Walking outside Monday morning I was greeted by a temp of 72 and the sun was 5 minutes away from peeking over the horizon.  Starting out, walking through the feedlot, flies were everywhere, before dropping me off they convoyed me for a quarter of a mile, at least.  Luckily, no bitin’ flies!  Several deer flushed around me, but I was just too slow getting the camera up!

The first thing that I saw of interest and was able to take a picture of was cow number 76 (71 is on its right ear) and she had tangled with a prickly pear, ouch!  Walking toward her, she threw her head, and luckily, the tuna, or nopal, that’s the leaf, flew off, saving the cow a real sore mouth.  Generally cows won’t eat prickly pear tuna unless the spines are burned off, but in drought conditions, like we’re in now, we may have to burn off the spines because the tuna are good sources of food and moisture for livestock.

About a half mile later, 2 deer popped up and stood around for me to get this “shot” of them and not liking what they were seeing, took off toward the thick stuff, but too late for me to switch to video.

Both “shots” confirm how dry it’s been around here, the grass should be green and growing, but it has been a real dry spring!  However, this turned out to be a good walk, good exercise, saw some deer, got 2 “shots” and, with the humidity, worked up a good sweat!

Yesterday, although I was a little late, 8:00 AM, I started this year’s round of morning walks.  An earlier start would have provided some pictures of wild game, however I only saw one doe hightailing it away from me, but as I walked along, I noticed a lot of split and cracked mesquite trees.

Last week, preceding the big front that brought the disastrous, killer tornadoes across the south, we had some really big winds, 50 to 60 MPH, topped off by a brief thunderstorm that left pea sized hail and 7/8 inch of rain, praise the Lord for the moisture.  After the storm I noticed the biggest mesquite tree on the ranch, probably 80 years old, had been split. But it wasn’t until yesterday when I walked around and saw that the mesquite trees had been hit very hard.  The big tree and a lot of the other mesquites looked like they had been split by downdrafts, which they probably were.

Above is the big tree, split almost down the middle and it had another limb, higher up, broken off.

More pictures of the broken mesquites.
    
One good thing and one bad came out of this storm, there’ll be a lot of firewood that will be easy to get to and the bad, just think it’s only April!

Last Friday, in the first inning of our first game for the day, I was on first base and the hitter behind me, hit a one hop, screamer that nailed me right on my bad knee.  The ball  missed the knee brace by a millionth of an inch and really smashed into me.

The results of this unfortunate occurrence was, it knocked me out of the year’s first tournament, ended any hopes of finally opening this years turkey season, it resulted in a doctor’s visit on Monday results being a badly bruised knee, made me limp around (and still limping), but it made me focus on last year’s income tax that I’d not even started on.  As I post this, my knee still is sensitive, but my taxes are 80% complete and I’ll take them down to my accountant tomorrow and he’ll finish them by Friday the deadline that has been extended until Monday, the 18th.  It seems un American to have a tax deadline on the 18th, but that figures for the current administration!

Barely being able to climb into my truck, late Wednesday afternoon Layla and I had gone out and picked up the game cams and no good pics had been made.  The weather has been unseasonably hot this week, but driving back to the house, a young doe was 50 feet off the road and I got this “shot” of her.  With our warm weather everything is greening up and our barn swallows have returned, but I haven’t seen any humming birds yet.

Then, just as we went through the gate, I looked over across the just plowed field and there was 3 more doe just looking at me.

Tomorrow, with my taxes completed I can concentrate on getting my knee well, turkey hunting, planting this year’s garden and soon, starting back with my morning walks!

On our ranch last week, a great tragedy occurred, exact date unknown, with a cow trying to eat one of my game cams, resulting in no pictures from it.  We didn’t find the evidence until this past Saturday afternoon and quickly changed the game cams location.  Hopefully the new spot will get some great wildlife “shots”.

However, the remaining game cam placed at the corn feeder was clicking away and got some good “shots”. Of all things, first to show up was a cottontail rabbit.

The next day 5 deer showed up, but 10 days ago there was 6.  The only casualty I’ve seen around was a spike that got himself smacked by a car on the county road, but the 6 deer that were at the feeder were doe.

This next “shot” was different and this is the first time that 3 coons have showed up.   They must really be hungry, because it’s a wonder that they aren’t fighting.

Last “shot” was a squirrel climbing up one of the feeder’s legs, I’m sure trying to get to the corn thrower.  The feeder is enclosed, but I’ve seen the results of squirrels unscrewing the nut that holds the cover in place and really mess up the wires!

Last week I put out 2 game cams, 1 on a feeder and the other on a well used game trail.  We hadn’t been seeing many deer, bucks or doe, so, surprisingly, this herd of 6 doe showed up at the feeder.

At the same feeder, just after midnight, this coon appeared and it looked like he was trying to climb up and get all the corn.

A couple of hours later, 2 more coons arrived.  Probably the climber found the pickins’ good at this spot, so it went and got its buddy.

Wondering what the game trail cam would have and, with the warm weather, if it would have anything, mid Saturday morning, this young buck posed for a profile “shot”.

In the past, by mid March, the bucks had shed their antlers, but this one hadn’t.  Last week one of my friends commented that he’d just seen a nice buck and we both conversed that it was sure late for them to be sportin’ horns!

Last Thursday morning I was driving to town because Mickey Donahoo and I were having early softball practice and glancing over to my left, in a small roadside stock tank, swimming around were two ducks, a widgeon drake and a hen.  They are mid sized, puddle ducks, good table fare and these two sat still long enough for me to get this “shot”.

Thinking to myself, maybe all of the big ducks haven’t gone back north yet, so I made arrangements to go Friday on a “Picture Safari” to a large ranch here in Mills County.  My objective was to scout a number of small stock tanks and one 40 acre, lake to try and get a few up close pictures of some ducks.

Slowly driving around the ranch, the scenery was picturesque, the views seemed to go on forever, but there was one problem, no ducks!  My guess was that last weeks unseasonably warm weather had sent them flying back to more northern climes.  However, all wasn’t lost, I saw a lot of deer, no horns of course, because they’ve already shed them, but I did see two groups of turkeys!

Along a ridge line, one group was all hens and once they saw my truck, they hightailed it out of there.  The other group was toms, two strutters among ‘em, but both groups were too far for a pic.  Same for a bobcat that wasn’t expecting the truck to come creeping around a corner, but like a flash, it was long gone into the thick stuff!

On State Highway 16, driving back home, before I turned right on to my County road, I glanced over toward the small, roadside stock tank and swimming around were 5 ducks, that turned out to be 2 widgeon drakes and 3 hens.  One of the drakes was eying me suspiciously, but I bet that within a week, they’ll be long gone outa’ here too.

From southern Colorado, Randy Pfaff, a Pastor and a hunting guide, sent me this picture of icicles hanging off his shed.  Up there it was super cold, in the – 20’s or more.  Cold is still cold and our 7 was cold enough for me!

More pictures from the snow country.  One of Bob Baugh’s associates in Nebraska sent him this “shot” of a truly nice buck chasing a doe.  It looks cold up there too!

Finally down here in warmer climes.  It’s only February and the rattlers are out. My neighbor, James Crumley, sent me this picture of 3, “good”, rattlers.

They were holed up along a creek bank not 2 miles, as the cow flies, from my house, he gassed them, they groggily came out and he dispatched them.  He went by the spot this past Monday and another one was out sunning and he dispatched him too!

My friends keep sending me some neat outdoors pictures and one very unusual one from Dave Lazor, a Senior Softball buddy from Washington.  He sent me this one that shows a pride of mountain lions.  I always thought that mountain lions were solitary and wouldn’t covey up like these pictured.

One of my teammates from last year, Everett Sims, sent me some pics from game cameras on their ranch in Jackson County, on the Texas coast.  The first pic taken on, January 25th shows 2 bobcats, with one of them exiting through the fence wire.

The next pic shows  2 bucks, one a 10 pointer with a palmated antler and he’ll be a shooter next season!  Down south of us the bucks haven’t shed their antlers.

The most unusual is a “shot” of a young buck and a bobcat, both within the feeder wire.  The buck is keeping an eye on the cat who’s busy with something else.  I wonder if the bobcats are eating the corn?

Driving home Wednesday afternoon, on a stock tank right beside State Highway 16, (the Texas forts trail), there was almost a hundred pintail ducks, or sprigs, crowded into the less than half acre tank.  Pictures of the ducks taking to air with their white plumage, would be “neat” for my blog, so making a mental note to remember my camera and stop by on Thursday afternoon and take, hopefully, some action shots, the only ducks sighted were these 2, male, canvasbacks, or “cans”.

According to Wikipedia, traditionally, in the winter, the Chesapeake Bay on our east coast, supported the majority of canvasbacks, Aythya valisineria, but because of the loss of aquatic vegetation in the bay, their range has shifted to the south and west, to the lower Mississippi valley.  It’s interesting that valisineria is the scientific name of wild celery, canvasback’s food of choice, but market hunters and habitat loss has all but eliminated this fine, table duck.  After one duck hunt, my mom cooked several red heads that are very similar to “cans” and, far from it, those red heads weren’t “fine table fare”!

The recent severe winter storms that we have encountered must have pushed these ducks over and down to us.  Having hunted for years on the prairies and saltwater bays of the upper and mid Texas coast, these 2 “cans” are the first two that I have seen up close.  Years past, the breeding stocks fell to alarming levels, and most years the season was closed on these big ducks or the limit was one male of the species.  They were rare and in over 30 years of duck hunting I never shot one and only saw one killed.

Identification of this canvasback was easy because of his “slanty” bill, while a red head duck’s head is a more rounded, traditional duck shape.  Male red heads and canvasbacks are very similar in coloration, so in flight, look for the “slanty” bill and head shape.

When I was looking through the pics from the game cams there were several that were quite unusual.  The first one was “shot” on January 6th and showed a doe and a ‘coon both inside the wire of the feeder.

In Texas, we can hunt game over bait either cast out by hand or in a stationary feeder.  Most of us fill our feeders with corn, however many have switched to high protein pellets.  One very unusual pic the game cam caught was the feeder actually feeding and casting out the corn.

A lot of game is drawn to the feeders; deer, ‘coons, feral pigs, rabbits, squirrels and birds.  On the 17th a bunch of doves descended on the feeder, 18 of ‘em, guards were posted, in this case a dove and a squirrel and then they put on the feed sack.  The funny thing about this feeding picture is that it takes place at 1:48 PM.  Generally, doves feed early in the morning and later in the afternoon.

The next day, the 12th, the doves showed up around their normal, early morning feeding time.  This time the guards weren’t posted and all 18 of ‘em chowed down.

It was much too early for the squirrel to stand his post!