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| Outdoor Life April 3 |
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| MyBlog - MyBlog | |||
| Written by Bob Harrington | |||
| Friday, 03 April 2009 00:00 | |||
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We are wondering if something happened to the old pair of geese that has been nesting for several years at the Frank Carpenter private lake east of Paola. A close watch has been kept, but as of Monday ,a pair that appears to be establishing their dominance at the lake, has not nested. Usually by this date the nest is occupied. Goslings popped out of the nest April 16 last year and the preceding year they were out April 13. Generally, it takes from 28 to 29 days for goose eggs to hatch, so if the pair isn’t sitting on eggs at this time, the hatch will be late if it happens. I plan to have a turkey permit available when the regular season opens a half-hour before sunrise Wednesday. The youth and archery turkey seasons are open now and close Tuesday. Archers may continue to hunt, but they have to compete with gun hunters. It is amazing to me that the one-antlered deer visiting our backyard at night still had his antler as of March 24. I haven’t been fishing yet, but the weather has been right from time to time, but not Saturday. The wind has been reasonably calm in the early morning and late evening. I bet the fish will bite if you get to the right place and the right time and fish for the species feeding. It is walleye fishing time! I like oysters on the half shell. Just pry open the shell and sprinkle a little red pepper sauce and lemon juice on the oyster, then cut the muscle attached to the shell and slurp it down. I haven’t eaten oysters on the half shell for several years. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tells me not to eat fresh oyster from Area 2C, located in the Mississippi Sound portion of the Gulf of Mexico near Pass Christian. An outbreak of norovirus illnesses has been associated with oysters there. Norovirus is a food-borne pathogen that can cause acute gastroenteritis in humans. Symptoms of norovirus illness usually include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people also have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for one or two days. Minnesota wildlife officials are searching the Big Stone Lake area of western Minnesota for feral pigs. Officials have discovered pot-bellied pigs (a southeast Asian species imported to the United States as pets) have been roaming wild and apparently reproducing for the past few years. The first ones either escaped captivity or were illegally released into the wild. “They can be very destructive to native plants and wildlife habitat, and they (may) carry diseases that can affect wildlife and livestock,” said Steve Merchant of the Department of Natural Resources. “We’re definitely concerned. We want to get them out of there.” The state of Maryland is requiring a two=to-one male-to-female harvest ratio to provide additional horseshoe crab eggs to migratory shorebirds. “This is a strong step in the right direction in ensuring more critically important horseshoe crab eggs will be on the beach when Red Knots stop to refuel on their long migration northward,” said Darin Schroeder, vice president of conservation advocacy for American Bird Conservancy. “Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey have concluded without greater conservation of horseshoe crabs, the eastern Red Knot could be extinct within a decade.” The Red Knot, a reddish-brown shorebird a little larger than an American Robin, annually migrates from Tiera Del Fuego to its Arctic breeding grounds, stopping to rebuild energy reserves by feasting on horseshoe crab eggs in the Delaware Bay. Unfortunately, science has shown the number of available horseshoe crab eggs has declined, leading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conclude, “The primary factor threatening the red knot is destruction and modification of its habitat. What else is new? Isn’t that what happened to the mastodons and other exotic animals millions of years ago in Kansas? Did humans have a hand in their demise? I believe it was a natural occurrence in the creator’s plans of life.
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