Open Thread - 17 November 2017

  pl

Comments

[BabelFish]

Just got back from deer hunting in the Eustis, Maine area. First day was 11 Fahrenheit, with a steady 15 knot wind and frequent gusts to 30. I am absolutely getting to old for that merde. 5 layers of high tech clothing made me feel like an astronaut with a rifle.

Lots of sign, for the first time in 15 years, as the devastated herd comes back. Could have shot many doe or coyotes. The bucks were elusive, some of our party got shots off but no joy.

Maine remains a beautiful place and my heart's home. Can't wait for next year!

[The Beaver]

Saad Hariri:
إقامتي في المملكة هي من أجل إجراء مشاورات حول مستقبل الوضع في لبنان وعلاقاته بمحيطه العربي. وكل ما يشاع خلاف ذلك من قصص حول إقامتي ومغادرتي او يتناول وضع عائلتي لا يعدو كونه مجرد شائعات.

From what I got from machine translation and Twitter:
my stay in Saudi was for consultation on the future of Lebanon and its relation with Arab neighbors.

He has three citizenships: Lebanese/Saudi and French .
His wife is Syrian
Will be heading to France today. Don't know if MBS will let his family leaves.

[Fitzhugh]

Dear Colonel,
Since the publication of your late friend's book, Come Retribution, has any new information come to light regarding the Confederate Secret Service(s)? I wonder if there are any records buried in an archive somewhere in London or Paris.

Yours sincerely,

Fitzhugh

[turcopolier]

Fitzhugh

I would think that there probabaly are, especially in London. pl

[Walrus]

president Trump has removed the ban on importing hunters Elephant trophies. Allegedly the money made from killing Elephants will be spent on conservation. Fat chance.

[turcopolier]

Babelfish

How had the herd become decimated? pl

[BabelFish]

Pat, the opinion from the biologists is a) epically bad winters with very deep snow cover and bitter cold, b) the return of the coyote as an effective predator and c) some intense logging that eliminated feed and cover areas for a chunk of time. Of course, it is multi-use land and the logging is expected. One winter die off was severe enough that the game folks pulled hundreds of deer carcasses out of the woods. There is no reported sign of wasting disease and the deer we saw looked very healthy.

[different clue]

All or Any,

A little over a week ago while walking home for work, I heard and then saw a bunch of snow geese flying along over head. Is "seeing snow geese" any sign or indication of the winter to come?

Also, I saw a couple of woolly bears and they were only the size of tent caterpillars. I have never before seen woolly bears that tiny. I think it means the dry summer around here resulted in little enough caterpillar-food plant growth that "tiny" was the biggest they could get this year. It makes me wonder if some animals will find their winter food shortaged enough that they invade peoples' yards or even houses more than normal.

[Laura]

Fat chance, indeed. I feel like I'm living through a time when bad decisions are enshrined as gold.
Greed is Good...for some.

[Allen Thomson]

How about Brazil?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados

[SRW]

Coyote getting a deer, well maybe a fawn. Here on the great plains about the only natural predator for a grown deer is a mountain lion. A neighbor took a picture of one walking past a brush pile back of my house this spring. I live in a subdivision near a waterway to the Missouri river, not country but not city either. We have had several instances of coyotes taking small dogs or pups in the city, one even while the owner was watching her pup take a leak in the backyard. I hear them most every night but hardly ever see one. They especially like to howl after taps from the local air base at 22:00 hrs. As for the mountain lions, they come out of Colorado down the Platte river or out of the Black Hills into waterways that have an abundance of deer. One hardly ever sees a mountain lion or evidence of their presence but they are around as the game folks can attest to. I'm all for them taking deer as during rut season there are alway lots of collisions with deer. Over the past ten years I've read of at least three motorcyclist fatalities hitting them. Another reason I've had to reconsider getting another motorcycle.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

The moose population in NE Minnesota has been in decline for at least a decade for reasons that had stumped the biologists and authorities until recently. Last week the results of a study were published that attributed root cause of the decline to a parasite which deer carry but are not affected by. The moose, however, are made ill by it and either killed by it or weakened sufficiently to make them more vulnerable to the substantial to predation by indigenous wolf population. Deer are not native to the area. They began moving in only when significant European settlement began in the area early in the 19th century.
http://queticosuperior.org/blog/scientists-northern-minnesotas-rising-deer-population-blame-dwindling-moose-numbers

[Norbert M Salamon]

All:
It appears that King Salman likes chit chat with Chinese
President:

http://www.atimes.com/article/china-debunks-theory-saudi-arabia-wants-regional-war/

Interesting

[The Twisted Genius]

BabelFish,

My youngest brother, living in Center Sandwich, NH, says the ticks up in that area are out of control and are taking a real toll on the moose population. There have been some odd winters lately. Last year was unusually mild. The year before was a killer. A late extended freeze hit here in Virginia that year and killed all my holly berry blossoms leaving nothing for the robin flocks the following winter. The up side was that it also killed off the bagworms in my spruce trees. I've been fighting them for years and this year nothing. It also killed off the Washington Hawthorne and golden rain tree blossoms This year we have a bumper crop of holly berries which are turning red now with the arrival of cold weather. The robins will be pleased. My 88 year old father in Fryeburg, Maine was tuning up the snowblower this week. He doesn't hunt anymore, but he does still fish.

[John_Frank]

The decision was made under the auspices of the Secretary of the Interior, in accordance with existing guidelines.

Hunting Can Contribute to Biodiversity Conservation
https://www.fws.gov/international/Permits/by-activity/sport-hunted-trophies.html

Import of Hunted Elephants
https://www.fws.gov/international/Permits/by-activity/sport-hunted-trophies-elephants.html

[Fred]

BabelFish,

Heading out for the Suncoast Kingfish Classic tommorrow. The weather looks perfect. Wish us luck.

[turcopolier]

All

My summer birds are all gone now and I am in a survival support mode for the overwinter hardasses, the squirrels and chipmunks. I have found that I can buy seed, suet and in shell peanuts on line at good prices. pl

[Virginia Slim]

Slow trolling with live bait? That's fine sport right there. Good luck!

[Haralambos]

This is what a Google search brought up for Maine this year with some history: http://www.pressherald.com/2017/10/28/maine-hoping-hunters-harvest-at-least-7000-does-this-fall-to-cull-deer-herd/

[John_Frank]

Also, at today's White House press briefing, in response to a question on the topic, Press Secretary Sanders pointed out:

Steven.

Q There's been some extraordinary pushback on the administration's decisions with respect to elephant trophies and hunting of lions and elephants in Africa. Can you shed some light on the decisions the administration has made? And will you make that pushback?

MS. SANDERS: Yeah, this is actually due to a review that started back in 2014, under the previous administration, done by career officials at the Fish and Wildlife Service. This review established that both Zambia and Zimbabwe had met new standards, strict international conservation standards that allowed Americans to resume hunting in those countries.

A ban on importing elephant ivory from all country remains in place. But again, all of this was based on a study that was conducted -- that started back to the previous administration and done by career officials.

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, 11/17/2017, #33
http://publicpool.kinja.com/subject-press-briefing-by-press-secretary-sarah-sander-1820558155

[BabelFish]

Nail them, Fred!

[Mark Logan]

Walrus,

Elephants kill about two or three people a week. Cull hunting is a big revenue generator in the project to save some of them for at least the time being. They would be extinct if Westerners had to share their own back yards with them, that much I am sure of. The money IS spent on conservation. This in no way approves of the tone deafness involved in the changing of a rule simply to help one's own sons enjoy their experience, there aren't many hunters like that for whom not being able to bring back a trophy is a deal breaker.

Unrelated, Some dog-tired Samoans revive themselves with a song. A moment of Zen, I guess, for a fellow downunder-er of theirs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFe97vHRvIE

Oh to be young again...

[BabelFish]

TTG, winter ticks are playing hob with the Maine moose population as well. The estimate is 70% of the calves are dying from them. We used to see moose often when grouse hunting. Not anymore.

This is supposed to be a ferocious winter in New England but October was exceptionally warm. Fingers crossed your dad has minimal use for that blower. We did have 3 inches of snow last week and Flagstaff Lake and the Chain of Ponds were skimmed with ice.

[BabelFish]

SRW, I agree on fawns being their primary prey. Or the injured or infirm. In places we've lived like eastern PA, their numbers are controlled only by trucks and cars colliding with them. The numbers of the hits is staggering.

I had a friend who lived near Cooperstown, NY and called the state biology folks to tell them he had Mountain lions hunting deer on his property. They assured him there were none in the area yet. He sent them a picture of a beautiful specimen sitting on his back porch, probably waiting for them to let their dog out for the evening.

[dilbert dogbert]

Back when we lived in walking distance of downtown Palo Alto a young mountain lion was shot near a school that the children went to. The creek across the street from our house was the pathway for it to come down from the hills to the west.
Now we live in deer, coyote, bear, coon and mountain lion country. There are many stories on the local internet about folks having their animals killed by lions.