I went on a hawking trip to Nevada with my son Anthony a few winters ago, looking for Whitetail jackrabbits. While those rabbits were scarce, we did flush multiple coveys of Sage Grouse, each one looked like it had 50 or more birds in it. Awesome sight.
Amazing how much beauty there is if you get out of your house and car and just go into nature. A bad day hunting is better than a good day doing almost anything else. I'm in Virginia, and the number of wide-open spaces you see are non-existent because of tree growth. For those of you that grew up out west with open fields, you'd probably be a bit claustrophobic here with all the closed in woodlands. I know every time I've been out to Utah, Texas, and seen such wide open spaces, it's just been beautiful.
I'm in the process of removing all the barbed wire from my property in SE Oregon. Thank you for confirming how destructive it can be in open country. I was mostly concerned about prairie falcons and other raptors being harmed but seeing all those sage grouse getting needlessly slaughtered is sickening!
Beautiful Steve thank you for sharing man continues to destroy this beautiful planet and will not learn until we reach that tipping point , after that nothing will save us.
Unfortunately the growth of the human enterprise continues at the expense of most other species on the planet including ourselves. Too bad the "most intelligent life on the planet" seems unable to see this. Dan Cover, former president of NAFA said it all in his concluding essay in his book (Oh Those Wonderful Hawks) over a quarter century ago: "Anyone who has the audacity to think population growth can continue without massive human suffering and permanent damage to the ecosystem of this small planet needs to re-do their thinking." Thanks Steve for keeping this message in front of us. Lynn Oliphant, Saskatchewan
Got my tubes tied at 23. One of the best decisions of my life. My wife and I live a nice life without children. No regrets ever. I like being part of the solution.
