Posts Tagged ‘Downeast Hunting Report’
Posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
Physical Characteristics
Region C, commonly referred to as the “Downeast Region,” is the eastern most of the Department’s three coastal regions. The region encompasses much of Washington and Hancock Counties (along with a few townships in Penobscot County) between the St. Croix River to the east and the Penobscot River to the west.
Both land form and use transitions as one moves away from the coast to the region’s interior. The coastal belt along U.S. Route 1 is characterized by a mix of softwood and hardwood stands in western Hancock County changing to predominantly spruce-fir growth to the east. Most of the human settlement occurs along this belt and along the Penobscot River. It is primarily rural and becomes sparse to the east. There are scattered population centers in Bucksport, Ellsworth, Machias and Calais.Old homesteads and some remaining agriculture with their associated fields and reverting covers provide habitat diversity.
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Tags: Downeast Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
Physical Characteristics
Region C, commonly referred to as the “Downeast Region,” is the eastern most of the Department’s three coastal regions. The region encompasses much of Washington and Hancock Counties (along with a few townships in Penobscot County) between the St. Croix River to the east and the Penobscot River to the west.
Both land form and use transitions as one moves away from the coast to the region’s interior. The coastal belt along U.S. Route 1 is characterized by a mix of softwood and hardwood stands in western Hancock County changing to predominantly spruce-fir growth to the east. Most of the human settlement occurs along this belt and along the Penobscot River. It is primarily rural and becomes sparse to the east. There are scattered population centers in Bucksport, Ellsworth, Machias and Calais.Old homesteads and some remaining agriculture with their associated fields and reverting covers provide habitat diversity.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Downeast Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
Physical Characteristics
Region C, commonly referred to as the “Downeast Region,” is the eastern most of the Department’s three coastal regions. The region encompasses much of Washington and Hancock Counties (along with a few townships in Penobscot County) between the St. Croix River to the east and the Penobscot River to the west.
Both land form and use transitions as one moves away from the coast to the region’s interior. The coastal belt along U.S. Route 1 is characterized by a mix of softwood and hardwood stands in western Hancock County changing to predominantly spruce-fir growth to the east. Most of the human settlement occurs along this belt and along the Penobscot River. It is primarily rural and becomes sparse to the east. There are scattered population centers in Bucksport, Ellsworth, Machias and Calais.Old homesteads and some remaining agriculture with their associated fields and reverting covers provide habitat diversity.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Downeast Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Even though Thanksgiving and days of turkey leftovers are a fading memory, turkeys continue to be a hot topic of conversation Downeast. As I write this, a flock of 19 wild turkeys are making their way across the blueberry ground outside my office window in Jonesboro, as they do almost every day at this time of year. The flock is a mixture of hens, poults (turkeys born last spring) and jakes (juvenile males born before last spring). The poults are almost as large as the hens now and it takes a pretty good look to see the size difference. Jakes are identifiable by their reddish heads and short beards, a tuft of feathers on the breast. The flock is also a mixture of banded and unbanded birds. The birds with metal bands on their legs are wild-born turkeys brought here in February of 2005 to establish a new flock in the area. After a rocky start, they had a great breeding season in 2007, resulting in the 10 or 12 unbanded birds that were born here.
Turkeys are thriving almost everywhere they are found and continue to pop up in new places. In Franklin, where turkeys have been a familiar presence for a few years, traffic was brought to a standstill recently as over 30 birds crossed Route 182 at 1:30 in the afternoon. Flocks have been seen repeatedly in Marshfield and in Machias near the high school in recent weeks. Turkeys have also been spotted in East Machias, a few in Lubec and, moving in from the north, a flock has been living and reproducing in Waite for the past two years. Although these pioneering turkeys are a good sign for turkey fans, there are still significant areas in Washington County with good habitat but no turkeys.
On a less optimistic note, a single turkey in Eastport has been hanging around homes and allowing people to approach him closely to give him food. This bird is almost certainly a captive-born bird that was released or escaped. It is illegal to possess “wild” turkeys in Maine without a propagation permit from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and it is always illegal to release these birds into the wild. They carry genes that are not adapted to our environment and may contaminate the wild population if they meet other turkeys and breed. The risk of disease transmission from captive birds is also a real danger for wild flocks. Not all mail order hatcheries, feed stores and pet shops know it is illegal for them to sell turkeys in Maine and it is ultimately the responsibility of the buyer to know the law.
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Tags: Downeast Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Most everyone is a collector or appreciates some form of items from the past. Whether it is dolls, paintings or hunting and fishing equipment, quality is evident and appreciated and admired. Recently while talking to an antique dealer, we both were speculating, what items of today are going to be collectables in 25 or 100 years from now? We are in the quick fix and throwaway generation. Most of the sporting good collectables from the past were made for a specific market and came in different grades with options, chokes, barrel lengths, etc. Coming from times when money was tight, if you bought it had to have a use, not to become a closet queen firearm or a dust catcher in the cellar.
Having all this in mind, while walking thru the sporting goods department in the different big box stores, I look up and down the aisles I try to imagine, what would take someone’s breath away 50 years from now. Everything is plastic, rubber or who knows what and mostly made overseas. If you were going to make a sporting goods time capsule for them for 2060, what would you put in it?
Everything is driven by the current demands, composite stocks and stainless steel barrels are great for adverse hunting conditions, much like the current military arms. What if you want something to use on “nice” days, wood on a firearm that has great burl and the metal has fiery casehardening on the frame and deep rust bluing on the barrel or, comparing a vintage bamboo fly rod to a current graphite production model. You don’t see current makers selling two tips with their rods.
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Tags: Downeast Hunting Report • Categories: General
