2019 Sandhills Sharptail Shootout
 

A great time as usual. We fielded a Parker team. Beautiful scenery, found birds , our shooters had more opportunities than they connected but we managed to do well. Great to see old acquaintances who asked where I had been the last several years.

Our team members were me, Dick Dow, Russ Lindsay, Joe Weidle and Seth Irvin.

I put in a picture of a green leafy plant. There was lots of it. Maybe someone can identify it.

We had 15,000 acres to hunt and the ranch was saved for us to be the first on. We were second among new member teams and did better than many of the past shooter teams. All of our birds were prairie chickens, other teams were on sharptails . No matter, they count the same. Each team has 25 shots and a max of 15 birds. We were 9 for 20 and our members will work on their shooting for next year.

Congratulations team Parker Shooters. And congratulations to you Bruce on the Distinguished Service Award.

Great pictures of good times Bruce! It's really nice to see wide open country like that - back East here we are plagued with alder and popple runs, abandoned farms with grown-up family orchards interspersed with spruce and blackberry thickets... In those places we rarely even see the sky without red, yellow, orange and bronze leaves blocking our view of it. You guys have all the luck!

That green leafy plant looks like someone's raisin' up a crop of dental floss...

And to echo John's hearty congratulations on your Distinguished Service Award I, too, congratulate you!... it's been a long time coming and you've earned it!

Your package should arrive in a few days.

Best, Dean





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You mean that wacky tobacci?

Nice buds.

Bruce, Great photos! Someday I'll get a prairie chicken...

I'm not much on apps, but I did download one called Naturalist. You take a photo of a plant and the app sends it to experts who note your location and generally respond in a minute or two to identify.. When we were in the Blue Ridge mountains this past Spring, I used it to identify new-to-me trees and forbs. You should try it.

Hemp

Loved the pictures. Would like to hunt Prairie Chickens, Sharptails and Sandhill's someday but we don't have them here and I don't know where to go to hunt them.

As for the greenery I'm not sure what it is but it's not hemp, at least not like the hemp grown here.

It’s hemp of probably no or little value other than fiber. The rancher told me that the seeds or spores must have been in a shipment of wood fence posts and they have not been able to get rid of it. The family bought the ranch in the 1930’s.

Great Journalism
 

Good and accurate journalism is not dead. Team Parker made the front page of an outstanding newspaper.