Outdoors

There is an area in Louisiana capable of naturally producing habitat amenable to growing big healthy bucks and does. Land along the Mississippi delta is rich in nutrients with plants growing naturally there that are highly nutritious. Deer that feed on such a bountiful buffet tend to grow larger bodies with bucks sporting impressive racks. The northern part of the state, for the most part, consists of rolling red clay hills and pine trees, not the type of habitat where deer can reach their maximum potential.

What do you do this time of year when you work daylight to dark as owner of a convenience store and you also are an avid deer hunter? Crickett Collins who lives in Gilbert is just such a person. She is serious about the nature of having a successful business but sometimes working at the store cramps her style, especially when she had rather be sitting on her deer stand.

He’s a 22 year old stud muffin, invincible, with testosterone raging and a nothing-bad-can-happen- to-me attitude. He has the world by the tail with only good stuff lying ahead.

If you’ve read my columns or heard my radio programs for awhile, you’re going to read or hear something about songbirds. My interest in identifying these little fluttery colorful creatures was handed down to me by my mom. She loved the birds and taught her offspring all about them and how to identify them. I have feeders up around the yard, regular feeders and one that offers suet while this time of year, another that provides thistle seed. Add to this the two bird baths I keep operational and I could almost be considered the male version of Miss Jane Hathaway of Beverly Hillbillies fame. Thus it is with a troubled heart and furrowed brow that I come to you, my readers and listeners, with a dilemma. My birds have left me. About the time the first days of fall converged over the landscape, sending colorful leaves fluttering to the ground, I noticed that my feeders, loaded with birdseed, were just sitting there untouched. I even had a few seeds starting to sprout because they were being ignored by birds. The birds just seemed to have vanished. I wondered if it was just my feeders that were being ignored so I went to my favorite social media site, Facebook, and expressed my concern. The comments came quickly from scores of others who feed birds who have experienced the same dearth of songbirds in their yards.