This story started a long time ago, about 30 or so million years*. Deposition of calcium-rich sediments over millions of years in, what was at that time, a shallow sea created limestone beds that are thousands of feet thick. Floridians live on top of that limestone!
Gear matters, especially when turkey hunting, so don’t get caught short when filling your tag. Here are 10 great gear items that will make you more successful during this spring turkey season.
Most birds are great insect hunters. While some bird species are just as happy to eat an insect as they are other things like seeds and small fruits, there are some birds that prefer to eat insects almost exclusively. One of those insect specialists is the barn swallow.
“If they were as big as a bear, it wouldn’t be safe to go in the woods,” Dad said. Those were his comments to his young son after I told him about my first encounter with a weasel at the end of deer hunt. I’d been sitting at the base of a blown down tree when I first saw the flicker of white in the fallen branches.
Salamanders are one of the less frequently seen types of amphibians in the USA. For example, there are 23 species of salamanders living just in the state of Indiana, yet most people never see any of them. One of the most interesting species is the marbled salamander.
Stalking hogs in the Florida swamp is great off-season hunting action, whether you hunt deer, elk, or waterfowl. For the third year, a group of friends and I have traveled to Cedar Key, Florida to hunt with Tiger Island Outfitters, and this time I hunted more often on the ground than from a tree stand.
Mergansers include a few different species of diving ducks that either live in the Midwest or pass through while migrating north. There are three species that are commonly seen spring and fall migrations, including common mergansers, hooded mergansers and red-breasted mergansers.
During the 2014 hunting season, my neighbor, Ron Kline, caught some great photos of a buck with his trail camera. This buck looked two and a half years old, and he was easily recognizable due to the two tears in his left ear. Because of these unique characteristics, Ron decided to name the buck Pirate.
One of the most common hawks seen by backyard birders in the continental US is the Cooper’s hawk. The reason is simple: Cooper’s hawks are bird-eaters, and they are attracted to backyard bird feeders.
The eastern hognose snake is one of our most interesting snakes. They inhabit most of the eastern half of the United States, and also southern portions of Canada. These medium-sized snakes can be a variety of colors: orange, red, green, yellow, brown or black.
The world abounds with exciting hunting adventures, and many share a common launch point. What Cape Canaveral used to be to NASA space exploration, the Safari Club International Convention is to hunting. If it roars, bulges, grunts, runs, or hides, SCI has a hunt to catch it.
The wild turkey is a very large game bird that is native to the United States. They live in every state except Alaska. Their wingspan measures more than four feet across, and large adults often weigh over 20 pounds. Extremely large individuals can weigh as much as 25 pounds.
