It takes a village to raise a bird

My dad and I saw this extremely bright yellow bird squawking up a storm, so we took some pictures of it. We thought it was mad but couldn't figure out why. So we went inside and looked it up and it turned out to be a scarlet tanager.

After a while we decided to go look around outside (the bird was still squawking). What we found was a baby tanager...in a cat's mouth. We got the bird and took it inside and put it in a box with a towel to sit on. As soon as we were done I went outside and just happened to find another one just about to be pounced on by one of our many yellow kittens. So I brought him inside too.

Neither one could really fly, so we decided to go catch some crickets to feed them. We brought the crickets in and the little baby birds would gobble them down in seconds. Then we would go get more and it was like no matter how much we fed them, they wanted another serving. After at least a dozen they seemed full.

The next day my dad bought a half tube of crickets. The crickets didn't last long because the birds were eating over 20 times a day. Some of the meals were dry cat food soaked in water, they liked that, too.

My dad and stepmother had to take turns feeding them because I went to visit my aunt in Tennessee. While I was gone, the smaller bird died, but the bigger one was doing great...my dad bought another half tube of crickets. My grandfather even had to pitch in and help while my dad and Miss Karee were gone one day.

The day before I got back my dad decided the bird was flying well enough to let him go. Then he called and told me about how the little bird had eaten a whole tube of crickets, and you gotta think, these birds are only two inches tall and they demolished over 100 of crickets plus the cat food....... that's quite an appetite.

When I got home, we walked outside and we could hear the little tanager chirping, then we saw the mother fly out of a tree, grab a bug and head towards the baby. A week later and she still found him. We were glad, it was her turn to feed him again.

www.danahersoutdoors.com

The Princess and the Opossum

It was time to eat dinner when the phone rang. It was my step-mother, Miss Karee, saying she couldn't come eat because she was being held hostage at her office by a opossum (they will do that, ya know).

We have had a lot of opossums but this one was determined. When she came out he was more interested in the Purina Cat Chow than he was in her, and was not planning to leave.

I went over there and tried to get him to leave with a broom, then we engaged in broom poking and getting hissed at. I went back inside and told my dad to try, and he got the same results. So after about 30 minutes of epic combat, we decided to just take his picture and leave him alone. (Okay, it may have been a little shorter but you get the point.)

I think it was really funny because watching my dad sort of reminded me about the fairy tales of the prince saving the princess in the tower from the dragon. Maybe this wasn't quite so dramatic but the thought still came up, and I had a good laugh about it.

www.danahersoutdoors.com

Bird House Ssssurprise

It was time to clean out the birdhouse, because all that was left of the bluebird family were the pine needles and egg shells they left behind..... or so I thought.

When I went to clean out the house I opened the little back-door and.... saw a big ol' snake!! Right in my face. It scared the MESS out of me. I sure wasn't expecting that! After a short time I went back to see that the snake was still curled up in there, which didn't seem all that comfortable to me.

I went and got my dad and told him to come look at the bird house. When he came out he just started laughing. It was a big gray ratsnake, about 4 feet long. When I finally got him to come out of the birdhouse, I played with him the rest of the afternoon and took some pictures of him.

I think its pretty cool that I can find snakes around my house, the most common being the gray ratsnake. And that they keep the mouse population under control. I always enjoy seeing snakes and this one was really sweet. But, I had to let him go so I released him on a nearby fence row. Hopefully, he is still out there making dinner out of rodents.

Beginner's Luck

I was aiming at my first duck and I felt really confident in the shot... BOOM!! I saw the duck drop, but what was strange was that I saw another duck close by drop her head too. It took me a few seconds to realize that I had just shot and killed two ducks.

I was aiming for the head because they were in water and the spread had reached the other duck, too. At nine years old, I was really proud of myself until I realized that they were about twenty yards out floating in ice cold water.

With no dog and the water being deeper than my dad's waders, well, needless to say we did not get the ducks that day. On the way home, we decided to go back the next morning and literally fish the ducks out. (it was near freezing, so we didn't worry about the ducks spoiling)

We came back with a rod and reel with a topwater plug, and threw at the ducks until my dad hooked one. He reeled it in and we started on the next one, which eventually we got out too. What an interesting idea, catching ducks with a rod... a new sport?? Who knows?

It was a great trip, and with a two woody limit in Mississippi, I had limited out on my first real duck hunt in one shot. Definitely one of those times I'd rather be lucky than good.


www.danahersoutdoors.com

Instant Mashed Potatoes

The 17 HMR is a very fun round to shoot. Its not too expensive so you can go out and just shoot random stuff, which is exactly what I did. I went shooting with a college friend of my dad's, Randy, who lives nearby.

We got a sack of potatoes, and set them up. I started with the first clip to check and make sure the gun was still on target, but my first shot was shaky. So I set up again, steady this time, and took the shot. Potato mush flew everywhere and I heard Randy behind me laughing up a storm. So I had 4 more shots and guess what, four more potatoes blew up and went to potato heaven. Once I was done, we went to check what it did, the explosive power of this round is insane! It was blowing potatoes clean in half, well not clean, actually pretty messy.

This round also works well on apples, tomatoes, water jugs, coke cans, rabbits, squirrels, and coyotes. If you get a chance, try one out...its a whole lot more than shooting a .22 at paper targets!

www.danahersoutdoors.com

Just Getting Started

I'm a little new at this blog thing so just bear with me until I figure it all out.

I decided to start doing a blog so I can give you a little something to read more often than a full story. Because I write about things I actually go and do it takes time in between stories, thats where the blog comes in.

I can write about anything I'm interested in and also things that I did in the past. I hunt or fish as often as I can, I am a blackbelt in HanMuDo (a Korean martial art) I like guns, bows, knives and hopefully I always have an interesting thing to write about. So keep coming back every so often and I'll have something new up for ya.

www.danahersoutdoors.com