The Outdoor Scene

There’s Women’s Equality Day. And National Mammography Day. Even America Recycles Day. What do these diverse celebrations have in common? All were proclaimed with the goal of creating awareness - of women’s suffrage, the need for regular breast examinations and the importance of recycling. As women who are passionate about wildlife, there’s another day we should heed, National Hunting and Fishing Day.

Formalized by Congress in 1972, NHF Day is held the fourth Saturday of every September to promote outdoor sports and conservation.  This year, the celebration takes place Sept. 26.

Denise Wagner, NHF Day coordinator for the last four years, said the effort started off as a way to thank sportsmen and serves that purpose to this day.

“Nobody does more for wildlife conservation than hunters, anglers and recreational shooters. Through license fees and the excise taxes they pay on firearms, ammunition, fishing equipment and motorboat fuel, sportsmen and women support wildlife restoration and management. Every 30 minutes sportsmen contribute $100,000. That adds up to $1.75 billion per year.”

You aren’t likely to hear that upbeat report from the pretty people who read the evening news. I don’t know if the reason is it doesn’t fit the “crisis, catastrophe, conflict” model that most newsrooms use or if the people who gather and write the news just don’t like hunting, fishing and sport shooting. Maybe both. Fact is, complaining about the lack of coverage about the good things sportsmen and women do doesn’t solve a thing.

Instead, we need to make a commitment to take it upon ourselves to tell this story at the grassroots level. Be proud of your contribution to conservation. Tell your neighbors, doctors, co-workers, Facebook friends and tweeps. Your passion and knowledge can go a long way in enhancing the image of everyone who totes a bow, firearm or fishing rod afield.

NHF Day is an ideal tool for the job. First, you can brush up on your facts regarding how hunters, anglers and shooters have restored and conserved wildlife populations. Visit the NHF Day Web site at http://www.nhfday.org/ and see the facts section under the “Hunting and Shooting” and “Fishing” tabs. You’ll sound super smart at your next barbecue when you tell your friends that hunters and shooters have paid more than $5 billion in excise taxes since 1939, money that’s been used to restore white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, elk, pronghorn, wood ducks and more.

NHF Day honorary chairman and country music’s rising star Luke Bryan is another great conversation starter. You’ll have people thinking about hunting and fishing every time they hum one of his top 10 hits “All My Friends Say” and “Country Man.” Bryan, a Georgia native, is perfect for the job of growing awareness of what hunters and anglers do for conservation. During an interview he said “I don’t remember learning how to hunt and fish—just like I don’t remember learning how to talk. It was just a natural thing in our family. Part of our lifestyle.”

Denise also recommends that you attend one of the hundreds of events taking place across the country on National Hunting and Fishing Day. Heck, go crazy and invite your friends, too. You can find events at the NHF Day Web site or call your state wildlife/natural resources agency.

Or do your own thing. There are no rules on how to celebrate NHF Day. Michigan’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman coordinator took a group of women out on a pheasant hunt last year. Even if you take out one newcomer for a day of fishing, shooting or hunting and tell them about how these activities create jobs and boost our economy, you’ll be moving the needle.

Feeling ambitious? You can also host an event. Get involved with one of the conservation organizations at this link http://www.nhfday.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=68 to get the tools and guidance you’ll need to throw one heck of a get-together.

Don’t let Sept. 26 be just another day on your calendar. Make a plan now to Hunt. Shoot. Fish. And share the pride.

The growing list of sponsors for National Hunting and Fishing Day includes Wonders of Wildlife, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Bass Pro Shops, The Sportsman Channel, Realtree, GunBroker.com, Hunting Heritage Trust, Cabela’s, Boone and Crockett Club, Smith & Wesson, Field & Stream/Outdoor Life, Woolrich and Yamaha.

Bluebirds: Harbingers of Happiness or Avian Wackos?

There was a time when I believed that having bluebirds raise their young in the nest boxes we put up would be the pinnacle of backyard birding. Who wouldn’t yearn for a daily glimpse of these feathered jewels? I wasn’t just seduced by their dazzling blue color, though; I also loved their rags to riches story. Bluebird populations declined in the 1960s and ‘70s due in part to bad-guy birds, namely house sparrows and European starlings, outcompeting them for nesting cavities. However, coordinated efforts to provide nest boxes have these beauties on the increase in North America. Conservationist that I am, I wanted to do my part, too. So, my husband, Wes, found bluebird nest box plans online and made several houses, which he put up in our backyard and the land we hunt in Georgia.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when we saw a courting pair during a weekend turkey hunt at our Peach State hang out. It was a textbook sighting, too.  The male performed the “nest demonstration display” that I had read about. He made a big show of bringing nest material to the hole, going in and out of the box and fluttering his wings while perched above. It worked, too, because we saw a female shortly thereafter, who apparently didn’t know that was pretty much going to be his only contribution to nest building. She set about with the heavy lifting associated with avian housekeeping, and he kept her company with his melodious warbling. The best part, I was witnessing this bluebird miracle about 20 yards from our camper.

After a morning turkey hunt, I sat outside the camper and watched the bluebirds. A day or two after I first saw them, I noticed the male bluebird acting weird. He was perched on the bumper of Wes’s truck and pecking furiously at it. At first, I figured he was issuing last rights to some unlucky grasshopper he was preparing to eat. But then, I saw him attack the truck’s windows and mirrors. When he had a tiny “accident” that showed up as a splatter on the window, I admit to snickering a little, imagining Wes’s reaction to this bird fouling his pride and joy.

As I was fixing a snack in the camper that afternoon, I heard a tapping on the window and turned around to see the male bluebird clinging to the window’s edge. “Well, that’s neat, I thought. Now I can get an up close and personal look at him.” And I did just that, drinking in every moment of watching this nut alternate between catching insects and thumping the windows with his beak and wings. When I woke up to this racket the next morning, though, I had to admit the novelty was starting to wear off. By the following weekend, the incessant drumming was like woodpeckers gone wild, and Wes and I were both getting tired of it.

So I consulted the all knowing “Google” for answers and found this question posted on a birding forum:

Q:  “I have a bluebird that has been relentlessly pecking at our windows for days! We can’t get it to stop. Please help!”

I was relieved at the prospect of finding a solution. However, like most wildlife issues, this one wasn’t easily solved. The expert explained that bluebirds are very territorial and the male aggressively defends his territory while the female tends to the nest. When bluebirds beat on the windows, they are reacting to what they perceive to be a rival bird. The only way to deal with this problem is eliminate the reflection. I can tell you right now, forget about closing the blinds. Doesn’t work. What we ended up doing was covering the outside of the windows with tarps, which ruined our view of the pond. The good news, according to the experts, was the behavior usually ceases once the female stops laying eggs. Still, I was hoping the bluebird boxes in our yard wouldn’t pass muster because I couldn’t imagine living in cave-like conditions while a nesting pair raised two or three broods throughout the summer. Luckily, my wishes were answered, and the only backyard residents were titmice, chickadees and a peace loving flying squirrel.

Once fall arrived, Wes and I trekked back down to our hunt camp in Georgia for deer season. We were immediately greeted by the charming mumbling song of the male bluebird and I was actually happy to hear it, now that nesting season was long past. However, by the next day, the male bluebird was back at it, banging on the windows like a madman.  

Back home, bluebirds started showing up in our backyard as well, not to nest, but to drive the other birds stark raving bonkers. We have an owl box that is occupied several months out of the year by the cutest of all owls, the screech owl. And for whatever reason, two or three pairs of bluebirds will fly all around its nest box and rudely poke their heads into the entrance. I am astonished they have the guts to do this, because I have seen the screech owl, in a madcap swoop, snatch a cardinal for his/her evening meal. Frankly, I don’t think this owl cares if dinner comes packaged in red or blue.

Like Hollywood’s handsome bad boy movie stars, male bluebirds just cannot behave themselves. And like paparazzi, I can’t help stalking them to admire their beauty and be shocked by their behavior.  So the answer to my original question is “yes.”  Bluebirds are harbingers of happiness and most assuredly, avian wackos.