Feeding Birds in Manitoba in the spring

IMG_5744IMG_5738Every 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. IMG_4770IMG_4772

Taxidermy at Holman”s in Brandon

IMG_5673IMG_5675I 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 Ice fishing season

IMG_5667Time 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…

Jewelry for Dave M,

daveband

Another band for Dave of Wy. the group of 3 hunters return each year and now again Dave is lucky to be the one to put down this Cackler banded in Inuvit,  That is where most Cacklers stage in summer and are banded there.