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Seth Heasley

Sand in My Boots – A Walk in the Southeastern Coastal Winter Woods

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by Patrick Hunter When all the leaves have fallen and the December frost starts to bite the edges of the pine straw, most hunters in the Southeast have hung their hats on white-tailed deer season. Like a butterfly re-entering its cocoon, deer hunters evolve into waterfowlers that crowd the swamps and marshes, all hoping for a chance at a greenhead. But up on the hill tucked away in the thickets, hiding in the bunch grass or cloaked in the spartina grass of the salty creeks are a different type of gamebirds. They’re upland birds, and they haven’t been forgotten, just merely...

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Viral Woodcock in Bryant Park Highlights a Serious Conservation Story Beneath the Dance Moves

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American woodcock in Bryant Park; Rhododendrites via Wikimedia Commons A small, round-bodied bird with a long bill and a signature bobbing strut has captured the attention of millions this week as videos of an American woodcock “dancing” in New York City’s Bryant Park spread rapidly across social media. While the bird’s quirky movement has made it an overnight celebrity, wildlife experts note this moment offers something more meaningful: a rare glimpse into the demanding journey of spring migration. Each year, American woodcock travel hundreds of miles from their wintering grounds in the southern U.S. to breeding habitat across the Northeast and Upper Midwest....

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Lost and Found

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by Keith Schopp This one goes out to Mary, my friend’s two-year-old English Pointer that went missing one morning last January. Just a month ago, in late December, I watched Mary point a wild rooster in Central Illinois and retrieve that bird.  Good potential. But potential lost one Friday morning when she didn’t come back after her routine morning airing. “Mary’s been missing all day,” Bob texted me that afternoon – nearly eight hours after the pointer disappeared. “What the heck?” I responded.  “I’ll come over to help look.” We drove around the country roads. Walked the 40-acre property. Surveyed the landscape looking for a...

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Improving Woodcock and Quail Habitat on the Delmarva Peninsula and in Southern Maryland

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Developing new collaborations in the Atlantic Flyway  by Ben Larson, Mid-Atlantic Forest Conservation Director  During my time at RGS & AWS, I’ve focused on heavily forested parts of the Mid-Atlantic, including northern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. However, for the last year and a half, I’ve started to develop partnerships and projects in the partly forested parts of the region, particularly the Delmarva Peninsula (an abbreviation of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia) and southern Maryland (southeast of Washington, D.C.).  The reason is simple: for migrating woodcock, the Delmarva Peninsula and southern Maryland provide critical stopover habitats along the Atlantic Flyway. The American...

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FEATURED HABITAT PROJECT – Town Forests for Local Conservation

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Errol Town Forest and Milan Community Forest Printed in Covers Spring 2020 We derive great benefit from public land as a venue – for many of us, the only venue – for our outdoor pursuits. The RGS & AWS works with many federal, state and county agencies to improve grouse and woodcock habitat and access on national forests, state forests/wildlife management areas and county forests across the country. In northern New Hampshire, three towns have taken conservation into their own hands, each forming a town forest that’s actively managed for multiple uses. The towns of Errol, New Hampshire (population 291 in 2010),...

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We’re Very Thankful for our Corporate Partners

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We’ve got the best mission sponsors! Whether it’s a purchase for your dog, your family, or yourself, we know you have plenty of choices in today’s marketplace. In the coming weeks you will be inundated with ads from companies near and far vying for your business. When it comes to your purchasing decisions, we hope you take a conscious consumer approach and spend your hard-earned dollars with those Corporate Partners supporting the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society. Their business philosophies celebrate giving back to conservation, and we ask you to strongly support the following Corporate Partners who contribute to healthy forests, abundant wildlife and promoting the conservation ethic. Thank...

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