsuccessfully to slip inside the church. Her antics became a nuisance Sunday, however, when 250 people arrived for services and church officers called authorities.

It took 5 police and animal control officers to capture this turkey and remove it. But don’t fret it won’t be on the Thanksgiving table it has been turn over to a rescue farm.

Post and photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Story behind my photo

Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

The bear sitting at the picnic table is pretty cool. Here is a photo I took of an otter just relaxing. Hope you enjoy it.

Unknown Source for these photos

A couple of photos floating around the net. He certainly looks like he is ready for dinner.

Check Out “You Otter Be Clill’en” a photo I took on my trip to the mountains.

Before my Law Enforcement friends get upset at me about a derogatory name calling let me tell you what happened in Germany. Seems a car thief was captured after he fled from a stolen car into nearby woods and into the middle of a herd of wild hogs.

Police in Schwerin say the 18-year-old abandoned a stolen SUV he was driving Thursday after failing to shake off a chasing patrol car by driving into a field.
Police nabbed his passenger immediately. But they say the driver initially got away by running into nearby woods.
Officers then heard the fugitive shouting for help - he had run into a herd of angry wild boars that were keen to protect their young.
Police freed the man from the boars and took him into custody.

WRAL
A strange story for sure but far from boar ing

Yesterday I gathered with a group of sportsmen and conservationists to support the great work of Ducks Unlimited. It was an enjoyable evening and hopefully a lot of money got raised to support many of the efforts of DU here in North Carolina.

I’m afraid that the down turn in the economy may have suffocated some of the fund raising as seen by the signature item, DU Edition “Gun of the Year, not having its reserve met. The Beretta White Onyx 20 gauge Over and Under was a very pretty gun and it was surprising that it fell short of the reserve by just $50 and no one was willing to meet the reserve.

Troy Smart, who I met on a duck hunt this past January, is the chairman of Caldwell County DU and he and the committee did a great job putting this event on. Hog Wild BBQ was awesome and if you left hungry it was your own fault.

One of the guys sitting at my table was Bubba and we had some great conversations. At one point he informed me he was going to win the shotgun. I told that be hard because it was riding home with me. Low and behold that is what happened and my Lucky Hat continues its streak, two guns and two turkeys. Bubba was a bit surprised and with my additional luck in the raffle with multiple wins. I think Bubba now believes in the Lucky Hat.

I had a fun evening and met some great people who care about the habitat and the future of wetlands.

Young man Wins a Red Ryder BB Gun

Auction Items

Story & Photos by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

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…

If you hadn’t guessed there is no change on the Sunday Hunting Ban in the state. Just having a little fun and causing a bit of a stir. Thanks to all who pm’d & email’d about this. I think most caught on pretty good. Last year I did a story about Turkeys & Vultures cross breeding I see that Tom over at the Black Bear Blog had a story about Al Gore that’s pretty good. Phillip over at the Hog Blog has a story about hog hunting being banned in California.

Bottom line is we all hope you had a chance to have a good laugh at some point today.

Update on this morning’s news that a secret agreement has been made not unlike the lottery deal a few years ago to allow limited hunting for deer on Sundays with a bow.
From what I have been told that “donations” from the insurance lobby to the Non Game Animal fund were threatened to be cut off. For a number of years the insurance industry has been funding a pilot project with NCWRC and the restocking of the eastern cougar in a number of spots throughout the state. The cougar-stocking program was halted in 2006 because of the number of attacks on humans in other states and the possibility of liability for the state if this was to become general knowledge. Auto Insurance lobby continued to funnel funds into the Non Game Fund with hopes that this or a similar project would resume. With no longer any support at NCWRC to continue such an endeavor the lobby pulled the funds as of January of this year. These funds were being used to support a number of other projects as well and many of them are threatened. This compromise will open up the dried up funding stream once again enabling the State to meet requirements to get matching Federal dollars for these other projects.

Much to the disappointment of religious leaders and animal rights groups bow hunting on Sunday for deer looks like a done deal. The proposal was an add on to Auto Insurance Rate Hike requested before the insurance commissioner. At his urging lawmakers have agreed to a two-tier hike system for auto insurance. Any county that overrides the Sunday Hunting provision will automatically get the higher tier which is an additional 2% increase in rates. North Carolina Wildlife Commissioners met in a special session this morning voting to approve this provision for the upcoming season. This major change may cause a delay in the printing of the new regulation books due out July 1st. Of course the details of the specifics of the hunt we will have to wait and see it is unknown if Game Lands are included.

Developing

The eminent arrival of spring is announced by many different events and for most of us at least one of these events can kick of the spring fever feelings even while winter still has a tight grip. For some it is when the local hardware store puts out the seed displays or you get a seed catalog in the mail. Seems like it’s popular to watch a fury rodent’s reaction to being drug out of his hole on February 2nd at daybreak and basing the amount of time till spring on what he sees. For others the first Robin seen bobbing across the yard even if it is the day after Christmas makes you start thinking about spring.

For me it is going to the mailbox and pulling out my Cabela’s Turkey Catalog, which I did the other day, now my daydreams are of owl hoots and booming gobbles. Time to start thinking about breaking out the calls, practicing for opening morning, checking the decoys, trying on the old vest, and checking the pattern on your gun. Well maybe it’s a bit to early for some of that but it will be here soon, parts of the northeast and the northwest maybe getting a blizzard today but I promise you spring is almost here.

That certainly sounds like the makings of a sequel to the popularly overplayed Christmas tune but it’s not. It seems that last week when 77 year old Rhea Wilcox left Mt. Zion United Church in Renton, Ontario two whitetail deer knocked the unsuspecting woman to the ground causing her some significant injuries. Here is what the Toronto Sun reported happened;

“She was standing with her back to them. They tried to jump over her but didn’t make it. They knocked her down. One of the deer bounced off the church.”
‘ALL I SAW WAS A REAR END’
Wilcox needed six stitches to close a gash on her forehead. She also suffered a nasty scrape on her nose, two black eyes, a bruised shoulder and a scraped knee.
Her Sunday clothes were bloodied while a pair of bifocals were ruined. Beyond that, Wilcox is mobile and in good spirits.

Well she’ll have some stories to tell this Christmas Season but there was no reports of a fat man in a red suit or a sleigh being in the area at the time of mishap. What did Grandma Wilcox tell the Toronto Sun about her ordeal?

“All I saw was a rear end, a white flash and the feet of deer going by,” she said. “We figured someone had to be chasing them. It was the last day of hunting.”

There ya Go another reason that we should keep the Sunday Hunting ban because we all love our Grandmothers!! Don’t we?

I just got back from a few days of hunting at the “Christmas Place” Rex told me I had an open invitation to visit. Unfortunately I didn’t see Rex around the place but it was a busy place with all the elves running around I guess that is how he named the place. Hunting was good seemed like I got a flush every 200 yards or so. Got the truck loaded up and headed for home. Traffic was a killer it seemed like just about every town I rolled through was having their Christmas Parade. The weird thing was that most of the kids I saw on the sides of the road was crying, screaming, and pointing which makes no sense to me. Then I noticed the fire trucks in front of me the guys were throwing candy so I figured that must have been what was upsetting the tykes. I didn’t have candy so I threw my emergency food cache; slim jims, cans of beene weenies, and potted meat but they still cried. If that wasn’t bad enough I got home and heard that some heartless jerk killed all of Santa’s reindeer so Christmas has been canceled. My money is on that Tom dude over at the Black Bear Blog