Maggie's Farm

I WILL SOON HAVE BIRD DOG PUPS FOR SALE. ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN ONE, PLEASE CONTACT ME. THE LITTER WILL PROBABLY BE ABOUT 7 - 10 PUPS, WHICH I WILL SELL AT A VERY REASONABLE  PRICE.

I HAVE ATTACHED A  PICTURE OF THE MOM AND DAD SO YOU WILL HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT THE  PUPS WILL LOOK  LIKE.
 
PLEASE LET ME KNOW  AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AS THEY MAY GO FAST. THANKS.

On the other hand, this seems like a better way to breed top quality bird dogs: Cloned Sniffer dogs.

Spent yesterday trout fishing with Gwynnie down in central CT. We took a few photos to give our out-of-Yankeeland readers a little taste of CT in April:

Trout Lily, in bloom:

A close-up:

A 10' high glacial "errratic," but so common we call them glacial "regulars," in the woods. Even ox teams could not remove these from the fields (these woods were dairy farms 60 years ago):

Part of the beat I fished:

 A pool on that beat. The Swamp Maples are in full-bud, and the Wood Ducks are buzzing all around:

 The Connecticut River, with East Haddam across the river:

 The Goodspeed Opera House from across the river:

At the turn of the century, the Eastern Wild Turkey was nearly eradicated by hunting and habitat loss, and was entirely absent in the Northeast.

By the mid 1800s, the woodlands of New England had disappeared for farming, charcoal production, and lumbering.

But the woodlands have returned as farming moved west, and the wierd gobble now can be heard even in residential areas.

Thanks to dramatically successful conservation and transplantation efforts, there are now estimated to be 7 million of these huge iridescent birds, which Ben Franklin felt to be so quintessentially American that he wanted one on the US Seal. (Video of the turkey's comeback here.)

There are six species of wild turkey in the New World, and none elsewhere. (The domestic turkey is likely a descendent of the Mexican species.) It is the Eastern which we feature here which has, in recent years, been transplanted successfully west of the Mississippi, and elsewhere.

As a sought-after game bird, the turkey's habits have been much studied. They are wary and cautious. In most areas, there is a spring and a fall hunting season for turkey, and they are pursued with bow or shotgun. It is the one game bird which it is sporting to shoot on the ground. 

I have hunted them on a couple of occasions. Never managed to shoot one, though. Had a good time however, sitting at the base of a tree in camo, watching the other wild critters pass by.

Does the wild turkey taste different from a supermarket bird? Yes - the wild turkey tastes like turkey and the supermarket bird tastes like a supermarket.

The tail-fanning? That's part of the male's mating strut. The CLO page here, and the website of the worthy National Wild Turkey Federation here.

Red-neck Yankees wear fuzz-lined overshirts (like the one in the photo, from Moose Creek) most of the year. Few things are more comfortable, and you don't care what happens to them. They keep you cozy at 5 degrees and at 45 degrees.

In fact, they look better and feel softer with some dirt and grease on them. Only a metrosexual would wash them more than once a year. If you want to go a bit upscale from that sort of thing, these are always acceptable (even though they are from LL Bean).

Don't ask me why I am posting this as the weather is finally beginning to break. It's almost warm enough today to crank up my smoker.

This is a photo of Gunnhilde, a fine example of this family-friendly and versatile sporting breed. Known
best for pointing and ptracking ptarmigan in the far north, the hardy but socialist Norwegian is also useful for ptracking lost reindeer, aquavit, herring, blonds, and boiled potatoes.

I had one of these dogs once, but he ptracked a lovely smoked herring on a truck on its way from Nova Scotia to North Waddlefield, MA, where he picked up the scent and followed it south to Waterbury, CT. I heard that he and the smoked herring got married, settled down, and opened a successful dry-cleaning shop in Torrington, CT.

That's your hard-working Editor in the background, fishing in Connecticut in April in the rain a couple of years ago. It's time to review some of our good trout posts from the past.

For new readers, here's our first post on Fishing Bamboo.

And here's a post about Hoagy Carmichael Jr., who is apparently a great fisherman of the Grand Cascapedia, and who is responsible for the renaissance of the split-bamboo fly rod, at Never Yet Melted.

The photo of Amber is to highlight a fine site for fly fishermen, Bamboo Fly Rod. net. (Sorry - that link is defunct, deceased.)

Fishing sea-run trout on Long Island, on the Connetquot.

Here's our post on the Eastern trout species.

And here's our post on the Western native trout species.

Here's the latest info on safe catch-and release techniques