Manitoba fur bearing animals
At Holmans the other day I had chance to grab a few pics of some beautiful hides hanging in the shop. A wolverine on the left, bear hides ready to be made to rugs, and tanned coyote pelts tanned ready to be picked up by the hunters. Feeding Birds in Manitoba in the spring
Every winter Judy spends hours sitting at the window by the bird feeder. We take time in the morning to see what is coming Blue jays, siskins, chickadees, Downy and Hairy woodpeckers, nuthatches, Red poles, Grosbeks Evening and Pine. Now spring is in the air, many have left, Grosbeks are gone and we are seeing the odd Ruffy grouse scouting past the feeder. on the left this Ruffy roaster struts his stuff trying to attrack a girl in the area. Canadian geese are sitting out back clucking away trying to impress their partner and beginnings of making nests have begun. we put a couple bales out back on the big slough for the geese to make nests on. hopefully I can use digital camera and get some good shots of the gosslings. 
Baiting bears at Big Grass
Beavers is the main food of a Bear in the Spring prior to grass turning green, the beaver may be out cutting trees or the bear will dig into a beaver hut to access the beaver kits for food.. We are lucky to know Elzivar who traps fur in the winter and spring. Just the other day he called to say he had a bunch and would like to bring them over as he doesnot have a deep freezer and temps outside are rising. here are 20 carcasses he bought over, and he will continue to trap till we arrive in the area for our spring bear hunt. We chop the beaver in pieces and wire the pieces to the so bear will have to work away at trying to release it to eat it..This gives the hunter time to determine how big the bear is and to get a good killing shot. We also use oats and grease for bait along with meat scraps, sweets and a scent control to spray hopfully covering the scent of the hunter in the tree, plus this scent is an attractant. Taxidermy at Holman”s in Brandon
I visited Scott the other day, he was in the middle of mounting a caribou shoulder mount. measure horns and hide, Tan the hide, order and prep the form, tan the velvet horns, mount the horns to the form, eyes mounted and then the hide. In total it likely takes a few hours to place and glue and sew the hide onto the form, then setting hide to make sure it looks lifelike, Total hours likely 25 hours from start to finish atleast. Someone who takes the time, uses references, and takes pride in their work, plus experience does a great job… Scott has lots of experience and does a good job.. Some people want to skimp on the price of the mount however, you just spend 3-5 thousand on the hunt, $1500 gun and scope, flight, and you want to skimp on the only thing you can actually touch after it is all said and done… I do believe the Taxidermy is very high on the list in the completion of the hunt. Manitoba Bear hunting
Bear Skulls remove flesh, boil, pressure wash, bleach, score after 90 days, dip to clearcoat, attach to plaque and send to Hunter.. that is a general process of the prep of a Bear skull after it has been harvested. We all know the original skull is not put in mount or rug and a styofoam one is used inplace . Measurements are taken off the original skull or a cast is taken if something unique is wanted to be saved for the mount. Some hunters like a painting done on their skull, or a bear paw print with their pic showing in the paw, and some one it just plain no plaque just hung on the wall. We had Jeff and Chi from Beijing hunt with us last fall and they requested the bones of the front paw cleaned also as this is a Chinese custom.
Snow Geese hunting in Spring Migration
![IMG_5692[1]](http://www.biggrassoutfitters.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_56921.jpg)
Local whitetail deer
Manitoba Ice fishing season
Time is running out , temperatures are rising and March is slipping away. Forecast states temps to the low 40F by mid week, so we chose to take our shack off before we turned it into a pontoon boat.. lol.. Tom has it set up just to just hook it up, turn jacks, drop wheels and away we go. over all the water levels of the Lake have dropped over 12 feet by looks of the shore. We had no problems getting up the ridge and onto road off the lake which was GREAT> Judy is a little stressed when it is her job to remove the shack.. Sammy and Jazzy got to go for a ride and all were happy…
Wildlife in Manitoba
Cameras and feeders is what is in Judys plan for the winter.. just outside the kitchen window we have many birdfeeders, with many Blue Jays, Grosbeaks, siskins, chickadees, feeding daily. then Surprise, I had been feeding the other animals the scraps as the dogs sure did need them, every couple days Id take a bag out in field to feed the other travelers of the area, then one morning after putting fresh peanuts and some dried berries and bread crumbs in the feeder, LOOK who showed.. Slowly she moved towards the feeder.. , Hoping I was going to get a shot I got out the Canon and SNAP I got it… Not sure if it is Mr or Mrs I named her Mrs Fox.. daily she travels around the yard, and Ive seen lots of activity on the field and in slough where she has caught mice and squirrels. It is amazing what you see if you just look and have time to spend in the outdoors