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

For more Camera Critters photos, click Here!

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.