Hornady Calls for Campaign Against HSUS Petition On Public Lands

Call Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and tell her to reject the HSUS petition that threatens hunting on public lands! Call 202-208-3181 and email our pre-written letter to voice your objection.

The future of hunting is under attack! Hornady® Manufacturing urges firearms owners, hunters and sportsmen to call Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and demand she reject a petition filed by the HSUS that seeks to ban hunting with traditional ammunition on public lands.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), anti-hunting groups, and five individual sportsmen have teamed up to file a petition with the Interior Department demanding rules that ban hunting with traditional ammunition on public lands – more than 160 million acres of federal lands managed by the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That’s one-fifth of the total land area in the United States. Read more

Chestnut Hill Outdoors – Soft Masts for Bowhunters

Deer love mast, and need this important nutrition as part of their diet. Chestnut Hill Outdoors has the best selection of soft and hard mast trees to choose from. Deer foods that grow on trees and shrubs are usually referred to as mast. There are two types of mast, hard (chestnuts, acorns, etc.) and soft (persimmons, pears, apples, grapes, berries, etc.). We all know that deer crave chestnuts, but deer are extremely attracted to soft mast. Some of these soft mast trees bear fruit early in the fall, so are exceptional food plot additions for bowhunters. Other varieties hold fruit until late fall.

Not only are soft mast trees great for bowhunting, but they can condition deer to stay on your land before and after hunting season. By planting a variety of trees you can extend the fruiting season from spring through late fall, thus keeping the deer on your land throughout the year.

The following are the soft mast varieties that bear fruit during the spring, summer and fall:

May- Peaches, Blueberries (early)
June- Peaches, Blueberries,
July- Apples, Pears, Blueberries, Blackberries
August- Apples, Pears, Blackberries, Grapes, Persimmons
September- Apples, Pears, Grapes, Persimmons
October- Apples, Pears, Persimmons
November- Apples (late), Pears (late), Persimmons (late) Read more

An Interview with Kendall Jones

firstforhunterskendalljones1If you’ve turned on the TV, radio, looked at a newspaper, or used the internet in these past few weeks, you have heard of Kendall Jones.

Kendall Jones is a 19 year old cheerleader studying at Texas Tech who has stirred up some recent controversy. She is a seasoned hunter that has been lucky enough to travel to Africa to hunt the big five; work alongside organizations to provide meat to local communities and help treat wounded animals. Recently, she has been targeted on social media sites and attacked by news agencies for having pictures of her hunts published on Facebook. There has been much misinformation spreading around about what she has hunted and the specific role hunting plays in conservation. Bill McGrath, SCI’s Legislative Counsel was fortunate enough to sit down with Kendall to discuss the media backlash and correctly set the narrative. Read more

Oklahoma Attorney General Subpoenas HSUS

This from www.humanewatch.org

In March, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced that his office was opening an inquiry into the fundraising of the Humane Society of the United States, issuing a “consumer alert” to the public about national animal charities. Things have been fairly quiet in the news since then—until yesterday.

Speaking to the radio show “All Around Oklahoma Ag,” Pruitt offered an update of his office’s investigation of HSUS. Pruitt stated that his office has recently issued subpoenas to HSUS in light of the $25 million settlement that major HSUS contractor and direct-mail firm Quadriga Art agreed to with the New York Attorney General earlier this month.

Pruitt also revealed that his office has met with HSUS leadership, and it didn’t seem to go well. Pruitt says that HSUS’s reaction has been “in some respects, not good…there’s been denial.”

HSUS can deny that its fundraising is deceptive all it wants to, but we have its CEO Wayne Pacelle admitting last year, on audio, that “I think there is some confusion among the general public and I think there’s occasional confusion with, with donors.” You can’t play the denying game when you’ve already admitted that there’s a problem with your donors. Even for an organization with dozens of staff lawyers, it’s hard to talk your way around that one. Read more

FWS Ignores Science In Upholding Elephant Ban

Washington, D.C. – Safari Club International (SCI) and millions of hunter conservationists worldwide are shocked and disappointed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decision to continue the ban on the importation of elephants from Zimbabwe for the rest of 2014.

“Like my fellow hunters, I am disappointed in the FWS decision to persist in upholding a ban that has no sound basis in science and undermines conservation,” said SCI President Craig Kauffman.  “This administration continues to talk publicly about the benefits of hunting while siding with anti-hunting extremists time after time.  SCI’s Washington team will do everything within its power to reverse this misguided and baseless policy.” Read more

What to Feed Your Summer Bird Feeder Visitors

 Outdoor Wire Editor’s Note: Today’s feature first appeared in The Birding Wire (www.birdingwire.com)
Great information for the bird lovers like me…GW

 

Sure, winter is a prime time for feeding birds – natural foods are less abundant and cold weather makes windowside birding that much more inviting. But birds flock to feeders in summer, too – especially in midsummer, after they’ve fledged a brood from their nest and they’ve got new mouths to feed.

Summer bird feeding can bring you different species, such as Neotropical migrants that aren’t around in winter. It’s also a fun time to try offering some different kinds of foods. Here are some tips for creating a summertime backyard buffet that might bring a few new faces to your feeders.

Nectar for Hummingbirds

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird enjoys feeding from a red hummingbird feeder. Photo by Kevin Click via Birdshare.

Attracting hummingbirds to your yard can be as easy as hanging a hummingbird feeder and filling it with a sugar water solution (1/4 cup sugar per cup of water). There’s no reason to add food coloring to turn the water red; you’re providing a substitute for flower nectar, which is clear. Don’t locate the feeder in direct sun, as the sugar water will spoil rapidly. In the shade your sugar water should last two or three days, except for very hot days, in which case it’s wise to change your hummingbird feeder water daily.

Why are hummingbird feeders red? It’s not because hummingbirds are inherently attracted to the color red, because these peripatetic featherweights feed on flowers of many colors: white, purple, yellow, red, even ultraviolet colors that we can’t see. But the key here lies in the eyesight of nectar-feeding insects, not hummingbirds. Bees, wasps, and butterflies are better at locating pale-colored flowers than red flowers. In nature, red flowers tend to have more nectar in them, because they aren’t being visited as often by insects. So hummingbirds are indeed attracted to red, not because they can see it better, but because they have learned from experience that red flowers tend to have more nectar than flowers of other colors.

Oranges for Orioles

Baltimore Orioles have a sweet tooth for fruit like oranges. Photo by Dave LaDore via Birdshare.

Flashy orange orioles are even simpler to lure in for backyard viewing pleasure. Just slice an orange in half and set it on a platform feeder or skewer it on your feeder pole. Other fruits will work too, such as cherries or grapes. Orioles seem to prefer dark fruit and will ignore yellow cherries or green grapes. They also LOVE grape jelly. Put a spoonful of jelly on your platform feeder, and once the orioles find it, it won’t last long!

Why do orioles love fruit? It could be that they develop a sweet tooth while wintering in Central America, where they forage for a variety of wild fruits in tropical forests. Orioles sometimes use their slender beaks to feed in an unusual way, called gaping: they stab the closed bill into soft fruits, then open their mouths to cut a juicy swath from which they drink with their brushy-tipped tongues.

Sunflower Seeds for Grosbeaks

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks’ big beaks make short work of crushing seed hulls. Photo by Robin Arnold via Birdshare.

Grosbeaks are one of the best reasons to keep your seed feeders stocked in summer. The males are handsome, decked out in black-and-white formal wear with a pop of color (a red chest patch for Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, warm cinnamon-orange bodies for Black-headed Grosbeaks). Females of both species are drab mottled brown and may be confused with finches or sparrows.
Grosbeaks are seed-eating machines. They’ll eat millet but their favorite is good ol’ black-oil sunflower seeds.

Why are grosbeak beaks so big? The better to eat large seeds with, my dear. Grosbeaks are one of the classic birds with beaks that indicate what they eat-big, sturdy beaks are best for crushing seed hulls. Those beaks are also mighty good at crushing insects and grasshoppers, another primary food source. A female grosbeak’s big beak is the first clue that you’re not looking at a finch or a sparrow, both of which have decidedly more petite beaks.

Mealworms for Bluebirds

Insectivores like this Eastern Bluebird always welcome a mealworm snack. Photo by Lindell Dillon via Birdshare.

Many people entice bluebirds to take up residence on their property by putting up nest boxes (also called birdhouses). If you have bluebirds in your neighborhood, you can get an up-close look at them by setting a few mealworms out on your platform feeder. Bluebirds are insectivores, and an offering of a few mealworms-alive or dried-is a protein boost that’s hard to resist, especially during the energy-intensive breeding season.

What to do with leftover fishing bait? If you fish with wax worms, set them out for bluebirds. Mealworms and wax worms are interchangeable for bluebirds, and some folks even say bluebirds will pick through a pile of mealworms to eat the wax worms first. Read more

Threatened and endangered species feature: piping plover

Piping plovers are special and beautiful birds – there are only 50-60 nesting pairs in the entire Great Lakes area and less than 7,000 individuals worldwide. Cryptically colored for a life among rocky and sandy soil, these birds can be distinguished from most other shorebirds by their black headband and the single black band around their neck. They may legitimately be described as “cute” throughout their lives.

The Great Lakes population of piping plovers is one of only three small populations in the U.S. During the winter all of these birds congregate on the Gulf Coast, but they travel to the separate areas during the breeding season. When it comes time to nest, piping plovers prefer gravelly beaches. Nests can be found on the Michigan shorelines of the Great Lakes, including Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, from early April through mid-August.

piping ploverDisturbance can cause the birds to abandon their nests. Serious threats to these birds include dogs and careless off-road driving. Raccoons and raptors are common natural predators.

Both parents participate equally in incubating (sitting on) the eggs. When it is time to trade duties, one bird hops off and quickly runs away while the other scurries over and pops onto the nest, quite a comedic sight. Comedians and occasionally actors, piping plovers have a clever distraction tactic when threatened by a predator. Adult birds act as if their wing is broken and wobble and chirp to draw the predator away from their nest. Once the predator has been duped the bird flies off! Read more

DSC Praises Tanzania’s Crackdown on Green Mile Safari Co.

DALLAS — Reacting to egregious, alleged violations in hunting ethics and laws, Tanzanian wildlife officials have revoked all hunting licenses and concessions for Green Mile Safari Co. The Dallas Safari Club (DSC) had urged the crackdown and is praising the move as a strong step for hunting and conservation.

According to media reports, the safari company, a private outfit owned by United Arab Emirates families, is threatening to sue the Tanzanian government for lost revenue caused by the revocation.

Allegations against Green Mile include hunting with automatic weapons, hunting female and young animals, using vehicles to chase and knock down animals and hunting protected species. Read more

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