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I have not seen wild quail in a few years. I do love to eat it, for sure.

So that was pretty anti-climactic. I went to retrieve my camera. Two of the pieces of fried chicken had been eaten, with the skin pulled off and not eaten. The other four pieces were untouched. What kind of infernal creature would eat fried chicken and not the skin? Whatever it was must have been low enough not to trigger the camera. I had it set a little high so I could see down the trail. I had the flash turned up and the sensitivity on long range. Nothing. The only pictures I got were when I set it up and when I took it down. And no tracks of any kind on the trail that I had it watching.

However,

After I took my camera down, I decided to walk the trail past the second bend. Lots of deer tracks there. As I am wrapping my strap around my camera, not really paying attention, I look up and vaguely notice something walking in the high weeds to my left going in the same direction as me. It was a big ass skunk. It was like 12 feet away. I don't think it ever saw me. I stopped and it continued on. It started to turn left into the thicket where I flushed three hens a couple of weeks ago. I started making kissy sounds and it stopped, finally saw me, but never got defensive. I pulled out my Glock 19 and took aim I could have nailed it but I decided to let it go. If I see it again after September 1 when they are in season on this state forest, I will. I understand that are very much egg eaters.

We still have them around here, but they are very localized. But if you know where to look, you see and hear them with some regularlity.








When a covey flushes and I wasn't expecting it.

Great pics !!!!

I'm considering trying to re-establish a small population right around the house, here. The habitat is right. It's just the darned predation from above............

I was nice out today. It was 69 degrees and breezy when I got there. Very, very comfortable, except that everything was soaking wet. And wading through the black berry bushes in shorts super-sucked. Good way to toughen the skin on your shins, though.

I didn't see or hear any quail today. People hunt there here in the winter after deer season goes out. Saw lots of crows, though.

Good way to pick up a tick-borne illness, too. But I ain't your mother.............

I hate black berry bushes, I stayed cut up as a kid from picking them (I loved black berry jelly, did not like the seeds in jam) My mom would make me jelly if I picked the berry's so I stayed cut up and covered in tick and chigger bites.

Great pictures of the quail, they are truly beautiful birds

Yessir !!!!

The hillside back around from the house, here, will look snow-covered in May when the blackberries blossom. Was too dry this summer and didn't even get a handful to taste. Last year me and the Mrs picked 20-some pounds in two evenings. Made a fiver of BEAUTIFUL blackberry wine.

Chiggers yes, some. I had some on the lower parts of my lower legs just above my boot tops. But ticks? No. We have not a had a tick problem here this year. I've picked up a single tick all year. Even when wading though the deep grass in NC I have not picked up a tick. Not only don't there seem to be as many ticks, the fire ants have virtually disappeared. Two years ago, looking out across a field in NC, you'd see a dozen or more fire ant mounds. In 2020 I got attacked by fire ants three times stepping on mounds I didn't see in high grass. This year, I can count the number of fire ant mounds I've seen on two hands.

Now, the yellow deer flies and bot flies have been extra fierce. I'm seeing squirrels now with well developed bot fly lumps. I was out in the swamp again yesterday looking at bears. I've noticed a 10-fold increase (it seems) in silk spiders, and dragonflies. You can't walk a trail without one of spider's garrotes strung across a trail snagging your throat. And the spiders, as harmless and pretty as they are, are way bigger than I ever remember them being. They are eating good. God bless 'em. Anything that takes down the yellow deer flies is my friend.




And I heard Bobwhies out in the soybeans, but didn't see any. Love to hear Bobwhites.

The seasons are achanging. It's starting to get dark earlier. I noticed a lot of baitfish schools in the sounds yeasterday. They are balling up as they tend to do as summer begins to wane. I saw the first V of cormarants flying. Bucks antlers are starting to get well devloped. And the black bear diets are starting to turn heavily to berries. Their turds are going from grassy from all the leafy vegetation they've been eating to inky black from all the berrys that are consuming. Fall is coming.

You are lucky, indeed !!!

Two kinds of people around here........... Those who've had Lyme disease........and those who are gonna. It's bad. And NOW we've got Alpha Gal and DTV closing in on us. Both of those suck even more than Lyme

I've had Lyme twice. Last time in 2016.


Before that, from a tick in my arm pit after spring turkey hunting.

I am a firm believer in using Deep Woods Off with DEET. It won't stop yellow deer flies, though. I think yellow deer flies think Deep Woods Off is just a honey glazing.

Yep. It's a thing. Everyone in my house has had it at least once. A couple of us twice.

I'm pretty serious about ticks in turkey season. I went from pants to bibs to minimize the vulnerability at the waistline. I tuck the pantlegs inside my snake boots and then lace up. Both the boots, my jacket and the bibs get a treatment of permethrin. I very rarely sit smack on the ground anymore. But if I think I will be...........then I do DEET on my neck and around my hairline.

Y'all need to invest in a can or two of Permanone/Permathrine. Deep Woods OFF isn't half the insect repellant that the Permanone products are. Also, DEET can absolutely wreck certain plastics and the finish on a wooden stock. I first became aware of this years ago while night bass fishing with a bud. We sprayed a little DW OFF on to keep the skeeters in check. Back then I had a fishing rod with a foam type handle and after spraying and rubbing some OFF on my face and neck with my hands I noticed the handle on my rod felt gooey. Examination under a white light revealed that the OFF on my hands had softened the foam handle and literally melted it off where my fingers wrapped around. The next day my friend discovered the plastic screen on his LCR was melted from the over spray of the DW OFF. That screen looked like you held a torch to it, melted plastic running toward the bottom of the unit. And that was just from a spritz of over spray when we applied the OFF to our hats. I have a strong dislike for the stuff and beyond that it isn't as effective as the Permanone products anyway.

Theres the bulls eye he's diffinately got it....all it really does is go in remission. There's no cure for it.

Might be why he lost his hAre

You can't tell these bozOs nothing...let them keep getting tick bit.

Permathrine is an actual neurotoxic insecticide. It's not good to get it on your skin. When I've used Repel on my clothes, I've still had to us Deep Woods Off on my skin. DWO keeps the ticks and mosquitos off my face and neck and wrists. The trick is to actually use it. And instead of using two different sprays, I just use use DWO. In the fall and winter there's no need to use anything. Even at the beginning of spring turkey season here it's not that necessary. Only in the last half of the season and the spring squirrel season is it a absolute necessity. Out in the fields and swamps in the summer, it's a requirement. DWO has worked exceptionally well for me. Again, the trick is using it. When I've found ticks, it was when I wasn't using it.

Another good repellant that actually feels good on the skin, is DEET free, but works really well and doesn't stink is Avon Skin So Soft. Now they make it with that pepper plant extract that repels ticks and mosquitos as well as DEET but doesn't affect plastic. DEET will eat into some plastics. I was wearing a cheap pair of sunglasses one time and had DEET on my face. Where ever that sunglasses frame touched my face, it left sticky black plastic residue on my face. Hard as fell to get off.

Nothing, however, will stop yellow deer flies. They will bite through anything. Deet, or Repel treated clothing. Bug netting and very loose clothes are the best defense. I've yet to find anything except a physical barrier to the skin to be adequate against yellow deer flies.

It can definitely be cured. A lengthy regimin of Doxycycline will cure it in most people. What can't be cured is the damage it causes. The damage is permanent and cumulative. My sewer guy that keeps my sewage system running has to wear braces on his knees due to the cumaltive effects of Lyme. He's had it more times than he can count. His problem is he waited to long too many times before getting treatment. In my cases, I got treatment as soon as I got the bullseye. Other than the bullseye, and the freaking itch that came with that bite on my back, I never had any symptoms. Still don't have any symptoms attributable to Lyme. If you get a tick bite that starts turning red, get to the urgent care and get a prescription, and go back for a followup when the antibiotics are all used.

More worthless dribble and misinformation. Keep displaying your ignorance. We all be laffin' !!!

You don't know chit from shinloa.

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