Christmas Pheasant

The Whip is on a roll. My buddy has been hunting almost every day now that his retirement is settling in and a move to the country has given him the opportunity. Of course life is complicated and Mike has had some ups and downs recently namely having to give up a hunting dog. A dog lover at heart and a hunting dog fanatic it was hard for Mike to let go his next in line birder.

As is common with bird hunting enthusiasts having an older dog and a younger dog gives them a sense of security in the present and the future for chasing game birds. The old one hunts smarter but tires easily then the young one takes over and hopefully has learned something from the older dog to help it find birds. Mike has even had three dogs to help him choose the next best one. This time the duo didn't work out as the younger dog tried to prove dominance and many fights ensued. I even helped out by watching the older dog while the owner was on vacation but the dog prints in the new Fort Street concrete are evidence these dogs are tightly wired.

So on the day he said goodbye to the young project Mike went deer hunting on his property and bagged the biggest doe of this hunting career. It's only fitting after going through a lot of anguish on what to do with the dogs he could enjoy life a little bit. However this is a little overboard. On the first trip out with the old dog and feeling melancholy about not having the other by his side he had some more luck.

Shortly into the hunt the older German Short Hair put up a rooster a little too far away but the bird stayed in the field. After working the rest of the property and putting up some hens the dog locked up near where the bird had landed. Everything worked out and the shot was true. This rooster's tail has 27 bars along it's length. A trophy in anybody's book especially on your own piece of paradise. Merry Christmas Mike.

Get Outdoors Downriver

DRIWR Boasts New Icon

When bicyclists, walkers and joggers visit the Refuge Gateway in Trenton, they will pass a towering new steel wildlife sculpture that depicts the ecological recovery and biodiversity of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge (IWR).

As part of DTE Energy’s commitment to the environment and sustainability, DTE employees first erected a 12-foot wildlife sculpture at the entrance of its River Rouge Power Plant. Based on the overwhelming positive feedback on that project, DTE Energy employees approached staff of the Detroit River IWR to see if they might be interested in a similar wildlife sculpture at the Refuge Gateway in Trenton. Refuge staff jumped at the opportunity and immediately began working with DTE employees to design a four-sided, 16-foot piece of art that will welcome thousands of projected annual visitors to North America’s only international wildlife refuge.

Whether entering the Refuge on a greenway trail to enjoy the new Visitor Center, fishing off a 775-foot pier (soon to come), boarding the Great Lakes school ship, kayaking in the marsh, bird watching from observation decks, or hiking in Michigan’s only “Wetland of International Importance,” visitors will be able to see the wildlife sculpture. It might best be described as a Christmas tree-shaped sculpture made of three-eighth-inch-thick steel. Upon closer look, you will see lake sturgeon and walleye at the bottom, cattails, turtles, dragonflies, woodpeckers and blue heron as you move up the symbolic food web, and bald eagles as top predators at the pinnacle.

The Detroit River IWR incorporates 5,800 acres along 48 miles of the Detroit River and

Western Lake Erie. The Refuge focuses on conserving, protecting, and restoring habitat for 29

species of waterfowl, 23 species of raptors, 31 species of shorebirds, over 100 species of fish,

and over 300 species of birds. It is the first international refuge in North America and one of the

few urban ones. Unique habitats being managed for conservation include islands, coastal

wetlands, marshes, shoals, and waterfront lands. The Western Lake Erie Watersheds Priority

Natural Area is the institutional mechanism for Canadian federal, provincial, and local partners

to cooperatively work with U.S. partners on the International Wildlife Refuge.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

 

 

Squirrel Meet Hawk

During the fall avian migration we see many different birds at our bird feeder. Most are small and only stay a while. Herc on the other hand has taken a liking to our bird feeder and not for the seed. I've never seen a hawk chase smaller birds around on foot but he does. I think it's a young hungry hawk just trying to get by. Much to our surprise the local bird feeder raider came by for a visit, hopefully at the wrong time.




You never know what you'll see in the outdoors.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

Deer hunters: Expect delays

Along with the Antler Point Restrictions now in place for much of the upper state the powers that be have come up with another way to help hunters lose interest in going deer hunting.

Firearm deer hunters heading up north this season are reminded that northbound I-75 remains detoured to northbound I-675 in Saginaw County, with two lanes open. Traffic delays are expected and motorists are advised to allow extra time. Southbound I-75 motorists will have three lanes open in that area.

Overall, MDOT is reconstructing 4 miles of I-75, as well as replacing bearing pads on the Zilwaukee Bridge, in Saginaw County, during the 2013 construction season.

There also is ongoing construction on the southbound I-675 ramp to southbound I-75. This work requires traffic shifts in both directions on I-75. MDOT expects the work to be completed by late November.

MDOT also is reminding drivers and hunters to play it safe on the roads during firearm deer season. Deer are on the run this time of year, particularly between the hours of sunset and sunrise. Drivers should watch for hunters who may be walking along the side of the road.

ALTERNATE ROUTES:

Choosing an alternate route may require driving additional miles, but could save you time overall by avoiding expected delays on I-75. Motorists heading up north from the Metro Detroit and Flint areas should consider taking one of the following routes:

• To areas north of Grayling: Take westbound I-69 to northbound US-127, then northbound I-75. Additional distance traveled: approximately 50 miles.
• To areas south of Grayling: Take eastbound I-69 to northbound M-15, then westbound M-25 to northbound I-75. Additional distance traveled: approximately10 miles. 

TRAFFIC IMPACT:

• Southbound I-75 is shifted with all lanes open.
• Northbound I-75 remains shifted with traffic detoured to northbound I-675.
• Southbound I-675 remains closed just south of M-13/Jefferson Avenue (Exit 2) to accommodate ramp work. Exit 2 to downtown Saginaw remains open. 
• Southbound I-675 commercial vehicle traffic is detoured via northbound M-13, eastbound M-81, southbound Towerline Road, and westbound M-46. Passenger traffic is rerouted to southbound M-13, then eastbound M-46.  
• The M-81 ramps to I-75 are closed with traffic rerouted east to Towerline Road, then south to westbound M-46. The southbound I-75 ramp to M-81 remains open. 
• The M-13 ramps to I-75 remain closed. Commercial vehicles are detoured via southbound M-13, eastbound M-81, southbound Towerline Road, and westbound M-46. Passenger traffic is rerouted to southbound M-13, then to eastbound M-46. 
• The southbound I-675 on ramps at M-58 (State Street), Second Street, Sixth Street, and Veterans Memorial Park remain closed. 
• The existing detours will remain in effect at Adams Street. 

Thanks Richie Rich.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

Pointe MouilleeYouth Duck Hunt

Bring your young hunter to one of Michigan’s Managed Waterfowl Hunt Areas (MWHAs) in November for a memorable hunting experience. Parties with at least one youth will be given priority in the draw.

• Nov. 10 – Pointe Mouillee State Game Area (a.m. hunt) in Rockwood

Pointe Mouillee will host their youth hunts in the morning only. Drawings for morning hunts will occur at 5:30 a.m. Youth priority drawings are available for hunting parties with at least one youth and up to two adults (maximum party size is four). All youth participating in these priority hunts must be properly licensed to hunt. Youth hunters 9 years old and younger must be accompanied by a qualified Mentored Youth Hunting Program mentor. 

This is always a big affair at Pointe Mouillee. State wildlife biologist supervisor for the DNR Joe Robison makes it a special day for the youth hunters. His passion is known far and wide and earned him a spot on the Michigan Out of Doors show a while back showing want is done for the youth hunters. Every effort is made to make this a most enjoyable experience for the youths. 

Here's a short video of the duck hunting opportunities at the refuge.



Get Outdoors Downriver.

Google Camping

In these times of short money going on vacation or just a quick getaway can mean going the camping route. Which park to use, private or public. Well now the state of Michigans will provide camp views much like Googles street scenes. No more excuses to yurt it up.

http://www.midnr.com/Publications/pdfs/communications/glenbrook_yurt_360/glenbrook_yurt_360/interior.htm

Beginning Nov. 3, state park campers who make reservations on the new, improved central reservation system (CRS) website, administered by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), can view one or more photos of each campsite prior to making their reservations.

"With the existing reservation system website, customers read descriptive text about the campsite to determine if it's sunny, shady, flat or elevated," said Christa Sturtevant-Good, DNR central reservation system liaison. "While text descriptions will remain, altered slightly to an easier-to-read format, campers can also look at between one to three photos of every site, and then visually decide if that campsite has all the features they're looking for."

The photos will be shown as smaller thumbnail images which, when clicked on, open to a larger size in a new window.

"In this way, viewers can see the site up close," said Anna Sylvester, DNR Parks and Recreation field operations chief for northern Michigan. "Often campers wonder where the fire pit or electrical box is located on the site, but they can't tell this just by reading text. These features are shown in most photos, allowing campers to determine if the location of campsite elements will meet their camping needs."

The addition of campsite and lodging photos is a customer-driven enhancement made available through the new CRS provider, Camis USA, Inc., which has a call center in Ann Arbor, Mich., and servers in Southfield, Mich. The new reservation system becomes active in early November, with important transitions taking place as the activation approaches.

During the transition phase to the new CRS, customers can continue to make reservations through Oct. 30 using the call center. The phone number, 1-800-44-PARKS, will remain unchanged. Reservations through the website, www.midnrreservations.com, will be possible until Oct. 22 at 8 p.m., when the website will taken down to begin the transition process to the new website. The address will not change.

Important transition dates include:

• Oct. 22-31: Website reservations cannot be made. The call center will remain active through Oct. 30, taking reservations for dates through Oct. 31, 2013.
  
• Oct. 25: The new reservation website goes live. Although reservations cannot yet be made on the website, customer profiles can be created and viewers can navigate the site to create familiarity.
  
• Oct. 31: Reservations cannot be made. State parks can register walk-ins on a first-come, first-served basis.
  
• Nov. 1: The new CRS system, both the website and the call center, opens to state park lodging, which typically has a one-year reservation window (camper cabins, mini-cabins, rustic cabins, yurts and modern lodges). Reservations for these facilities can now be made for dates after Oct. 31, 2013. From Nov. 1-2, campsites and slips are not reservable. During this time, campsites and slips are available at the facility on a first-come, first-served basis.
  
• Nov. 3: The system opens to facilities with a six-month reservation window. These include campsites at state parks and select state forest campgrounds and harbor slips.

Harvest or Hunter's Moon

After last weeks spectacular showing of the International Space Station, 3 views in 3 days and each lasting over a minute, tonight's moon should be equally impressive. The main reason these viewings are so rare is that the view times coincided with clear skys, something that normally doesn't happen especially 3 nights in a row for the ISS.

The forcast for tonight is clear sky so the view of the moon should be impressive. I'm going to try my hand at digiscoping the event to see if I can get a decent pic of the moon. The you can use it to see the man in the moon.

Right in the middle of the moon are the eyes, nose and mouth.The dark spots on the upper right give the illusion of curly hair. If you're out at dusk give the moon a look and maybe you'll see him in the Harvest/Hunter's moon. It just depends on if your crops are dry enough or your quarrie is plentiful.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

A Meal Fit for the King

If you find yourself hungry without money or are just tired or the same old noodleroni head for a swamp for a fine meal. That's what Chase told the Explorers Club recently before taking the group to the nearest water. Earlier in spring the cattail pollen was collected and acts like a flour to cook with, if you can collect enough. There's also wild rice in the area but the stands are few and far between now so we got a sample of wild rice from Minnesota which still has Native Americans that collect and sell it. Chase then displayed a main entree of the meal, crawfish.

While the water was warming the group tried hatchet tossing. It's not as easy as it looks at least for the girls. There was also a primitive hut to explore.

 Chase brought in some cattail stalks and peeled the root ends for a veggie side dish and combined with the crawdads, lemon and butter it was a meal fit for a king.

 Get Outdoors Downriver.





Don't APR Me ASAP.

There's a movement a foot to enact a law to force every hunter in Southern Michigan to only harvest a deer with at least 4 antler points on one side. The laws have already been changed for most of the Northern Lower Peninsula to only harvest a deer with at least 3 antler points on one side. I've posted earlier about my hunting party's success over the years and 3points on one side would've caused us to only harvest 1 deer in over 25 years. We're not expert hunters in the least but to get the 15-20 bucks over these years someone had to be spending time in the field. Like most hunters we don't own large tracts of land or live close to where we hunt so it's hard to scout out the older deer. With the advent of the trail cam we saw what kind of deer that are in the area within a week of opening day of deer gun season.

The deer are there and if you hunt hard enough and long enough you could have an opportunity to harvest such a buck. When your available time to hunt is compressed into a weekend and part of a week, if you're lucky, the chances of seeing a brute like this are very low. So don't Antler Point Restrict me and if you agree let the DNR and the LPDMI what you think. The group LPDMI is behind this push for large racks, which every hunter loves to see, but the loss of the harvesting experience far outweighs the chance for a few hunters to harvest large racks. The group is paying $14k to "survey" 1000 hunters to get their opinion on the restrictions. Years ago the state voted on keeping all hunting and fishing laws in the hands of the DNR and using sound science to make new laws. This survey is an end around to get a change in law without science being involved. A survey of opinion is just opinion, the opinion of 1000 to govern the other 700K hunters.

Many of the recent law changes have come about using these same surveys of opinion and because of the survey rules manipulation of the laws are favoring certain factions of outdoor enthusiasts. Lets keep these decisions based in science and not in opinion of a chosen few.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

Check Out a Fish

A fishing rod and tackle box lending program has been started at the Wyandotte and Riverview libraries. This is thanks to the Wayne County Community College retiree Dennis O'Connell and the people from Gander Mt., Flambeau Outdoors, and Eagle Claw along with the Downriver Walleye Federation. Each community library card holder can check out a fishing rod and a small tackle box for either fishing a pond or shallow lake or a fishing pier in Wyandotte on the Detroit River. Riverview library is located right on a pond in Patriot's Park and is suited for kids of all ages especially beginning fisher people.

The banks gently roll down to the water and there is some shallow water near the edge. Don't be surprised if you see a mossy backed turtle begging for scraps. Wyandotte's Bacon Memorial Library has rods and reels better suited for river fishing on the pier. They have both regular and river specific tackle boxes depending on what type of fishing you want to participate in. The regular tackle boxes have hooks, lures, bobbers and plastic jig bodies to use at any good fishing spot. The pier fishing tackle boxes are geared toward keeping your line still fishing from the pier and include only spreaders, sinkers and plastic jig bodies. It's highly recommended to bring some bait for this fishing and there's a list of local bait shops by the rod carousel.

Please support these shops because they all donate to the Kid's Fishing Derby and without their support the derbies wouldn't be the same. Make sure and tell them about the lending program and where and how you'll be fishing and they most probably will give you advise if you ask for it. If you do fish off of the pier don't do any overhead casting to keep the outing safe.

Get Outdoors Downriver.