ThinkingAfield.org

GW: Today, Alabama’s Dave Rainer takes us on a decidedly different kind of squirrel hunt.

Boy, did I go on a fantastic squirrel hunt last weekend in the Grampian Hills outside Camden, Alabama. Our hunting party bagged a grand total of two squirrels.

Say what? Two squirrels are barely enough to make a small pot of squirrel and dumplings.

What made it such an enjoyable, eye-opening hunt was the method by which the squirrels were taken – red-tailed hawks.

That’s right, the Alabama Hawking Association (AHA) held its annual meet last weekend, and its members brought a variety of hawks to the event with red-tailed hawks the most common bird of prey.

The meet attracted falconers (the generic term for those who hunt with raptors) not only from Alabama but all around the Southeast. One participant escaped the Michigan snow to travel to Alabama.

The 70-plus participants in the meet were divided into manageable groups and turned loose on property donated for the hunts.

I accompanied a group of falconers from around the Southeast from Georgia to Mississippi to Tennessee, although the Tennessean (Jeff Fincher) had roots in Eutaw, Alabama.

The hunting method involved heading into the woods and shaking vines and saplings to get a squirrel to reveal its location. At that point, the handler for the bird designated for that hunt released the raptor.

Larry Mullis’ red-tailed hawk, named Dixie, soars through the treetops to find a perch suitable for attacking a gray squirrel’s hideout (Above). After several attempts, Dixie pinned the squirrel, hidden inside a patch of Spanish moss, to the oak tree. All photos by Dave Rainer with permission.

On the first hunt of the morning, Larry Mullis of Eastman, Georgia, released Dixie, his year-old female red-tailed hawk after a squirrel was seen scurrying up a tall oak.

With eyesight so acute that the most common analogy used is it could read newspaper headlines at a quarter of a mile, the bird started a methodical stalk of the gray squirrel. Dixie flew from limb to limb in the surrounding tree until she was in an advantageous attack position. The falconers call it “laddering.”

With a leap from her perch, Dixie sailed toward the squirrel’s hideout Read more

At this point in the winter, many Michiganders might start feeling a little cooped up.

One way to beat cabin fever – and get mind and body active – is to become a nature detective and learn more about the wildlife in your own backyard or neighborhood.

While it can be fun year-round, looking for clues to wildlife activity is especially interesting in the winter when animal tracks are easily visible in the snow.

“Tracks can tell a story,” said Hannah Schauer, wildlife education technician for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “If you find a trail of footprints, you may want to follow it to get a glimpse inside the animal’s life.”

Deer, rabbits, squirrels and foxes are just a few examples of animals whose tracks you may come across.

Schauer recommends a few tools that can help in the quest for tracks, including a good field guide.

“There is a variety of wildlife tracking and identification guidebooks available – find one that you like and have it handy on a hike to help you determine whose tracks you have spotted,” she said.

Other helpful items to carry along are a camera, a ruler, a key or coins to put next to the track for size reference when taking a photo, a notepad and pencil for sketching tracks and making notes on other observations about the animal’s trail, and binoculars. Read more

MISSOULA, Mont. – We welcome today’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to return the Yellowstone grizzly bear to state management as a recovered species. Restoring the bear to this point is a high achievement of state, federal, and tribal experts working together since the 1980s, and we commend especially the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee for a job well done.

We will work closely with other conservation leaders to insist on continued interagency cooperation that sustains a stable grizzly population, manages conflicts between bears and people, and employs ethical, scientifically-regulated hunting to the extent that it serves management goals and promotes respect for the grizzly and its conservation.