Interested in seeing the great finds everyone has this late winter/spring.
Found my first of the year yesterday, in front of a trail cam I went to take down. Edge of a cut bean field. At least a few weeks old as it was sunken into the mud without blood on the pedicle.
I found a nice matching set laying next to each other on the Cimarron River last week while coyote hunting my friend's ranch . Looked to be last year's shed. Area is grazed pretty hard and floods once in a while so no rodents to chew on them.
Was doing some wind bumps to a buddy on 1/3/21 and found this guy. Saw some blood in the snow, and started looking. Thankfully, not a snake. Otherwise it would've bit me
Saw him fighting off 2 younger bucks and holding a doe in January. I wouldn’t have thought he had any breeding left in him.
I only saw one small patch of snow left in the bottom of a valley. Wish there was a little cloud cover... my eyes play a lot of tricks on me when the suns bright, but it has been an enjoyable day so far.
No dillos yet today, but I’m bringing my .22 just in case. Hurt my shoulder again yesterday swinging at one.
The large shed was laying 50yds from where I had the encounter with that buck, and all three sheds I found on that property were within 40yds of each other...found no others after another 3-4mi(three properties). I'd say that around 60-70% have dropped both or at least one side on my spots, even higher percentage on the heavier/larger racks.
My friend near Walton found d this deer standing motionless in a ditch bleeding out his nose after the thaw. He didn't find any signs of trauma. It was still there several hours and multiple phone calls to the warden. And no answer. He finally got a deputy to respond who dispatched it with a 12 gauge slug.
Didn't walk too long yesterday or at least not with much focus. Had 4 teenagers and a 10 week old puppy along but we managed to find a decent one. All in all a great day!
Charlie: I found two dead bucks on a quarter my cousin owns right after firearms season. They were on opposite ends of the property and had apparently died during or right at the end of firearms season as they were not there before that season. I talked to the hunters that hunted the adjoining properties and they said they had not lost a wounded deer. I will never know what killed them but, am guessing they were shot from the road and did not drop on the spot so the wanna be hunters kept driving.
Found the carcass of the road kill buck I posted about last fall. The coyotes had drug it back further in the timber
Found the carcass of the road kill buck I posted about last fall. The coyotes had drug it back further in the timber
Bald Eagles are nesting there this year
Bald Eagles are nesting there this year
Cow bones much easier to spot than shed antlers
Cow bones much easier to spot than shed antlers
Went this afternoon to look for horns at a property I have access to. They burned it off two weeks ago, first time it has been burned intentionally for the 31 yrs I have hunted and fished there. Only found this one shed, one from a year ago, but found some other bone and enjoyed the nice weather.
We’ve got a large nest on our property. Looks like a Volkswagen stuck up there. Haven’t seen any using it, but it’s about 1/2 mile off the road. They are definitely in that section a lot though.
Talked to a game warden and he said they will make decoy nests every year.... Or maybe he said practice nests.
At first I thought the low nest was a pack rat nest, but it had bird crap all over the top of it in the obvious bowl pushed down in the center. The owner’s son saw the birds in the high nest two weeks ago when he was there. There are always ducks and geese on the detention lake, hope to get to see the eagles nesting and flying around there hunting while fishing there this summer.
Those are practice nests, Ray. Sometimes they'll build it one year, then return the next to actively nest. You'd know it, Jason. Ray's "Volkswagen" is a pretty accurate description.
I tagged along with the feds when they were banding eagles near and around Fort Riley. The size of the nests was so impressive, as was the guy who climbed the tree, then climbed over the lip of the nest and sat in it with the young. (He was roped off, like rock climbers)
All I've seen have been extremely high in some of the biggest trees around. Last year one I'd been watching ended up falling when the top of the tree blew out in a storm.
I know a rancher here in Chase County that records the date of the Vultures return and has been doing so for many years. I believe he said that the earliest date was 3/13 and the latest date was 3/21.
Pretty cool, people are appreciating the turkey vulture migration.
Several small towns have water towers that become communal roosts in the spring. There may be 50 or more on one tower, plus surrounding trees.The one in Marion is in the high school parking lot.
Bet some kid would only park under that tower, once.
We live on the edge of a bluff. The south wind sweeps up the hillside and creates an airflow that the vultures like to coast on. They glide right in front of our deck and are pretty darn neat to watch. The wife and I always notice when they leave and return.
I'm a date keeper. Keep track of the first morels we find every year, when the fruit trees bloom, when antlers drop, rut, when Hen of the Woods come up, etc. I've been surprised at how much happens at the same time each year regardless of weather conditions.
Doesn't mean much but here are a couple of videos of the same buck on the same trail 1yr and 1 day apart. Fairly certain I saw him the year before but didn't film him. Not a buck I see on a regular basis in this spot but he shows up every year during the rut. I've found some trends and patterns that can be useful.
There is a rookery on our place. Noisy at times. Hell of a good place to catch a catfish...
We own an abandoned rock quarry. This summer I went into the largest quarry pit and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say there were between 100-200 cranes in the bottom of the dried out pit. I tried to video it with my phone, but half of them had already taken flight when I pulled in with the dozer.
Pretty crazy looking watching them all in there... not sure what the draw of that dried out pit was.
Catscratch- I've had that happen. The same buck walked under me on the same day, exactly one year apart and I never saw him again before or after. My Facebook memory feed showed me it was the same day.
Same time same place,One of the first to bring that out was Don Higgons with Real World.It may not be exactly the same day but I have seen it multiple times by usually putting cameras up at same places year after year.I have crane, eagle and vulture nest along the river
I get the the urge to go somewhere often the same day every year without realizing it until my news feed shows my posts one year ago. I found this at the farm yesterday and when I got home, I saw that I had found an antler very near the same place a tear ago.
Checked my cameras, looked for sheds again at the hunting spot on Sunday. Out of a few hundred pictures, the cameras showed two bucks that had shed, several of the younger bucks still packing their horns around, and still chasing the does around. This guy was a frequent visitor at all four cameras out.
I pulled a bunch of cards yesterday, several 2-3yr old bucks still carrying but majority have dropped. Didn't have time to look much for sheds, but got a distant pic of the eagle nest SW of Argonia with mom or pop sitting above.
Here is a matched set I picked up this year. I got them in a unique way. I was driving on a country road in late February and 5 or 6 deer decided they needed cross in front of me. Three or four does jumped the fence by getting right next to and jumping it. Two bucks tried to jump the fence from the middle of the road and did not clear it. One of the bucks lost a side when he became tangled in the fence. He then decided try a different tactic and crawl under the fence. His remaining side hooked the fence and came off.