Not just for the birds
Things that happen outside of buildings, usually away from “it all”
We're hunkered down again today. It was a blizzard this morning when we woke up. Bob and I really wanted to know the wind chill but our weather station anemometer stopped spinning due it to being caked with snow and ice from the cold winds. I'm not complaining one bit about the snow drift that …
My stress doesn't come close to the stress wildlife endured this winter, but it's been there daily, mainly in the form of wonder and hope. In a phone call with my dad earlier this winter, I lamented the tough conditions for chukar and the rest, and he reminded me of this wonderful Emily Dickinson poem: …
Chukar hunters know that public lands in Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington house these amazing birds, and that these lands are under constant threat of being sold out from under us. This threat is intensifying dramatically with the new administration. Rarely do we get an opportunity to express our opinions at a public meeting with …
After my hunt with Peat last weekend, in fairly deep snow, I was surprised to find a tiny tick on him. A month or so ago, after a short walk near the Boise River, I noticed at least a half-dozen tiny ticks inside one of his ears. We've never found ticks, until now, on the …
"I can't wait for chukar hunting season," Bob said just yesterday. We have just over 6 months now. We need time to recover. These are some snapshots of the 2015/2016 season mostly from down in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and a few at the Cecil Andrus Wildlife Management Area. We feel blessed to …
After watching the Fish & Game videos and learning that a snare trap can kill my dogs if I can't get the cable off, I decided I now need to carry a pair of short-nose cable cutters along with all the other crap in my vest. Aside from the fact that they're ridiculously expensive ($65 …
As we finished our hunt the other day, and were milling about the truck a pickup drove by us and then backed up. The driver said, "Hey, just wanted to let you know I've got some traps up there." We'd walked right past his traps, and of course our dogs did, too. He showed us …
When the season consumes you, you don't worry about much else. When it's over, you worry about everything else. Filling up that worry with good things to carry it away like water helps. Yesterday was one of those good days between seasons. We collected a painting we commissioned and hung it up. It is …
It's not at all "just" for the birds. It's not "just" for any one thing. It's for Angus, whose rapturous pursuit of birds expresses the epitome of equivocal desire: his instincts draw him toward birds, but he knows I'm also interested and - because he checks on where I am, even when he's birdy - …
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. -Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Some of Leslie's chukar hunting landscape photos from this fall and winter... Have a wonderful holiday. Peace on Earth.