Thoughts on deer hunting: Part II

Last week I posted a blog entry with personal thoughts on deer hunting (Part I). People often ask me how I feel about hunting and trapping, because I am SUCH an animal lover, but I’m also realistic about wildlife management. So, please check that out. This entry is dedicated to the successful and ethical hunters and huntresses that submitted pictures of their deer takes during the 2013 bow and regular season in New York. Deer hunting season in the southern zone of NY ended on the 17th, and in the northern zone, it ended December 15th. Aside from Wildlife Management Unit 3S (Westchester County), all deer hunting is closed for the year in New York State! For more info: Deer and Bear Hunting Seasons – NYSDEC.

Thanks for submitting!

The first submission, which inspired me to start sharing deer take pictures, was when my aunt sent me these pictures of my Uncle Mark! He’s been a long-time hunter, and hasn’t gotten a deer in a few years. This year was his YEAR! He took 2 gorgeous, large bucks (one a 10 point, one an 8 point) during the bow season, and one during the regular season. Norwich, NY

Hunter Nick Gualtieri took this nice buck during the bow season in Yorktown, NY.

Rachel Slover took this 6 point on East Hill near Honeoye Lake this fall while hunting with her husband, Jerry.

Hunter Jesse Phillips took this massive buck that he’s been watching for awhile during the bow season in Baldwinsville, NY. We’re not sure if it’s a record or not, but what a rack!

Huntress Beth Burchill harvested this buck with her Winchester model 70 rifle , 25-06, in Claverack, NY!

Marion, NY Hunter Matthew Mayville (shown with sons Blake and Jacob (age 4) and Jackson (age 2). The Mayville Men pose with Dad’s buck taken during the archery season in Potter, NY. With dad as a hunter, hopefully these 3 little boys will grow up and fill his boots!

Huntress Michelle Uthe with her 11 point buck harvested during regular gun season 2013. The buck dressed out at 180 pounds, her biggest deer yet! This is her 3rd season hunting, and she shot him with one took him with her 270 rifle – her domestic partner, Arland Bradley, Jr., gave it to her for a Christmas gift last year. Prattsburgh, NY.

This buck was taken in Wildlife Management Unit 4C in the town of Pittstown NY by Josh Ten Eyck. He was taken during archery season with his G5 Quest bow. Photo credit to his father, Jeffery Ten Eyck.

Jack Van Niel has been a long-time hunter, and harvested this year’s buck on his Wayland, NY property during the regular season. Deer hunting has been a family affair for the Van Niel’s, and Jack’s son, John, helped set him up in a ground blind this year. Jack couldn’t manage climbing into a tree stand this fall due to a pinched nerve, but the ground blind seemed to work just fine! Congrats to both Van Niels.

Huntress sisters Lauren and Mady Richardson managed to take their first does of the season on the same day- opening day of the regular season! Hunting has also been a family affair with the Richardsons, and the girls have spent countless hours in the woods with relatives learning how to hunt, and the ethics and safety revolving around the sport. Congrats, ladies! Taken in Johnsonburg, NY.

A good personal friend of mine, Tyler Barriere, took this nice 8 point buck during the regular season in the town of Enfield, NY. Tyler also took 2 does this season, so his freezer is packed full of good venison!

SUNY Cobleskill classmate, and recent graduate, Corey Sullivan took this handsome buck during the archery season in Horseheads, NY. Congrats on your graduation and buck take, Corey!

Huntress Leslie Svoboda: “I am an avid hunter and fisher-woman. I have been gun hunting since I was a kid but recently, (last year) took up bow hunting. I love the quietness and solitude of bow hunting. On November 2, I shot my first buck, a 7point, and needless to say I am very proud of myself! I was all by myself on my dads property in Steuben County, town of Ingleside, and I called the deer to my stand and took the perfect couldn’t have asked for a better first Bow Buck! I believe in totally respecting the animal you harvest, so I like many of my fellow hunters, say a prayer and thank the animal. I also bury his heart. I am 47 and a grandmother of 2 boys (5 & 2) and am already teaching them about hunting and fishing.” Great story Leslie, and thanks for sharing!”

Mike Hedderick and sons Hunter (age 3) and Dominik (age 6) pose with Dad’s bow season doe. Here’s another great example of the tradition of hunting being passed along the family. Thanks to wife and mom, Amanda, for the submission! Manchester, NY

Another family affair! This time and Mother-Daughter duo. From Tori Penrod-Clark: “The little girl is my daughter, Adele Clark. She is 9 years old and hopes to be a hunter one day. She tracked this buck fawn out for my husband on East Lake Road in Honeoye. He shot it just before shooting hours closed and had to give up the search for the night. Adele was hot on it’s trail the next morning. The second picture is of me with my first buck. I started hunting turkey when I was 12 and deer when I reached the legal age limit for big game (the rules have changed since then). I am now 38 and I have not hunted in 8 years due to being a busy stay-at-home mother. First morning out in the season this year and I shot this 8-point at 8:18 in the morning in Springwater, NY!” Tori’s father is a retired NYSDEC biologist who definitely instilled the love and respect of wildlife. Glad to see Tori is passing this on to the next generation. Thanks for the submissions!

Yet another huntress, Kerri Reuter, shown with her first deer and her boyfriend Jesse Palermo. Kerri says, “Jesse and I were hunting the evening of opening day in Bloomfield, NY. We were hunting right by a corn field and the wind was directly in our face. To the right of us was a large thick bedding area where the deer usually come from in the evening to go eat in the corn field. The corn field was to the left and we hoped they would cross in front of us. Because the wind was in our face we positioned ourselves right on the edge of the bedding area so we could see any deer that came out to go to the corn field. At about 4:00 we spotted a group of does at the end of the bedding area about 125 yards away. The first two does that crossed were small and moved quickly. The third doe to come out was huge. Jesse positioned the camera on her and grunted to get her to stop. She did and turned broadside to us. It was then that I pulled the trigger on the Remington 270. I hit her right behind the shoulder in the heart and she walked 10 feet into the woods before she went down. It was as great hunt!” Congrats Kerri, and thank you for sharing your story.

Thoughts on deer hunting: Part I

As most of my readers know, I am still an undergraduate college student studying Wildlife Management at SUNY Cobleskill (but my semester JUST ended, and I only have 1 left!). I’ve always been an outdoorsy kid, and loved animals, and gotten dirty, and been interested in macro level biology. Since I started college back up in 2010 at Finger Lakes Community College, I’ve been inundated by hunters, trappers, fisher(wo)men, rednecks, hippies, tree-huggers, animal-lovers, scientists, nerds (you name it!) as my classmates, friends, and professors. These are labels, sometimes fair and sometimes not, used to describe people in my “field” of work and study.

My first time shooting a firearm: Remington 870, 

at a moving target during my USFWS orientation in Alaska.

What do I identify with?

I’m a young woman who has never hunted, brought up almost in an anti-hunting home, fished when made to, had every pet imaginable, went camping every summer, never wore shoes in the summer… I’m not a “hippie”, I’m not a “redneck”, I’m kind of a blend I think.

This entry isn’t meant to be about labels and categorizing those I learn, work, and play with… but lately I’ve been thinking about “who” I am in this field. Initially, the thought of working with wildlife sounded AWESOME because who doesn’t want to hold a bear cub?

Holding a black bear cub at a 

DEC-chaperoned den visit. 

Almond, NY (March 2013). 

Photo credit: Alicia Walker

That was a dream come true earlier this year. Who doesn’t want to work outdoors (well, only if the weather is fair) and see beautiful landscapes, smell pine-scented air, and get a tan? I’ve learned since beginning my studies, that these things don’t always occur. And sometimes you’re picking up deer poop and putting it into hundreds of vials in a freezing rain storm, so that the DNA can be examined. And sometimes after a particularly fun night out, you have to stand on a boat the whole next day tracking fish. And sometimes, you have to learn how to “sex” geese, and they bite you in rude places and poop in your face!

It ain’t all glamorous and photo-worthy, but I really do enjoy living and working in this field of wildlife management and conservation.

So back to hunting: I am in the Wildlife Management degree program, and I’m interning at the DEC within the Game Management Unit. We talk A LOT about hunting for deer, turkey, bear, ducks, geese, rabbits, squirrels, grouse, you name it. My friends disappear into the woods around mid-November, and reappear mid-December bearded, and happy because their freezers are full of wild game. Hunting is not just a hobby or sport, it’s a way to actively participate in wildlife management, and to provide good, wholesome protein to your family.

I’ve also been very queasy about blood and gore. Maybe that’s why I always put hunting out of my mind as a hobby to get into. The thought of watching an animal die, almost literally feels like heartache. But, I must stop myself, and stop allowing myself to consider every animal to be my pet bunny, kitty, or puppy. These are wild animals, that live rough lives of hunger, sometimes starvation, sickness, competition, and fear. Our species is spreading to every reach of this planet, and in turn are displacing whatever wild being lived there first, which we now refer to as a “nuisance”. We have removed all apex predators from the northeast. Long gone are mountain lions and wolves. So, who controls the deer herd now?

Did you know that if you purchase a NYS fishing or hunting license, firearms, ammo, hunting gear, etc…a portion of that (called the Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (11% tax)), comes back to the state which helps provide resources to the state for wildlife management efforts? In a way, hunters are paying the salaries of those of us tasked with making decisions about wildlife. As a state, we “own” our wildlife, which goes back to how land was ruled and governed in our Mother Land, England. What’s on this land, is ours! Which is ironic, because early colonists left and revolted against England to get away from that way of thinking, yet here we are hundreds of years later, still “owning” the wildlife.


I read Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac” as a freshman at FLCC. Leopold introduced new ways of thinking about the land and it’s resources, including wildlife. All of these things aren’t here for us to just kill, mine, burn, cut, harvest, and eat at will. We must define our personal land ethic, and strive to CONSERVE and PRESERVE, or there will not be any wild anything left for our children. Leopold wrote of a wolf hunt trip he was on (to eradicate all large predators):

“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” 

This is a very emotional passage for me. Could I watch an animal die? Could I be responsible for the death of another living being? I may be criticized for being too sensitive or emotional, OR criticized for even considering hunting at all. The fact is, human beings are omnivorous beings, created by whomever with teeth and dietary needs for protein best derived from animal flesh. If I hunt, it won’t be for a huge buck. It will be for meat, and so that I can participate in the circle of life. Hamburger doesn’t come from Price Chopper or Wegmans or Hannafords. It comes from an animal, likely who had lived a not-so-pleasant life, unless I splurge and by free-range, grass-fed beef/chicken/pork. But, I’m a college student. If I buy a steak, it’s the cheapest cut. I rarely eat red meat (unless it’s venison given to me by a hunter-friend!) because it’s so expensive. I respect your choice to be vegetarian or vegan, please respect mine to eat and ENJOY meat, and to want to understand the whole process of harvest.

Coming up, a review of deer hunting this past bow and regular season! I have great picture submissions from around New York State.

An ethical dilemma

Things you ARE allowed to do:

walk/cross country ski/snowshoe/walk the dog/fish from land/

take your college classes there to learn about wetland plants

(that's how I was introduced to this place!).

‘Tis the season to be out of my mind.
Holidays and finals.

So many things are going on, but I HAD to get out of the house yesterday morning to take the dog for a run, and to just not be inside. I live in Schoharie, well really “East Cobleskill”, and I’m just down the road from the town water resevoir which has some nice mown trails and is open to the public for various uses.

My dog, by the way, is a 10 week old golden retriever named “Addie” (Adirondack). She’s a ball of energy and needs to be run everyday to burn some energy! I also was looking for a way to introduce my girl to the blogging community, and this was the perfect entry.

I was walking Addie on leash for a bit, then let her off to work on doing some “recalls” (Addie, come! Good girl!). She’s pretty good at keeping next to me, leash or not. So we’re walking around the edge of one of the retention ponds, and there’s a stand of common reed (even though THAT’S the common name, more people know it by it’s genus: Phragmites [Frag-mite-ees]). This is a horribly invasively plant that takes over wetlands, and creates a monoculture of plant life very quickly. Not good because not very many, if any, animals feed on it or use it as primary cover. Nonetheless, it’s there.

Addie and the phrag.

Just at the end of the stand of phragmites, I found a puddle of feathers. Yup, that’s what it’s called when you find a large pile of feathers, a puddle. I thought that was kind of odd to find so MANY feathers in one spot. Many different types of waterfowl use these retention ponds as a stopover resting spot, and so there are many loose feathers here and there around the edges of the ponds. But this was a large handful in one spot. And while I stood there pondering how this came to be, Addie was in the phrag nosing about frantically. I looked in, while grabbing her by the tail so she didn’t scoot all the way in to where I couldn’t reach her, and so she didn’t fall into the water, and saw a Canada Goose nestled into the dense plants.

At first, I thought it was dead, because it didn’t move or make a sound as Addie was frantically trying to get to it. So, naturally I reached in and grabbed it, and pulled it out. I know, that sounds a little odd, but I’m into this kind of stuff! It didn’t LOOK gross, and there was no smell, and I wanted to look at it up close. And as I pulled it out, it began wheezing, and I noticed it was warm. It became obvious to me that this poor Goose was alive but not well, because a healthy wild animal should not let a human just pick it up without struggle.

I let Addie sniff it all over, but when it didn’t immediately engage her in a game of chase, she lost interest and wandered away to sample some leftover Goose poops. Whatever.

I looked the Goose over, looking for some kind of wound, and found, sadly, a small, perfectly round bullet hole right between the shoulder blades in it’s back. In the picture below, you can see the white ruffled feathers on it’s back- that’s where the hole is.

Addie being a good biologist and pulling the invasive plants out

I’m a bleeding heart, and I can’t stand to see suffering. I didn’t know what to do! I began calling past and present professors on their cell phones (Sorry again to bother you both on a Sunday morning!), and friends who I knew were hunters, especially waterfowl hunters. Everyone told me I had 1 of 3 choices: leave it, kill it myself, or try and get it to a wildlife rehabilitator. There was NO way I could put it out of it’s misery. And that’s where my ethical dilemma comes into play. I wanted so badly to put it out of it’s misery, because it was clearly suffering. Who knows how long it had been ‘existing’ like that. I was told, and I knew this myself, that IF I could get it to a rehabber, the animal would have no quality of life if it was saved. It would be caged and forced to be domestic.

So, I left it. I hoped that it would die sooner rather than later. And I took comfort in the fact that some hungry predator was going to have itself a nice fatty, protein-rich supper that night. I hope.
Please don’t give me flack about this…I couldn’t bear to finish it off (and detailed instructions were texted to me…). Selfish, I know.

What I’m confused about though, is that there is no hunting allowed on the resevoir. This is the town of Cobleskill’s drinking water source, so I’m sure the town doesn’t want lead birdshot landing in the ponds. Plus dead birds. This Goose could barely move. It was struggling to stand, and army crawl back into the weeds. So it couldn’t have flown from somewhere else and landed at the resevoir, in my opinion.

A flock of Canada Geese coming in for a landing.

Poor Goose.

2012 NYS shotgun season commences!





Mady on shotgun season-eve,
with her "hunting stand" (a folding bar stool)
strapped to her back!

This morning marks the opening of the 2012 shotgun season in NY. As I write this there are countless fathers, uncles, brothers, and sons out in the woods sitting high in a tree waiting for the perfect buck to carelessly wander close enough to take down. 

But at the same time there are plenty of ladies out there too- my roommate Mady in fact is up the hill behind the house as I write (and I just heard 2 shots, not sure if it was her or a neighbor, but I hope it was her…love venison steaks!).

I’ve been asked several times my “stance” on hunting, and I’ve been reluctant to share because it can be controversial…but I think it’s time to share.
 

I’m not a hunter (or huntress?), but I’m not anti-hunting.
 

I don’t have the gumption to get up at 5am, crawl into the freezing cold woods and sit there up in a tree. I am NOT a morning person. I don’t have it in me to shoot a living, breathing animal. And I certainly don’t have the stomach to field dress and then butcher the animal. But, because I’m pursuing a career in wildlife management, I realize the necessity of hunting. The licensing fees help fund salaries of biologists (which I hope to be) and law enforcement officers, as well as funding conservation efforts across the state. The removal of animals via hunting/trapping/fishing helps to “cull the herd” and somewhat maintain populations. And actually, the white-tailed deer population is increasing, and numbers of hunters is decreasing across the state (Hunting and Trapping Participation in NY)… so there are actually less hunters out there, than can put a dent in the deer population! And for all you meat-eaters out there, wild game is delicious! It often is healthier and leaner than store bought red meat. We all like organic/grass fed beef right?

All of that being said, I wish everyone luck and safety- please keep control of your muzzle and know what you’re shooting at! Keep track of your hunting buddies, if you’re hunting in pairs, and for the LOVE of Mother Nature, wear some blaze orange! I don’t even know what the statistics are like for hunting related accidents, but there are more than anyone wants.

The image below is borrowed from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation hunting section of their site. This has all the information NY hunters need to know. Check it out!

2012 NYS deer bow/regular hunting seasons.

If you or someone close to you happens to bag a nice white-tail, send me a comment and I’d love to share your picture!

Tomorrow I will be accompanying a Region 4 wildlife biologist on a mission to collect biological information from harvested deer. I’ll be writing an entry on that outing soon, so stay tuned.

Have a great weekend!

(Oh, and I just received a text from the woods: those shots were Mady…she missed a 4-point. Better luck next time!)