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  • Charles Ek
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      Post count: 574

      2025 all-years e-Bird sightings

      Charles Ek
      Moderator
        Post count: 574

        Thanks. I never imagined that turkeys would make it this far north:

        2014 MN DNR planning map

        2025 all-years sightings

        Charles Ek
        Moderator
          Post count: 574
          Charles Ek
          Moderator
            Post count: 574
            Charles Ek
            Moderator
              Post count: 574

              Late in posting this, but it also took a while to improve on this sorry record:

              https://tradbow.com/forums/topic/always-bring-two/

              My wife and I were hiking around my grandparents’ now-vacant farm in Embarrass, MN back in mid October. In one of the grassy fields, I saw some ravens on the ground. I took a few steps and realized they weren’t ravens. And there were six of them. Forty miles from the Minnesota/Ontario border as the crow flies. (My cousin had trail cam pictures of them a couple years ago, but I had dismissed that evidence as not worth pursuing.)

              On the following Thursday I was back at o’dark hundred with a deer cart loaded with my hunting pack, two popup blinds, a longbow, some sharp sticks and a couple of sorry looking, cheap decoys. I dropped the cart on a woods road a couple hundred yards from where I saw the birds on Tuesday. Looked for them in that field but saw nothing.

              Went back to fetch the cart. As I was entering a smaller field on my way back to the Tuesday field, movement to my right caught my eye. They were coming off a pine ridge for their breakfast. I grabbed an arrow and stood with my bow at the field edge for thirty minutes as they fed out of bow range.

              When they continued into the Tuesday field, I crossed the smaller field, set up a blind and brushed it in. I figured at the end of the day I might intercept them on their way back to their roosting location, About an hour after setting up and eating an early lunch, they came into view to my right. I hadn’t even started calling. I thought it would take much longer for them to find their way back to their roosting location.

              When they appeared, I was able to track them the whole time through my see-through blind and call them to my two decoys with my feeble calling skills. Once they made the turn toward me, I picked up my bow and got ready for what turned out to be a six yard shot. The bird’s crop was stuffed full of bits of green vegetation.

               

              Blinded by the sight

              • This reply was modified 9 hours, 44 minutes ago by Charles Ek.
              • This reply was modified 9 hours, 41 minutes ago by Charles Ek.
              • This reply was modified 8 hours, 19 minutes ago by Charles Ek.
              Charles Ek
              Moderator
                Post count: 574
                Charles Ek
                Moderator
                  Post count: 574

                  I have searched my usual hunting area in vain for signs of buck activity over the last few weeks. Meanwhile, one of the Three Amigos saw fit to rub my nose in it outside my bedroom window:

                   

                  Charles Ek
                  Moderator
                    Post count: 574

                    The 2025 Three Amigos Viewing Season opened this past week at the Kenwood Deer Sanctuary in Duluth, MN, with the on-time arrival of the smallest of the bunch. You will have to take my word for now that he is indeed smaller than his brother and his father (the latter dubbed “Eikthyrnir” at the suggestion of my sister and for good reason):

                    https://youtu.be/eVxEWE_4X7I

                    Charles Ek
                    Moderator
                      Post count: 574

                      We had a Border Terrier that developed the lick-the-toad habit. Fortunately they were small enough and we noticed in time before it could cause serious harm. But it messed with her nervous system.

                      Charles Ek
                      Moderator
                        Post count: 574

                        It has been a (too) long time since I posted anything. Here’s something to whet appetites for the not-so-distant archery seasons.

                        From a video I shot this morning as we rolled down our driveway here in Duluth, MN. He’s the biggest of the three bachelors that were hanging out together – on my archery range.

                        Charles Ek
                        Moderator
                        Moderator
                          Post count: 574

                          We did and two of us have done it a couple more times as well. The feared paucity of deer materialized on the first trip, and we have concentrated since then on bear.

                          No deer or bear have been harmed – yet. The pandemic got in the way a couple of times. We’ve been chased out twice by October winds.

                          It is addictive.

                          Charles Ek
                          Moderator
                            Post count: 574

                            This is the guiding firm my guy worked for and recommends:

                            http://bearpawguides.com/

                            Charles Ek
                            Moderator
                              Post count: 574

                              I have to clarify – that pic is not mine. It’s among the reports in that link I posted … and a principal reason for directing my efforts to that location.

                              Are you perhaps looking for a guide and not a canoe outfitter per se? I know a trad hunter who worked in the past as a bear guide – I’ll ask him for a recommendation. Any of the outfitters would be happy to see some additional business at the end of their season. Many of them have bunkhouses, cabins, etc. as well:

                               

                              https://bwca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=outfitting.outfitters

                              Charles Ek
                              Moderator
                                Post count: 574

                                Just in case you didn’t get the picture.  🙂

                                Charles Ek
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                                  Post count: 574
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