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Healthy Forests, Abundant Wildlife, Conservation Ethic

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Covers Magazine

Two-Season Birds

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by Greg Hoch Springtime “I know the woodcock as a harbinger of spring, more cheering to me than the most mellifluous thrush.” Charles Fergus, “A Hunter’s Book of Days” Spring is the season for vibrantly colored warblers, orioles, buntings, meadowlarks and grosbeaks to pour into woods, fields and backyards, singing their hearts out from branch and fencepost. Mallards, green-winged teal and wood ducks dot wetlands. For someone with a casual interest in the natural world, it’s hard to miss these signs of spring. In contrast, woodcock are dappled brown birds that spend much of their lives well-camouflaged in dappled brown leaf litter. The woodcock...

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Purely Dogs: Building on a Solid Foundation at Four to Six Months

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by Steve and Jodie Ries, Top Gun Kennel There is a scripture in the good book that best describes this time of training. Consider it pure joy as we face these trials and they build our endurance to help persevere. We smile as we share this with you; however, we know too well the truth speaks out to us. As a new-puppy owner, we started off doing well by introducing the basic commands – having them sit before meals, sit prior to going in or out of doors and the kennel and teaching them to respond to the recall command. Eye contact...

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Purely Dogs: What to Expect When Introducing a Spring Puppy Into Your House – The first two to four months

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by Steve and Jodie Ries, Top Gun Kennel You’ve done all the research to locate the right breeder with proven traits in a sire and dam and required health certifications. The litter is born and, finally, it’s time to pick up your new family member. With the help of the breeder, you select the right one that should meet your needs and goals. Yet, as you begin the trip back home with this new puppy, your mind starts to wonder. You purchased a bag of puppy food the breeder recommends and you filled up a gallon of water from their water...

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Conservation Coming Soon …

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RGS & AWS is growing its conservation delivery team to improve habitat right where it’s needed most as told to Kristyn Brady This spring, RGS & AWS set out to grow its conservation delivery team in an important region for American woodcock – the Coastal Plain and Piedmont of North Carolina, South Carolina, southeastern Virginia and eastern Georgia – expanding the footprint of the organization and its habitat work based on cutting edge research. President and CEO Ben Jones sat down for a Q&A to discuss this new forest conservation director role, how hiring in a new region affirms the organization’s business model...

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How to Stretch Your Game Bag

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by Bradley Gorzek I refuse to come home empty-handed from a day afield. A lack of contacts or inability to connect can make it hard to put feathers in my game bag some days.  Other times, the birds come down faster than I planned.  Whether I’m killing it or getting killed, I never want to cut a good day short – especially when I drive a while to get somewhere special. Luckily, there are a host of edibles in the uplands to help me extend those days without discharging a single shell. Though my griffon sidekick might find it odd, I keep…

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Confessions of a Wing Collector 

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by Mike Roche In 2006, a letter appeared in my mailbox from the Department of the Interior (DOI) on official stationery that inquired as to whether I would be willing to assist in American woodcock research by contributing wings to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (the Service) Migratory Parts Collection Survey. As a lifelong bird hunter with a strong interest in wildlife conservation, it didn’t take me long to respond and volunteer. Later that summer, a large envelope arrived containing a supply of mailers, signaling my start as one of the collectors for the survey, which began back in 1963. To…

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