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3. Failed bird hunt on a pretty fall day in Alaska

Wow. Grouse hunting in such splendor. I miss my ruffs and duskies.

Jason,

You are a very wise man, it seems to me. Makes you wonder what's going on there.


Spence

Wow, the COLORS!!! Spectacular, Jason. Somehow, I doubt that said property owner had things "booby-trapped" or under surveillance such that you would be shot - more like pure intimidation. Of course, why take chances??

Jonathon

Probably some perfectly ordinary people who know how to make a "no trespassing" sign that actually works. They're on a small parcel of private land amidst a popular public wood-cutting area. If they didn't deter trespassers, they'd probably wake up some morning to find somebody chainsawing the trees in their front yard.

I can't blame them...I would probably do the same. Too many people in the more remote parts of the world don't think they have to abide by any rules whatsoever...

Jonathon

Hell, why post a sign? Just shoot first, no questions asked.

The hills have eyes...:)

I think you're right, Jason. Ran into an Idaho landowner in front of his property this Summer with similar signage. He told me he had constant problems with store bought signs. Since he put up his hand painted scary one, he hadn't had an issue. He said the more demented looking, the better - even some intentionally misspelled words. LOL

On our trip west in August my wife and I decided to set aside a day for serious birding. I googled the the local Audubon and found a great brochure, "Birding the Blackhills". It had about 40 different, mapped out, trails with expected birds etc. Really nice.

I decided to travel east of town (Rapid City S Dakota) and we took a trail called the Cheeroke Creek Loop which runs through parts of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.

I turn down this road and just before we approach a treed creek I spotted a couple birds flying up a driveway. I followed them. There was a big gate over the drive and I had no intentions of going any further than the apron there.

I'm watching through my binoculars and I see a Ram pickup barrowing down the drive in our direction. I pull out and just down the road a bit to get out of their way. The truck pulled up next to us and a little old lady gets out and wants to know what we were up to. She explained that the drive was hers etc.

I showed her my Zeiss binocs and the bird books on my lap and that on my iPhone I had the brochure up and explained I was following a local Audubon trail called the Cheeroke Creek Loop. She took the iPhone out of my hand to verify what I was saying and asked, "Why do they call it that?!" I replied, "Not sure ma'am...I'm from Detroit."

She seemed to settle down and told us where we had to go...Basically away from her place...My wife and I composed a tune about it called, "Granny got a Meth Lab"...

Some of this land is private cattle land and some is part of the Grasslands and public. Nearly every car that passed us that day stopped to see what we were up to...One guy in another Ram pickup stopped and asked, "You birding?"

I was just this side of my Detroit side raising its ugly head and telling them, "Hey! Damn it! This is a ****ing public road and its none of your ****ing business what I'm doing here!" Better judgement and gun rakes persuaded me to be a tad more polite and suffer through their paranoia...After all, I did have binocs and a 300mm lens on my camera...I guess I could look like a fed with those Michigan plates and the plate holder that says, "Michigan Fly Fishing Club"...Good cover I guess.

:) I did make a killing on the bird side though...Sprague Pipit, Cliff Swallows, Loggerhead Shrike, Lark Bunting, Red-Headed Woodpecker, Western Kingbird, Eastern Kingbird, Horned Lark youngster, Western Meadowlark, Killdeer, and a slew more I was unable to id...I was looking for Sage Grouse but no luck!

thanks for putting some color in my day. those lingonberries are beautiful. nice backyard you have there.

I'm having to deal with the opposite problem, signs going up everywhere No Trespassing, and in some God forsaken country I can't imagine many folks even wanting to be on....desert sage/lava rock as an example. One of my hungarian partridge areas that border AG land with sage brush had a no trespassing sign up in the sage, and no motorized vehicles, and shooting mentioned. I shoot a shotgun, and if I ran into the big coop foreman again I think he would let me hunt. But the ATV's get hauled in by the droves, and they fire their 22 ammo at cans etc. I see areas littered with bullet hole trash. What it amounts to from my observation is the country has turned ugly divisive. Neighbors don't trust neighbors.