The Woods

Williamsville archer lands record elk – The Buffalo News

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Williamsville archer lands record elk – The Buffalo News

This is the 18th year Pennsylvania has had an elk season, but the first with a specific archery season (Sept. 14-28). Previously, the general season lasted six days and any weapon could be used.

I have been hunting in Pennsylvania since 1983, and this year I bought a big game license online in July and filled out an application for the new archery elk season lottery drawing for $11.90. Then I kind of forgot about it.

On Aug. 17, I was traveling to Florida for a family reunion. After flying into Atlanta, I turned my phone on to find a bunch of messages from an 814 area code. After listening to the messages, though, I realized it was the elk lottery drawing day in Benezette during the annual Elk Extravaganza, and I had been selected for one of the coveted bull elk tags, one of only five available for the new archery season in Zone 10. Let’s just say I was slightly distracted at the family reunion and I couldn’t wait to get back home and start making plans.

I only had four weeks to plan the hunting opportunity of a lifetime. My first task was selecting an outfitter. My good friend Kevin Tone and I drove to Pennsylvania to interview two potential outfitters. It turned out to be an easy decision. Trophy Rack Lodge with owner/guide Larry Guenot was our choice.

 

In absence of trappers, Arkansas issues cull permits — Furbearer Conservation

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In absence of trappers, Arkansas issues cull permits — Furbearer Conservation

For many in the hunting/conservation worlds, the announcement of Arkansas’ predator permit is a double edged sword. While the permit allows for a restoration of wildlife balance, it also raises concerns with the socially perceived wanton waste of natural resources - the furbearers themselves.

For this reason, the Game and Fish Commission is examining the possibility of connecting predator control permit holders with registered fur trappers. When a raccoon, coyote or other permitted animal is killed, the permit holder could then transfer the animal to a fur trapper who can then utilize marketable portions of the animal - such as glands and hides. This method tends to only be feasible during the colder months, when fur trappers are active, and the hides from fur-bearing animals are prime enough to exhibit usable value.

Huge decline in songbirds linked to neonicotinoids

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Huge decline in songbirds linked to neonicotinoids

The world's most widely used insecticide has been linked to the dramatic decline in songbirds in North America. A first ever study of birds in the wild found that a migrating songbird that ate the equivalent of one or two seeds treated with a neonicotinoid insecticide suffered immediate weight loss, forcing it to delay its journey.

Although the birds recovered, the delay could severely harm their chances of surviving and reproducing, say the Canadian researchers whose study is published today in Science.

More Than 1 in 4 Birds Has Disappeared in the Last 50 Years | All About Birds

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Vanishing: More Than 1 in 4 Birds Has Disappeared in the Last 50 Years | All About Birds

The scale of loss portrayed in the Science study is unlike anything recorded in modern natural history. While the Passenger Pigeon likewise suffered cascading losses more than a century ago, that was a population loss among one species, mostly in eastern North America. This research portrays massive losses among hundreds of species of birds from coast to coast.

The population models in this study are based on several decades of standardized bird-survey datasets. This research represents the most robust synthesis of long-term population monitoring data ever assembled for animals, says Adam Smith, a study coauthor and biostatistician for Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“It’s safe to say that in the natural world, birds are the best studied group of wildlife species,” Smith said. “The data that exist for birds are just so incredible, from 50 years of the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Christmas Bird Counters from 100 years ago, on to the eBirders of today.

House Cat Bounty

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I think the solution to the decline of a birds is
a $100 bounty on every house cat found outdoors.

Cats are the Number 1 Threat to Birds

Predation by domestic cats is the number-one direct, human-caused threat to birds in the United States and Canada.

In the United States alone, outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year. Although this number may seem unbelievable, it represents the combined impact of tens of millions of outdoor cats. Each outdoor cat plays a part.

Three billion North American birds have vanished since 1970, surveys show | Science | AAAS

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Three billion North American birds have vanished since 1970, surveys show | Science | AAAS

North America's birds are disappearing from the skies at a rate that's shocking even to ornithologists. Since the 1970s, the continent has lost 3 billion birds, nearly 30% of the total, and even common birds such as sparrows and blackbirds are in decline, U.S. and Canadian researchers report this week online in Science. "It's staggering," says first author Ken Rosenberg, a conservation scientist at the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology. The findings raise fears that some familiar species could go the way of the passenger pigeon, a species once so abundant that its extinction in the early 1900s seemed unthinkable.