The Art of Calling Geese

This evening I got to watch a master goose caller call a small flock of geese right in. I suspect this caller couldn’t win any of those fancy calling contests but it was a delight to watch and listen as he called. I saw him sitting there all by himself which is a bit unusual and he appeared to be sound asleep with his head resting on his back. I observed him for a number of minutes as I worked my way closer to him trying not to disturb his nap. All of a sudden he popped up wide awake and alert at first I was afraid that I had encroached on him too much and disturbed him but that was only a fleeting thought as he began to call.

I soon heard the small flock calling back to him but the trees hid them from my view. As they cleared over
the trees and began to circle I wondered if they would drop in or if my presence would keep them away. He kept calling and they kept responding and circling and finally one of them could not help and it began to drop towards him. The flow of air through the wings sounded like the wind on a sailboat jib as the goose flew over my head and dropped right in.

A few more came in and the rest followed. What a beautiful sight as they splashed the water when the landed. At first I thought they had a couple of snow geese with them but it appears they are domestic geese gone wild.

I marveled at the ability of a lone goose to call a flock a trick I’ve attempted to do myself a time or two without much luck. I too will never win one of those calling contest but I did see that one can call the flock in if you’re persistent. Get out and experience nature you can learn some valuable lessons as well as relax and rejuvenate your soul.

Photo Exhibit in Holly Springs

I’m a member of the Bass Lake Photo Club and we are having our 3rd annual show at the Holly Springs Cultural Center this month. There are 45 photographs from the club on display all month including two of mine that I posted here. They are much better then they appear on here trust me. Tonight there is a reception as part of Holly Springs Art After Dark program 6-8 pm so if your in the area stop by and see me. If you can’t stop by tonight the photos will remain on display till the end of the month.

Backyard Visitors

Seeing wildlife in your backyard is pretty cool and I do some small things to encourage it like allowing clover to grow in my lawn, creating brush piles and things like that. I have a few rabbits or did, haven’t seen a rabbit in a few weeks now, gray fox or a coyote may have gotten the rabbits. We see deer regularly but mostly at night.

The other day I went out to start the grill and laying right next to our deck was a fawn. The fawn popped up and trotted across the yard and back into the woods. I could hear the doe in the overgrown vacant lot next to us blowing as she ran to meet up with her fawn.

Then the next evening we had a small group of deer show up and I was able to get some photos of this young buck. The National Wildlife Federation has some great information on how to improve and maintain your yard in a wildlife friendly way. Contact your state wildlife agency to see if they offer classes or resources in how you can improve wildlife habitat on your property.Taking some small steps can improve the habitat in your yard to encourage birds and wildlife thus creating hours of fun watching them from the comforts of your home.

Build It They Will Come
Red Shouldered Hawk

The Sign of Hope

New Backyard Visitor

Checking Out Birds In Tree

Back From The Mountains

With some of the warmest temperatures of the summer hitting the triangle this past weekend it seemed like a great weekend to head for the mountains. While the mercury flirted with the 100’ mark at home the mountains were much cooler. Saturday morning sitting at the edge of a meadow with the sounds of the stream running behind you and watching turkeys, butterflies, and lots of other nature was a great sight. That is a breakfast I’ll not soon forget.
I’ve got a number of stories to tell you as well as an update on the elk herd and lots of great photos. So I hope you check back this week for these great stories.

Go West Young Man

Bryce Canyon National Park

My wife and I just returned from a 10 day trip out west to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Certainly a milestone for anyone to live with me for 15 years I guess once I learned to not butcher critters in the kitchen it got easy (Ha Ha).
We flew to Vegas and supplied up and headed for Utah. We put 2000 plus miles on the rental car and visited 6 national parks, 1 state park, and 3 national monuments plus I got sick. That was certainly the downer of the trip I got a nasty cold that about wiped me out. I’m sure the fact that we were at a much higher elevation contributed to my fatigue as well. One day we drove to two stores (25 miles apart) looking for NyQuil but couldn’t find any but the next day I found some in a small camping store on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Between my feeling under the weather as well as the remoteness of the places we were I certainly did not get to update my blog as much as I wanted to. No need to fret I’ve got a number of posts that should have been made last week that I’ll make the next couple of days so it will be a feast of information for a while out here. Not to mention the number of photos I took of critters and landscapes along the way. Utah is a beautiful state and I can’t wait to share some of the photos and the stories with you.

Hen Pecked

This past weekend I didn’t have much luck trying to fill one of my two turkey tags and to be honest this is shaping up to be a tough season. I was hunting our lease in Alamance County which is mostly fields so we have to utilize blinds rather than running and gunning. I was sitting in the blind with some decoys out when I called a hen in to the spread.
She came in real quiet and caught me by surprise coming through some high grass. Not knowing if she was a hen or a gobbler I first grabbed my gun but when she came out it was clear to see she was a hen. There was nothing else with her so I picked up my camera but not fast enough to catch her surprising move.
The hen ran up to the Jake decoy and pecked him a couple of times in the head. Not getting the reaction she expected she seemed confused by the decoys. She never got near the hens and she slowly turned and left the field.
Kind of a funny experience and something I’ve never seen. I’ve seen gobblers go after the Jake decoys but never a hen.
Hopefully I’ll find her boyfriend real soon.

On The Road For Snows

Our Crew I’m in the back then L to R NCState, Pickle, Billy, & Hawkeye

Travel half way across the country with 4 other guys and you know there has to be some stories. I’ve had a few ask me about my trip and I’ll admit I’ve been slack.
We left North Carolina headed for Mound City Missouri the center of the snow goose spring migration. We traveled together in a van towing a trailer of dogs for the hunt. The ride was really not bad given that we all don’t see each other much but we love to hunt.

I had never been to St. Louis so it was exciting to catch a glimpse of the arch as we rolled through.

Cabela’s in Kansas City was great, some had to get supplies for this trip while others don’t need much of an excuse to shop at Cabela’s . One of the guys who had been to this Cabela’s before insisted we had to eat lunch there because they made wild game sandwiches. Had many of us thought about the rest of the week and all the sandwiches we would consume we may have opted for something else.

The weather had to be the big story of this trip; days before we got there the temperatures were in the 70’s but a front arrived about the same time we did. The first day of the hunt the high for the day was 56’ with one important note that it happened at midnight. A few of our group missed that part so as the temperature continued to drop throughout the day the lack of cold weather gear really began to take a toll. The 40’s and rain in the morning was replaced by the mid 20’s spitting snow and a steady 30 gusting to 40 mph wind. The wind chill had to be the hardest thing to deal with especially after getting wet earlier in the day. I was one who had watched the weather closely and I was pretty prepared for what we faced that day.

The hunting the first day was not the best but we had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on. Unlike Canada geese that seem to come in a bit lower the snows come in high and just drop. When the day ended we had a number of birds but we knew we should have had a lot more.
The second day was a lot colder the corn field went from being a muddy mess to frozen tundra. The weather in Missouri was cold but just to the north in the Dakota’s the rain we got was snow up there. They had blizzard conditions which was now forcing the migrating geese that had already traveled through Missouri and north into the Dakotas to reverse the migration and fly back south to find food. We saw a lot of birds many headed south and a pretty good day of hunting. The wind was not as bad but it blew steady all day. The day ended and we had a better pile of birds then the first day but we still knew our shooting had not been the best letting many of the decoying birds to escape.
The final day of our hunt was a spectacular one. The sky was filled with flock after flock of bird all morning and that was only a small taste of what the afternoon held for us. The final afternoon was one of those hunts I think all of us will remember forever. We killed some birds but even more spectacular was the migration flight we witnessed that day. The weather had really piled the birds up in the area many of the locals told us that they thought there was record number of birds resting in the area. That afternoon the birds began flying about 3:30 and from then on there was almost never a time that you couldn’t see birds in the air.

There were a number of times that afternoon when we had the white tornado over our heads as 5 or 6 hundred birds circled our decoys. That was a sight to see and one I’ll not soon forget. Late in the afternoon we just laid our guns down and soaked the whole scene in as we laid there in the blind and the flocks flew by.
While we didn’t kill as many birds we had thought we would we did all right and brought back a cooler of birds. There are a number of other stories and laughs we shared that week that maybe I’ll share in the future. We had a great trip and one we’ll not soon forget.

Mallards In Flight

On the way home from work today I stopped at a local lake and shot some photos. These green heads pitched in while I was there.

Tundra Swan Hunt In Washington County

North Carolina has a fairly unique hunting opportunity in that Tundra Swan winter in the eastern part of the state. Tundra Swan tags are given out by lottery draw and not usually to difficult to obtain however this year I was unsuccessful in the lottery. The popularity of this hunt has grown but you still have about a 70% chance of getting drawn for one of the 5000 tags the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission issues each year.

With no tag I still tagged along with my camera in tote to experience the annual event with my friends. Once again we were hunting with Mike and Connie from Conman’s Guide Service and Billy from Avery Creek Retrievers provided the dogs for the hunt.

At daybreak on Monday the fog was thick and we knew it would be a tough hunt, tundra swan unlike most waterfowl fly better on bluebird type days. The threat of winter weather hitting the state latter that day put some added pressure. The decoy spread was in a wheat field with the hunters hiding in a field ditch in a blind. The ditch had a fair amount of water so I was glad to have chest waders on as the water and the mud was over my knees.

It was after 9am before we saw the first swan, it was a lone swan that dropped out of the fog silently and landed in the decoy spread before anyone knew it. Having a life bird walking and feeding around the hundreds of decoys is not to bad because it adds a little movement to the set up. Shortly after the lone birds arrival the action picked up as flocks of swans began to get up off the lake and fly. By noon time we had 13 birds on the ground and a lot of happy hunters.

I’m Back From Washington

Washington County North Carolina that is… This past weekend is our annual Tundra Swan hunt but I unfortunately did not get drawn for a tag this year. I still went to photograph the event and see everyone. I’ll post some stories from the weekend along with some of the photos I took. Today in Raleigh we are having a major snowstorm ( about 3 or 4 inches by the time it is all done) so that is also throwing a monkey wrench into my daily routine. Hopefully this evening I’ll get some posts up.

Pea Island Photo Blind

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is located in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In an earlier post I shared some of the photos I took while hiking around the island with my camera in tote. Saturday Morning was very foggy, do I dare say as thick as Pea Soup, with occasional showers passing through. My wife was accompanying me so we decided to try out a photo blind that one of the volunteers at the visitor center had told me about the day before.

I was glad to see there was no one else there when we got there but the truth of the matter is it’s pretty large in 6 to 8 people could fit in there pretty comfortably. A fully enclosed blind with a roof and benches makes for a comfortable morning of shooting photographs. The conditions were less then ideal but even with the fog I think I got some pretty good shots.

I missed the first flock of Canadian Geese that flew in but I was ready when I heard more coming. They just busted through the fog right in front of the blind giving me a great shot. The blind is right on the waters edge so you can get some great shots and it appears to be a spot that a good variety of birds like to feed.

We had a great morning and even though my wife doesn’t run the camera much she had a great time observing the birds. So if your get the chance check out the Outer Banks and don’t forget about Pea Island and all the stuff there is to see. As a reminder for the next little bit Moose’s Wild America will be featuring many of the photos I shot while at Pea Island and the Outer Banks.

A Day At Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and is the winter ground of many species of waterfowl. I had the opportunity to slip down there for a few days and had a wonderful time. The weather here in North Carolina is unseasonable warm but it does make it comfortable for hiking and exploring around Pea Island. Pea Island is just south of the Bonner Bridge, an barrier island about 13 miles long and about only a mile wide at it’s widest point.

There are a number of hiking trails with great observation points, observation towers, photo blinds, and places to stop and view wildlife. I was able to observe and photography a wide variety of birds. Friday was the better day by far Saturday. Friday afternoon we saw lots of birds as we hiked around the island.

Pea Island is a great place for anyone that loves the outdoors while I was focused on photography there are a variety of other activities for people to including surf fishing which seemed to be a popular activity.

Friday evening the rain rolled in so Saturday we awoke to light showers and heavy fog. That helped make the decision as to where we should go easy so we headed for the photography blind. Tomorrow I’ll share the blind experience with you and some of the photos I took. Many of the photos I took will end up on my wildlife photography blog Moose’s Wild America so be sure to stop by and check it out.

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