Well, Ted, maybe we’ve all been a bit smartassed here.
Maybe things are different where you live but around here preserves are an amazing predator smorgasbord – especially for avian predators. It’s a rare day you don’t see at least a half-dozen redtails, etc. Predator control may be practiced under the radar at some places, but no one at the preserve where I guide will touch that with a 10 foot pole. It’s not worth it and there are always eyes watching. A wealthy woman who was into dog training maintained her own private preserve not too far from here. She instructed her employees to kill hawks, etc. A couple of years ago she was busted and the result wasn’t pretty. You may recall that case – it made national news. In the days when this area was Pheasant Central, the PAGC actually paid for dead hawks and would sponsor big shoots. The newspaper in those days carried articles with pictures showing dump trucks full of dead crows and hawks - imagine that happening in 2007!!!. These days, it will, at the very least cost you a bundle and you will lose your hunting privileges for a very long time. I’ll let the predators at the hunting club pull the heads off all the pen-raised phez they want rather than face that risk.
We are overrun with predators generally here in PA – there are scads of them on my property. Every time, I’ve tried to establish a bird population on my land, within two weeks there is nothing left but little piles of feathers. I’ve given up.
Interestingly, there are also plenty of predators where we hunt wild birds out west – this one took a sharptail right in front of my dogs this Fall in Nebraska:
Despite the predators, areas with vast amounts of good habitat seem to support good wild bird populations.
Be all of that as it may, on to the “wild/not wild” game. I kinda cheated.
The first pic with the hammergun shows a limit of PAGC stockies. They are not “wild” but they are a far cry from the game farm birds. In fact it is much more challenging these days to take a limit of the PAGC birds than it was to take a limit back in the days when we had real wild phez here. So, I guess the answer to the first pic is not quite wild.
For Eightbore’s info, that gun is a 20 bore Bertuzzi, with Manrico Torcoli (he is known for his elaborate fantasy nudes, etc, which do not appeal to me, but I think he’s the best bulino engraver working today) engraving of my beloved master, Maggie, holding a ruffed grouse with mountain laurel. Maggie is the orange and white Brittany in some of the other pics – now 8 ½ years old. Here’s a pic of the bulino panel. A lesser (and less expensive) light did the scroll:
The second pic of Maggie with four phez show 100% wild Iowa birds – two hunters – each one bird short of a limit. This is another shot earlier that same day right after two of the birds were taken as a double in heavy switchgrass. Maggie and I hunkered down in a switchgrass “nest” to get out of the wind and cold for a couple of minutes.
The final pic was taken in my “front yard” of my puppy, Chase, with limit of PAGC birds that the little bugger produced for the gun. So, again the answer is not quite wild.
Fun thread!
