Whatever

Good Morning. I think I’m gonna break out the bike and put some miles on it today.

 

Nice nail polish.

 

Today’s jukebox song of the day is goin out to that goofy @G8R_Taco as requested by the number 13 team in the country.

 

Randoms...

 

Very busy road out in the country, so that would be a yes

 

I just knew you'd be all over that

I won't go so far as to say I believe, but here's what I know:


Story Time With Gritto


The PA Game Commission Has A Credibility Problem With Hunters.
This goes way back.

My Dad was an experienced hunter, and subscribed to PA Game News (The PA Game Commission publication).
I would read that every month just about as soon as I could read.
The Commission in the early 60s said that Turkeys were extirpated from the state.
Now, maybe their definition differs from the one commonly accepted...
... meaning a species is gone from a given part of its historic range.
The Great Depression was especially hard on all game animals, when so many people hunted for food, and to Hell with legal seasons.

I asked my Dad about it and he said: "The Hell they are, I've seen Turkeys in the woodlot."
Mind you, where turkeys are heavily pressured, they can be very shy and spooky.
Not so much now, since their numbers have rebounded.
The point being, they were very much not extirpated.

The Game Commission takes the credit for the rebound of turkeys, of course, and point to their reintroduction programs.
Guys at the Club wonder if maybe the turkeys deserve the credit, the rebound being the natural result of less hunting pressure.

Then there's Coyotes.
In the early 60s, Game News claimed they were rare in the state and confined to the heavily forested north central part of PA.
Hunters knew better and wrote letters to Game News, some of which got published.
Here's where it gets interesting.
Game News at some point ran an article about the Coyote's place in the ecosystem...
... and after all, they ain't all that bad, now are they?
Which led to the rumor that the Game Commission was deliberately introducing coyotes into the state.
I think that's just silly (why would they?), but there are guys at the Club who still believe it.

From such small beginnings, unexpected things will grow.

Fast forward to the mid-90s, when I first was elected to the Board of Directors at the Club...

A Game Commission Officer was at a Club meeting to explain new hunting regulations.
This is a regular thing, BTW.
Some guy asked:
"When are you gonna open up Franklin County to Bear hunting?"
[other members murmuring in agreement]
Officer:
"There are no bears here, unless maybe a wandering juvenile male occasionally."
[Club erupts in laughter]

That very Autumn I saw unmistakable bear sign at Pine Hill Recreation Area (less than a mile from me).
The year after, a buddy had one in his back yard one morning and got a picture.
A couple years after that, a Mama bear and two cubs were crossing Rte 16 not 2 miles from here.
A guy in a subcompact car slammed on his brakes too late, hit Mama a glancing blow, and ended up in the ditch.
Mama growled and ambled off with her cubs, none the worse apparently.
[subcompact car totaled]

Yeah

Okay, on to Mountain Lions, or Pumas, or Panthers, or even Nittany Lions, whatever you prefer.

If you think turkeys are shy, they got nothing on cats.
In all my years of hunting, I've seen precisely one Bobcat.
Bobcats are quite common here and many are taken every year, legally per Furbearer license, in traps...
... significantly, far fewer are taken by hunters.

Hunters have been reporting sightings of Lions for years now.
More recently, with the proliferation of cheap game cameras, pictures are popping up here and there.
The Game Commission says, basically, that the locations of those pictures cannot be verified.
And they're right.

I have a friend who lives just across the border in Maryland, off Crystal Falls Road on the mountain side.
@Gen1TacoLady , you know where that is.
He's a highly experienced hunter and a very upright, religious guy.
He says that early one Winter morning he spotted a big cat from his tree stand.
Whatever it was, it suddenly became aware of him and silently vanished.
He admits that the light was dim but is adamant that it was a big cat (and not a Bobcat).
Could he be wrong?
Sure.

I'll just say this:
I'm old enough to remember when biologists said that Panthers were extirpated in Florida.
It was a big deal when some were discovered.

I just don't know, but it's possible

 

When we moved here in 1994, the neighbors behind us off the road a bit told us that a mountain lion lived in the area. It spooked the horses a few times I think. My dad actually sat us all down to talk about what to do if we saw the mountain lion.

The guys on my crew a few months ago saw a Bobcat while on a job. I havent seen any first hand. But i saw the photo they got. (I was on vacation)

The coyotes I never saw, but heard loudly in the woods just at the edge of the property.

The turkeys I have my own videos of from our back yard.

I've seen bears on video cams from crystal falls dr. from friends who live there as well as neighborhoods off mentzer gap road near grittoville.

Then we saw a bear crossing rt.140 last year.

Edit: we've also had 2 endangered wood turtles pass through our yard in the last 10 years.

 

And a little more , now my back is sore
I’m a poet and didn’t know it
Can get a lot done listening to LED Zeppelin

 

Getting 3 signs today!!

 

3!!!

 

Eye will!!

 

Ehhh?

https://youtu.be/c9lh7lqZojc

 

The coyotes now in Pa. Are the result of interbreeding between Gray Wolves and the Western Coyote, according to the Game Commission. The last one that I saw was huge and looks exactly like the one in this picture. I was awe when I came within 15 feet of it. They are here and are highly intelligent.

 

Apparently my beer had an extra message on the bottom.

 

Here’s another sign for ya!