Camera Critters: A Young Buck Grows Antlers

Here in Pennsylvania, whitetail buck's antler growth accelerates rapidly in early May .  This is the same animal that was posted for Camera Critters last week.

Antler Growth Accelerates In May

Look carefully at the close-up shot of the left antler in the following photograph and note how the antler is starting to fork(the slight dip in the center indicates that the antler will grow in each direction from that divide-one will be the main beam the other the brow point).  It will be interesting to see how soon this becomes a well defined point.  This buck should make at least a six-point and will likely grow eight or more points.

A Point Develops

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Gobbling Season Winds Down

While we had a severe winter this year, it did break early and spring seemed to arrive earlier than usual.  As a result the turkey mating season began early, at least in my area, and is now winding down.  It was common to hear several gobblers each morning just a short time ago, but now gobbling is very sporadic and one can easily spend a morning outdoors without hearing any gobbling at all. 

Alert Mature Gobbler Pauses As He Moves Through Woodlands

It was common to see the birds strutting and courting only a week or so ago, but now it is rare.  They are more likely to be seen feeding or moving about.  If they do strut or gobble, it seems that the action does not last long, before they lose interest and return to feeding.

Camera Critters: A Variety

I have been somewhat hesitant to post any material recently as it seems that deer and turkeys are all that I an able to photograph at present, but that is mostly because I am concentrating on photographing the spring turkey gobbling season.

I did finally get a chance to photograph some other species this morning.  Most of the deer left the meadow before sunrise this morning, but I lingered until well after sun-up and the first visitor was a fox squirrel.

Fox Squirrel

Lat

Next I noticed a Red-bellied Woodpecker feeding from a nearby natural bird feeder.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Later a young whitetail buck came by on his way from feeding in the meadows, to a shady spot in the nearby mountain where he will spend the mid-part of the day.

Young Whitetail Buck

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Pennsylvania Game Commission Announces 2010 Elk License Allocations

Will Hunt Zones Be Realigned To Provide Sufficient Protection For Bulls Such As This?

 In a somewhat positive move, the Pennsylvania Game Commission reduced the elk license allocation for the fall of 2010 from what it was last year. The figures are as follows with 2009s allocation shown first for comparison purposes:

2009-59 licenses available-20 antlered, 39 antlerless+1 Conservation Tag=60 Total
2010-50 licenses available:17 antlered and 33 antlerless +1 Special Conservation tag=51 total.

This is 6 less cow and 3 less bull tags for a total of 9 less licenses than last year, which is a step in the right direction. The really crucial part will be how the hunt zones, or kill zones as many prefer to call them will be fine tuned  this year. That information will be released at a later date.

For those who are unaware of what the Special Conservation Tag is, here is the explanation from PGC News Release #038-10:

The Special Conservation Tag was created by Act 101 of 2008. Under the law, the Game Commission is authorized to provide one antlered elk license to a wildlife conservation organization to auction. Of the auction proceeds, up to 20 percent may be retained by the wildlife conservation organization and the rest is turned over to the Game Commission for elk management. The new law sunsets on July 1, 2013, and requires the General Assembly to re-authorize the authority to allow for the auction of one antlered elk license per license year.

In another move, approval was given for an extended elk hunting season to be held after the regular season, as PGC Executive Director Carl Roe also explains in News Release #038-10.

“From time to time, elk wander outside the boundaries of the area in which the Game Commission is attempting to contain them in,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. “Because of elk-human conflicts, we do not want to have elk establish populations in areas outside a certain area.
For this reason, we want to allow elk license holders who have not taken an elk during the regular season to be able to participate in an extended season to target elk that have gone outside the elk management area.”

Time will tell if this proves to be a controversial decision or not. Look for more information on The Special Conservation Tag, and the expanded hunting area in future posts on Country Captures, Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer and Support PA Elk.