|
|
Post by theevan on Jun 30, 2022 8:41:24 GMT -5
We went out to our camp in the homochitto National Forest yesterday and saw Forest Service personnel at a tree with a long pole with a camera on top of it looking into a hole. It seems that the extinct ivory billed woodpecker resides in our area. I think that's pretty exciting.
What was not exciting was getting our truck and camper stuck on the forest service road in slimy Mississippi clay. We had to be pulled out with a bulldozer.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marshall on Jun 30, 2022 10:20:30 GMT -5
Excitement abounds.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shannon on Jun 30, 2022 11:43:27 GMT -5
Happily, it sounds like maybe it is now the "previously-thought-to-be" extinct ivory billed woodpecker.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cosmic Wonder on Jun 30, 2022 12:55:37 GMT -5
We moved into our new house in spring. Our house is adjacent to large stand of hazelnut trees, and forested area is nearby. Apparently, male woodpeckers, looking for a mate, try to find things to tap on that make their pecking sound as loud as possible. The louder the better. Appearently female woodpeckers swoon over this. Our house has a couple of hollow columns, sheathed in cedar planks that magnify the birds tapping sound. So the damn bird perches on our house numbers, and proceeds to peck a whole in our cedar plank. Chasing him off only worked for a few minutes at a time.
Fortunately, we discovered that woodpeckers do not like Mexican food. I put tobacco sauce on the spot he was pecking, and you shoukd have seen his reaction. Almost looked like he exploded. It took about three days of repeated application, but we have not been bothered by him since.
Mike
|
|
|
|
Post by Cornflake on Jun 30, 2022 13:29:40 GMT -5
Good news about the woodpecker.
During the two years I drove a Jeep without four wheel drive, I got stuck in the mud in a national forest. I wasn't far from a paved road but AAA wouldn't come. I finally had to hire some local guys to haul me out for an exorbitant price.
Now I have 4WD again but I'm still careful about mud. Some soil here turns into gumbo when it rains.
|
|
|
|
Post by theevan on Jun 30, 2022 13:48:24 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by theevan on Jun 30, 2022 15:28:50 GMT -5
Good news about the woodpecker. During the two years I drove a Jeep without four wheel drive, I got stuck in the mud in a national forest. I wasn't far from a paved road but AAA wouldn't come. I finally had to hire some local guys to haul me out for an exorbitant price. Now I have 4WD again but I'm still careful about mud. Some soil here turns into gumbo when it rains. We were towing our 30' camper to its more-or-less permanent spot out at our camp. The terrain is hilly and it's been raining every day, but the forest service road is pretty well maintained. I was doing fine until I hit a hill on a curve. Lost traction and truck & camper slid sideways and down until we settled softly into the berm. We walked through the mud about 1.5 miles to our camp, nobody there. Retrieved chain and come-along from a neighbor, loaded them into a wheelbarrow because it was too heavy to carry, forced it through 1.5 miles of mud to the camper. No luck. Looked hopeless. In a moment of reception we left a message for a neighbor to tell him we were using his chain. They text back that they're coming. We wait 45 minutes and here they are, cannot get past us so the 4 of us walk another 1.5 miles through the mud. Craig fires up his bulldozer (which he just happened to have at the camp!) and it's back to the camper. The solution was to unhitch my truck first, which he then pulled to safety. All told, took about 6 hours. Remuneration was steadfastly refused. |
|
|
|
Post by billhammond on Jun 30, 2022 15:34:17 GMT -5
We were towing our 30' camper to its more-or-less permanent spot out at our camp. The terrain is hilly and it's been raining every day, but the forest service road is pretty well maintained. I was doing fine until I hit a hill on a curve. Lost traction and truck & camper slid sideways and down until we settled softly into the berm. We walked through the mud about 1.5 miles to our camp, nobody there. Retrieved chain and come-along from a neighbor, loaded them into a wheelbarrow because it was too heavy to carry, forced it through 1.5 miles of mud to the camper. No luck. Looked hopeless. In a moment of reception we left a message for a neighbor to tell him we were using his chain. They text back that they're coming. We wait 45 minutes and here they are, cannot get past us so the 4 of us walk another 1.5 miles through the mud. Craig fires up his bulldozer (which he just happened to have at the camp!) and it's back to the camper. The solution was to unhitch my truck first, which he then pulled to safety. All told, took about 6 hours. Remuneration was steadfastly refused. WOW! What a saga! |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2022 16:14:34 GMT -5
TL/DR...  When I was stationed at Fort Bragg, we had maps that indicated the range of the red cockaded woodpecker, which is endangered. They roosted in pine trees, and range control produced special maps that had red blotches indicating roosting areas. Woe betide the folks that got caught conducting training inside those training areas. More importably, do NOT touch a pine tree anywhere in the training area. Don't cut one down. Don't hang anything off of one. Don't nail into one hang a communication junction. Hell, don't urinate on one. Occasionally, we would get paratroopers stuck in trees during our jumps. If the jumper could not get the parachute free of the tree by themselves, and IF the tree was a pine tree, we had to call for help to extract the parachute. Range control would call the North Carolina Forest Service, who would send the local ranger out to look at the tree and advise us on how to proceed. Usually, the ranger wouldn't see any red cockaded woodpecker presence, so we could hook the risers up to a toe truck and just drag that sucker out. One night, we had 10 jumpers end up in the trees at the back end of Normandy Drop Zone. Six of those went into pine trees. About an hour and a half after we jumped, a unit of Army engineers jumped on the same DZ, and put several folks into the trees as well. One of those was hung up in a pine tree up on a knoll about 50 meters away from the main group of trees. When I was out there that night making sure we located our parachutes and properly marked OUR trees, I made note of the engineers' parachutes and trees as well. I met the Forest Service ranger out on the drop zone the next morning after first light, and drove him to the back side of the DZ where the trees were. Now, I know things can look a little differently in daylight versus nighttime, but I KNEW where that knoll was with that lone pine growing out the top. The problem was, now that it was light, there WAS no tree on top of that knoll. I was saying to the ranger that, "Sir, I'm not nuts. I KNOW there was a tree here last night!" He just kind of smiled. When we crested the knoll, there was that sacred, untouchable, forbidden pine tree on the ground, cut off at the base, and clearly felled fresh. There was a pile of wood chips from a chain saw around the base of the tree, too. I stopped and looked at the ranger and said, "Sir, you gotta believe me when I say this wasn't one of our trees. I mean, even I'M not dumb enough to return to the scene of a crime!" He said, "No problem, Sir. I've been doing this forever. I know the engineers had a jump after you did, and I know engineers run around with chainsaws. Gotta be them that cut it down. This is going to be FUN! Now - where are YOUR trees?" Phew!! |
|
|
|
Post by epaul on Jun 30, 2022 16:22:52 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by billhammond on Jun 30, 2022 16:25:48 GMT -5
Occasionally, we would get paratroopers stuck in trees during our jumps. If the jumper could not get the parachute free of the tree by themselves, and IF the tree was a pine tree, we had to call for help to extract the parachute. Range control would call the North Carolina Forest Service, who would send the local ranger out to look at the tree and advise us on how to proceed. Usually, the ranger wouldn't see any red cockaded woodpecker presence, so we could hook the risers up to a toe truck and just drag that sucker out.  |
|
|
|
Post by Cornflake on Jun 30, 2022 16:27:33 GMT -5
"[T]he ivory billed woodpecker is a kissing cousin to the nearly identical and piliated woodpecker (who are in great shape)." I'm not surprised. If you fly from tree to tree all day, you're going to be pretty buff.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachdoc on Jun 30, 2022 16:35:03 GMT -5
Hoot, hoot!
|
|
|
|
Post by theevan on Jun 30, 2022 16:38:28 GMT -5
We were towing our 30' camper to its more-or-less permanent spot out at our camp. The terrain is hilly and it's been raining every day, but the forest service road is pretty well maintained. I was doing fine until I hit a hill on a curve. Lost traction and truck & camper slid sideways and down until we settled softly into the berm. We walked through the mud about 1.5 miles to our camp, nobody there. Retrieved chain and come-along from a neighbor, loaded them into a wheelbarrow because it was too heavy to carry, forced it through 1.5 miles of mud to the camper. No luck. Looked hopeless. In a moment of reception we left a message for a neighbor to tell him we were using his chain. They text back that they're coming. We wait 45 minutes and here they are, cannot get past us so the 4 of us walk another 1.5 miles through the mud. Craig fires up his bulldozer (which he just happened to have at the camp!) and it's back to the camper. The solution was to unhitch my truck first, which he then pulled to safety. All told, took about 6 hours. Remuneration was steadfastly refused. WOW! What a saga! Yeah, a saga. As it turns out we were marooned "WH's Hill", so named for the original owner of our parcel, who had a habit of getting his truck and horse trailer stuck in that spot and necessitating numerous rescues. I am determined not to have the hill renamed for me. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2022 16:48:42 GMT -5
Occasionally, we would get paratroopers stuck in trees during our jumps. If the jumper could not get the parachute free of the tree by themselves, and IF the tree was a pine tree, we had to call for help to extract the parachute. Range control would call the North Carolina Forest Service, who would send the local ranger out to look at the tree and advise us on how to proceed. Usually, the ranger wouldn't see any red cockaded woodpecker presence, so we could hook the risers up to a toe truck and just drag that sucker out. I did, didn't I? Sheesh.  |
|
|
|
Post by millring on Jun 30, 2022 17:53:35 GMT -5
I think it's a darn shame that they were hunted nearly to extinction just to make their bills into ivory saddles for boutique guitars.
Did you get a bill for that guitar?
No, I paid cash at the time.
No, I mean the saddle.
Oh, that. No. That's genuine elephant ivory.
|
|
|
|
Post by Village Idiot on Jun 30, 2022 20:52:06 GMT -5
That's great about the woodpecker. Way beyond cool.
|
|
|
|
Post by david on Jul 1, 2022 11:17:10 GMT -5
Good news about the woodpecker. During the two years I drove a Jeep without four wheel drive, I got stuck in the mud in a national forest. I wasn't far from a paved road but AAA wouldn't come. I finally had to hire some local guys to haul me out for an exorbitant price. Now I have 4WD again but I'm still careful about mud. Some soil here turns into gumbo when it rains. We were towing our 30' camper to its more-or-less permanent spot out at our camp. The terrain is hilly and it's been raining every day, but the forest service road is pretty well maintained. I was doing fine until I hit a hill on a curve. Lost traction and truck & camper slid sideways and down until we settled softly into the berm. We walked through the mud about 1.5 miles to our camp, nobody there. Retrieved chain and come-along from a neighbor, loaded them into a wheelbarrow because it was too heavy to carry, forced it through 1.5 miles of mud to the camper. No luck. Looked hopeless. In a moment of reception we left a message for a neighbor to tell him we were using his chain. They text back that they're coming. We wait 45 minutes and here they are, cannot get past us so the 4 of us walk another 1.5 miles through the mud. Craig fires up his bulldozer (which he just happened to have at the camp!) and it's back to the camper. The solution was to unhitch my truck first, which he then pulled to safety. All told, took about 6 hours. Remuneration was steadfastly refused. Wow, what a trip! I can feel your pain. Slogging through mud pushing a wheelbarrow. That had to burn a few calories. |
|
|
|
Post by epaul on Jul 1, 2022 11:25:53 GMT -5
Wow, what a trip! I can feel your pain. Slogging through mud pushing a wheelbarrow. That had to burn a few calories. Nothing a Pub Burger or two can't fix. |
|
|
|
Post by Marty on Jul 1, 2022 19:45:32 GMT -5
I think it's a darn shame that they were hunted nearly to extinction just to make their bills into ivory saddles for boutique guitars. Did you get a bill for that guitar? No, I paid cash at the time. No, I mean the saddle. Oh, that. No. That's genuine elephant ivory. I have small stock of elephant ivory (EI) , yes legal stuff taken from natural death. If it comes in with EI that is factory stock it can leave with EI if you are willing to pay the outrageous upcharge for the material. Otherwise it can get mammoth ivory at just a ridiculous upcharge. Once my stock of old legal ivory is gone I will not replace it, legal or otherwise. From then on I will use mammoth, one doesn't have to kill anything to get it. The biggest black market for EI today is in China, to be made into carved art work. Last I looked China had no ban on EI imports, but that was years ago and they may have changed. EDIT: To stop poaching ALL EI from natural death elephants should be burned not papered and sold. Then there is NO legal elephant ivory. So anything on the market was poached. Old stock EI, Victorian stuff or older was taken by killing a elephant, so also poached. |
|
