After the planes, trains and automobiles component of getting here was done, we set about to get things in order. A modification to the fuse box energized the whole house and allowed for lights and some space heaters to improve the environment for human habituation, and...since a real electrician isn't available until later next week (to get us back to a full 220 at the box) we had to make some creative modifications to the basic utilities.



What we're up against...



Hot water again!

After a whole day spent cleaning up the endless mess, I set off for my reward. I was inspired by a visitor first...



He's pretty shameless...




Finally!

Is that a house boat?

It sure was, all summer.

I was thinking, why fight it, just bring in a backhoe and make your fishing hole bigger. And, I almost thought there was a bird on the wire off the end of your barrels, lol. You always have great, just being there pictures, thanks for taking the time.

thank you so much for the wonderful images and narratives...

Ed: You're welcome.



Torture.

A small update, after several trails walked and a conversation with the folks in charge of the forest, it seems like the bird numbers are down this year. A cool and wet spring seems to have limited hatching success for this summer's crop of birds. What few birds I am seeing are all fully mature (except for the one that's haunting the house). Another variable: last year this part of the world was in an extensive drought. This year had significant rainfall and even flooding in the region, so the woods seem lush, green, and very full of berries and other foodstuffs. Not sure how that is affecting things, but I'm not seeing birds in the usual places. Another difference...last year we had raptors everywhere, and every version was well-represented (red-tail, sharp-shinned, goshawk, etc.). You'd drive down a road and flush a hawk every few feet. The evidence of their feeding was also everywhere, with many piles of feathers on each trail I walked. No sign (or very little) of either the hawks or the feathers this year. With things still so green and full, it's hard to get a solid feel for things, but I should have had several encounters with birds so-far and yet...there's still nothing in the freezer.

Pest!

Beautiful! Looks like a lot of fun

those images of that tame bird are amazing...and scarey...

beware, it could be all part of a ruse to psyc you out into giving up before you even load your gun...think about it...you go exploring your usual spots and expecting to put up a few wild birds as usual,...but instead.... nothing, nada, zip...cept you got this tame one hangin around like a trained chicken, lookin so cute...ah tell yah, they are workin on yah, tryin to git into yo head...

resist ah tell yah...resist... as best you can...

is there a recantation of "the raven" perhaps workin here?

https://poets.org/poem/raven

Ed: That bird is far-more at risk than I am of being psyched out by it. I wouldn't shoot it now because it's being enjoyed by some others here, but if a goshawk comes by while it's hanging around out in the open...

the good die young?

an hawks an owls gotta eat too... i guess...

an of course, there are the furry four legged critters...

it is a wonder that any birds make it to spring...

but then nature has been workin its magic for thousands of years now...

figure your season opens saturday...enjoy...

That is a smart bird….it knows that if he hangs around enough no way is he going to end up on the supper table! N

Finally!

The leaves are starting to thin out a bit and I'm finally seeing more birds. Still not many young birds showing up however.

Lloyd, that looks like a huge bird!

We shot mostly small birds. One was "extra small". LIke quail size. Never seen such a small bird during hunting season.

Beautiful!

your pix bring back happy memories...thanks for that...

neat looking little gun...pls describe...

You're welcome Ed. I am missing my English 16 (ammo and questionable transport issues caused me to leave it behind this year). That is a Dickenson Estate (28 tubes on a .410 frame). Not a fine gun, but an adequate upland gun and very easy to carry (5 1/4 lbs).

BrentD: It is a mature bird, for sure. Very few young birds here this year. I've encountered only one or two (including the tame one here at the house). Poor nesting success this Spring is likely the culprit.

Almost all the bright colors here are now gone, leaving a mostly mono-chomatic effect, and we've had big leaf-fall here for the past few days. Rain (& light snow) this morning will accelerate that significantly.

Dumb luck?

I was walking into a bright sun and the wind was tossing the trees, so I never heard it launch and only just saw the wing movement as it flew down the trail. The shot was instinctive and long (~30-yards & with the tube full of 8's, not the 6's). When it fell I was surprised, as the mount seemed awkward and uncertain. Saw just one other bird off the trail to my right (didn't hear it either) that beat me to the thick cover (Jack Pine) before I could even mount the gun. Tough sledding so-far up here this year, so every bird counts double it seems.

Glad you’re getting out there and having some fun.

Karl G and I are headed up for some Woodcock, ruffed grouse, and sharptails for a few days in MI’s eastern UP.
Pasties are all ready.

instinct, snap shooting an rots o ruck is the glory of grouse huntin alone...thats why flushers of any kind, two legged or four, are a big help...gives you a split second of edge...how ah do luv hit so...

I should go berry picking more often...

Every time I see the title of this thread, I think of Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash.

What kind of berries are those? Cranberries?

Could you post some close up photos? I found some berries I did not recognize insideyes in some grouse this week.

BrentD:

That is a mixed bag of rose hips and hawthornes along with my father-in-law's old 870, which I use as a truck gun on road birds. This year is gangbusters for all the berries and the grouse eat both of those (I was picking wild grapes earlier today too). Lots of the highbush cranberries, chokecherries, and even nannyberries out this year.





My buddy was back today as well...

Those are tiny grapes, Lloyd. Do you know what they are named? Our wild muscadines are long gone. They ripen and drop in August here.

Lloyd thanks for the menu! Sounds like no shortage of food where you are at. No grapes where I was last week. All the mountain ash that was hanging 2 weeks earlier, is gone. Birds are eating mostly alder cone buds and ash (or maple) seeds with a lot of fresh greens that are still available at ground level.

The few red berries that we did see in crops were, perhaps immature Mt. ash, but they were smaller than normal and somewhat whitish on one end as if not completely ripened.

I'll post some pics and commentary about the last trip tonight or Wednesday.

Stan: Sadly, I have no idea what variant they might be. Very tart and slightly sweet and we use them for jam.

https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/riverbank-grape

BrentD: Riverbank Grape, eh? Thank you for that. Makes shockingly good grape jam. Unlike any other grape jam I've ever had. IMGUR is problematic tonight or I'd upload a shot of a handful of those berries you asked about. Another popular grouse food here is Grey dogwood, red stems on a viburnum-like bush with pearl-white berries.

Finally...got it.



I think the bigger multi-hue ones are the rosehips. We've never used the hawthornes before but they look so-similar to the rose-hips. I see both in bird crops here.



Pretty, eh?

As Craig mentioned, your pics always put us right there. Thanks Lloyd.

James: Thank you, and to Craig also. I wanted to ask you how the Canadian side of the Lake-of-the-Woods faired in all the flooding?

Probably walked my last trail last night. Only flushed 1 bird and spent the rest of the afternoon dodging a number of other sports fans. Things are changing up here, more people and less lonely places than when I first ventured out to this locale some 20-plus years ago. Oh well....pulled the boat yesterday and have a few chores to do today before I depart tomorrow (mostly winterization and administrivia). It's looking like the house will be allright (somewhat worse for wear but still habitable) but... all the outbuildings are looking very dilapidated. Hauled lots of stuff to the dump and hit everything with Clorox (to stop the cryptosporidium and any black slime mold) so....we'll see how it all looks next spring. I'm driving my old Ford pickup truck back to Colorado for an overhaul and perhaps for a re-evaluation of it's next mission. My other hunting/utility vehicle up here (an '02 Trooper) is seemingly on it's last legs (transmission issues). It's always something, eh?





That darn bird...

Lloyd,
Those look like rose hips. I do not think I have pics of what I found in their crops last week, but I'll look tomorrow. There were a lot of rose hips available though. Later this fall or winter,I imagine they will be eaten.

FWIW I have a friend with a home on the Canadian side of LOTW. He was hit with a tremendous windstorm and every building on the island, from boathouse to shed took significant damage, except the outhouse.

Went up to Duluth and back today. 78 degrees up there, but snow expected on Friday.

Overcast, grey and cold this AM. Good day to go home. Omaha here I come...

Vaya con Dios Amigo. Safe travels. Perhaps we can get together again at Whittington in late fall to share our hunting stories.
Mark

I'll never get used to this...



becoming this.



Vary hard to equate the two. It'll take me a few days to equilibrate. Neither world seems real when you're in the other.

Looks like 35E from Sunday afternoon.

but lloyd, overcast days can be productive...birds often hold up in pine groves...stalk them with another hunter in hopes that stop an go tactics will cause a flush...course, hunting in the cold rain can be miserable for old dogs like us...safe ride home...

BrentD:



I thought this was Hawthorne but it's very different from the ones I ultimately picked. It's not Mountain Ash (which is the Rowan berry, from what I can see online). Grouse clearly eat these too (always some birds around this spot).



I am told that this is Grey Dogwood. This trail is usually loaded with birds too.

Muchatrucha: Whittington would be darn fun.

I almost always go into something of a depression after my time in the north woods, but this year it was even worse... until I figured out it was the flu. Now I'm feverish for a different reason.