By Glen Wunderlich

Ever since my first wild turkey hunt in Michigan back in the ‘70s, the fascination has always evolved into a fair amount of anticipation leading to opening day.  As has been the case over the years, I’ve opted for the late season, which runs just about the entire month of May.  Much of the mystique of a novice is gone with experience and the advent of television shows featuring turkey hunting.  A bit of complacency seems to have set in, however.

Morning finds me outdoors stocking wild bird feeding sites before sun rise, which also offers opportunities to listen for neighboring gobblers.  A single trailcam was installed where a portable blind would be placed days before the opener.  Only a couple of turkey hens had been spotted – one with a beard

Bearded Hen

– and, that was good enough to assume a Tom would show eventually.  However, the afternoon before that first day of the season, I remembered I had yet to sight in my gobbler-getting shotgun.  Four shots later it was centered on the target, but my only morning hunt produced one sighting on stand – a lone hen.  The Toms have shut down their early morning gobbling from the roosts and seem to have changed routines, but plenty of opportunities remain.

Unseasonably dry weather conditions and lingering cold has put growing conditions behind quite a bit.  We needed rain and we finally got a good dose.  Predictably, spring finally sprung with wild asparagus and morel mushrooms pushing through the ground cover overnight.  While I have no taste for the widely sought-after ‘shrooms, a neighbor didn’t hesitate, when I called to let her know I found a few.  Her mesh bag was filled in short order.

Morel Mushrooms

On another note, the spring bird migration has brought in some of my favorite feathered friends to feed.  Several Rufous-sided Towhees have become regular freeloaders the past several days and I’m hoping they’ll take up residence instead of moving on like usual.  And, another of our most colorful flying spectacles – the Rose-breasted Grosbeak – finally arrived, as well, along with the dazzling Baltimore Orioles.  Looks like it’s time to get the grape jelly out for them, too.

Another familiar harbinger of spring is our state bird:  the American Robin.  Although they are not seed eaters, their antics in search of insects and worms sure can be entertaining.  This spring, one has built its nest on top of a security light controlled by a photocell attached to the fixture.  The huge nest has totally blocked the electric eye and relegates me to manually operate the light; otherwise it would stay on.

What prompts birds to build nests where they do?  Some of their real estate choices are real head-scratchers and that’s where the “Funky Nests in Funky Places” contest comes in.  If you find a nest built in a quirky, even downright crazy spot, you may want to share a photo before the June 30^th deadline.  The contest is hosted by the Celebrate Urban Birds citizen-science project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Entries can be photos, poems, stories, or artwork.

Participants don’t have to be bird or photography experts. All ages are welcome to participate as individuals or with a class, community center, or afterschool program. Entries are being accepted from anywhere in the world. You don’t have to be a participant in the citizen-science project either–just sign in as a guest.

Winners in each category will receive Celestron binoculars and other prizes are available for honorable mentions.

Find more information about how to locate nests, approach them without disturbing the birds, and enter the contest at www.funkynests.org.

By Glen Wunderlich

Hunters can learn plenty about deer-hunting trends by looking at the numbers compiled by various wildlife agencies across the states.  Many Michiganders, however, seem bent on focusing on a particular segment of the whitetail population:  bucks.

Back in the days of market hunting in the early to mid-1900s, deer herds were decimated by unregulated hunting.  Therefore, it made sense to protect female deer to regenerate herds.  Although those days are behind us, some of the thinking that prevailed then seems to be dominating too many of our hunters today.  Trends were showing promising reversals in years subsequent to 1999, but we hunters have exhibited shortsightedness, once again.

In the current issue of Quality Whitetails published by the Quality Deer Management Association, its director of communication, Kip Adams portrays disturbing projections based on our DNR’s compilation of numbers in his piece, “The Dwindling Doe Harvest.”   Specifically, year 2014 signaled the start of a significant slide in antlerless harvests reaching a low point in year 2016.  That was the first year since 1999 that more antlered deer were taken than antlerless deer.  If you think that’s a good thing, read on.

The American wildlife management model, that has been successful in restoring not only whitetail deer herds but that of elk, antelope, and wild turkeys to name a few, depends largely upon hunter participation.  Hunters fork over hard-earned dollars to participate in hunting activities, play by the states’ management-plan rules, and reap the rewards for not only themselves but for non-hunters alike.  Their license fees and excise taxes on equipment is the primary source of revenue for management agencies across the nation.

As Kip Adams points out, hunting is an essential tool for sound deer management and part of our sporting heritage. However, in most states hunter numbers have declined, and existing hunter recruitment programs are proving only marginally effective.  Decreasing revenues follow.

From 2006 to 2011 hunter numbers increased by over one million, but during the past five years we lost 2.2 million hunters nationally.  In 2016 (the last year of available data), 11.5 million people 16 years of age and older went hunting (5 percent of total U.S. population), averaging 16 days afield each. Eighty percent of those 11.5 million hunters pursued big game like deer and elk.

Although Michigan has one of the top-5 states with the highest number of deer hunters, we have fewer deer and fewer hunters than in the past.  Disturbingly, Michigan hunters shot about 3 bucks for every 2 antlerless deer.  A closer look reveals we are shooting too many immature bucks – a whopping 47 percent of bucks taken are adolescents of 1 ½ years of age.  At the same time, compared to the 5-year average, our antlerless harvest is down 15 percent.

If ever we want to avoid the needless expense of sharpshooters (hired guns) in common use today – or, worse yet to continue an even more expensive and insane sterilization approach – we need to wise up.  If you’ve ever wondered why you see far more does than bucks, you have your answer.

Taking more antlerless deer will help to balance the ratio of male and female deer, thus improving the health of the herd and strengthening the habit that holds them.