Pennsylvania Game News - April 2009 - 40

Lose All the Way Around ELK — Falling timber prices have resulted not only in substantially reduced timber sale revenues for the Game Commission, the current economic slump has also caused some timber companies to hold off on cutting timber sales that were previously purchased at higher stumpage prices than the trees can now be sold for. Wildlife also suffers, as the slow down in timber harvesting has resulted in many wildlife habitat improvement projects not being completed on time. — FORESTER BRYCE HALL, RIDGWAY Back to Life UNION — Deputy Barry Cooper is an electrician, so whenever I need something fixed I send it over to Barry. One day I took my robotic deer to Barry’s house because the head wasn’t moving. After trying to fix it, Barry had to leave and planned to resume work on it when he got back. Not long after Barry left his wife heard a continuous knocking on the wall in the garage. Because the garage was locked and she couldn’t get Barry by phone she got scared. After awhile she gathered the courage to sneak around to the side of the garage and peer through the window to see who the intruder was. You guessed it—robo deer was banging his head against the garage wall. When Barry got home he had some explaining to do about “game wardens’” toys and the appropriate place to store them. — WCO DIRK B. REMENSNYDER, LEWISBURG Doing the Quickstep SNYDER — I was leaving for work one day when my 3-year-old son, Ben, asked, “Are you going to work, Daddy?” I answered that I was going to the DJ’s. He then asked, “Are you going to dance with someone?” — WCO HAROLD J. MALEHORN, SELINGSGROVE Viewing Opportunity of a Lifetime MERCER — One day in mid-January Greenville residents Todd and Renie Shipton and their grandson, Sam Augustine, were clearing snow at their business along College Avenue (Route 58) when they noticed many large birds soaring overhead. They soon realized the birds were eagles, 18, with at least 11 easily identified as mature birds with adult plumage. Todd told me that they even got to see several pairs in aerial courtship, as they dropped in a freefall with talons locked. They could also see three others off in the distance, making 21 eagles observed from this site at one time. With all the lakes in the area frozen over, the nearby Shenango River was the only open water around, so perhaps that explained so many at one place. — WCO DONALD G. CHAYBIN, GREENVILLE 40 Crafty Critters After the flintlock season had ended, I put out cracked corn for turkey trapping for our ongoing study. I established nearly a dozen baits sites in areas where I had hunted repeatedly during our October and late flintlock muzzleloader seasons, and during the regular firearms season. We had little snow during those deer seasons, but with three or so inches on the ground during my baiting runs, I could see tracks from what probably were dozens of deer at each of my bait sites. I saw few deer during my hunting outings, but clearly they were always in the area, just wily enough to avoid me. — JUSTIN VREELAND, SC WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT SUPERVISOR GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - April 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - April 2009