Odds and Ends
Opening Day!

Opening day means a lot to me for many of the same reasons it means to most. I long season of harvesting. A great way to be part of nature.
This opening date was spent with two other good guys, and a not so good dog. As we started in Ohio, we saw no birds in the first place we went.
Looking on we saw some signs of predators! This is the first issue I wish to address.

Predators are a fact of nature. Predator control is a issue that MUST arise! What are these predators? Well a good list will start with fox, falcons, owls, coyotes, the domestic dog, and the domestic cat.

In fact the domestic cat kills approximately 4,000,000 birds a year! WOW! How can we control the cat? Well for starters feed them at home! My cats are used around the farm to control mice and small animals, To keep them "busy doing their job" many don't feed them. Another piece of advice is to control the population. One or two cats are plenty to control mice.
Once I entered a state property, as I entered I looked across the road and saw a untagged Lab chewing on a rabbit. Don't get me wrong dogs are great, but why own a dog if you don't care for it! You know that's all they are looking for.
In the off season of birds, I'll find me out hunting coyote and fox. Fox is not an new predator to Ohio, and once was hunted heavily for the pelt. Pelt prices dropped as well as the harvesters. Please don't get me wrong you shouldn't go and just kill fox and coyote just to kill. They do need to be controlled and hey the pelts are useful!
About two years ago, I went and listened to a speaker about the growing coyote population in Northwest Ohio. In the past five years, coyotes have been the cause of much debate. This debate is about how they got here, if they are affecting small game populations, and how many there are. Well, my tongue is in my cheek about a lot of this. Unfortunately they are here, and we must control them! Every year, I go to my once "hot spots" of birds and see none, not even any signs except dog prints and dog droppings with feathers in it. My ideas on controlling them are to harvest their pelts! I once was paid to hunt the area around a pheasant farm to control the population, in turn to save the owners stock. Horse raiser have done the same. This is a problem! We must deal with it accordingly.
As for those predators that are protected by law. (The re-introduction of the red tailed hawk - whatever "re-introduction" means) Not much can be done except controlling other predators and making habitat, such as old Christmas trees that cannot be landfilled!
All this talk about the lack of birds then turned onto the farmers. In a farming era where you must produce as much as possible to "stay alive" proper land management can be used to help not only the small game population, but also will help cut costs.

No till farming is a great way of cutting costs and producing habitat.
Using more "environmental friendly" means of weed and bug control is another.
Leaving end rows will help promote small game which will in turn eat bugs and for that matter weed seeds. And I think we all know in the farming community the end rows don't produce like the rest of the field.
Leaving fence rows which will offer the same benefits.
As we arrived to our next place to harvest, two pickup trucks were there and a car. A total of six people and five dogs were hunting in three different groups in approximately a three acre parcel. As we were turning around to leave, I rolled down the window to talk to a guy standing by the road with a beautiful Shorthair and a Lab. I asked him how his day was going. He answered by saying it was great until all these people started intruding. I said well have a good day! We're going up the road. I ask you and harvesters wonder why groups like "Save the Doves" exist! USE HUNTING ETHICS!!!!!!!
If you don't know them, here is my ethical code, I trust you have one, so we don't go through the same scare we just did here in Ohio.

1. Don't hunt over someone! First come first serve!
2. Never "limit out" at one area. This helps conserve our harvest!
3. Always get permission to hunt on a property. Nothing hurts my heart more than a poacher!
4. Hunt DEAD!
5. Never offer to pay money to hunt an area. (This is not the NBA)
6. Always ask the landowner if there is any type on game he doesn't wish you to hunt.
7. Treat the land 200% better than if it was your own.
8. Help the landowner out by picking up after yourself and others.
9. If they is something wrong or broken (like fence or gates) tell the landowner.
10. Never begin a group in without speaking to the owner first.
11. Help other hunters! We must stick together!
12. Never kill what you can't / won't use.
13. And Finally A POACHER IS A CRIMINAL AND NOT A HUNTER!!!!!!