It all started out innocent enough when the family was gathering around talking about some different wildlife we had been observing.

My niece Megan attended a private school and majored in Biology and works with a surgical team for cats and dogs. I appreciate her intellect and hard work ethic, but she does step over the line with her dad and uncles. She isn’t afraid to put her opinion out there in all things and it generally knocks heads with my brother. Unfortunately, she rolls over him and he ends up trying to drag me into his counter points and rebuttals with his high-tech daughter.

The dialogue started with her asking what we knew about nesting eastern bluebirds. I sensed a trap already and I watched my brother step right into it. Megan asked him, “Hey dad, how many times does a bluebird make a nest each year? “My brother side stepped it neatly and threw the question at me.

Without any hesitation I responded, “Generally one to three nesting cycles.” Depending on the right conditions such as weather, food availability and the right nesting site. She immediately replied, Wrong! No more than two and usually one will be the number!”

She then started quoting some professor from her school and I had to bring in life experiences and observations in the field … I won the discussion when she tried to shut down my responses with her favorite comment … boomer! She had run out of logic and went all emotive on me which told me she had run out of scientific responses.

I finished her off with the Woodpecker quiz and identification. Name five common PA woodpeckers that have woodpecker in their name. 1. Pileated Woodpecker 2. Red Bellied Woodpecker 3. Red Headed Woodpecker 4. Hairy Woodpecker and 5. The Downy Woodpecker. I have all five varieties coming into my suet feeder and they are also bringing in their young and feeding them as well … very cool!

Unpredictable nature

There are always exceptions to the rules and I have found that nature is very unpredictable. We were fishing out of Ashtabula, Ohio, on Lake Erie last week and I was greatly surprised when I had a good hit and it acted different from the walleye that we were catching.

As the fish came closer to the boat, I thought I had a steelhead trout, but after closer inspection, we discovered that I had a real nice coho salmon. Don’t ask me where the salmon came from, but it was a nice change of pace for our fishing excursion.

Years ago, it was pretty common to catch a coho off the tributaries feeding into Lake Erie, but the PFBC ended their stocking program years ago … miss those days!

Computerized licensing

The millennials won out with the PA antlerless license process, it’s gone to be computerized and there will be no more hand-processed pink envelopes at the County Treasurer’s office. Effective this Monday at 8 a.m., resident hunters will be able to add their antlerless license to the list when picking up their regular assortment of hunting licenses.

The cost will be $6.97 for residents for the antlerless license … that is, after you buy your 2023-24 license. Non-residents will need to wait until July 10 and the cost will be $26.97 in addition to the regular hunting license.

The Game Commission has a record number of tags available with 86,000 in WMU 2D and 46,000 in WMU 1A. The second round of licenses go on sale July 24 and then again in August.

Maturing wildlife

I haven’t seen many new fawns with our local deer population yet, but I was pleased to see a hen turkey show off her brood of six poults last week. The white clover was blooming and they seemed to really enjoy the fresh grasses.

Bucks in velvet are appearing daily and it is interesting seeing them grow larger by the day. It’s hard to believe that the new hunting season is coming up so quickly. We are planning a trip out west to Colorado for elk this fall, but the weather last winter was brutal for the wildlife and many areas are being cutback or shut down for hunting.

Big hunts upcoming

My buddies, Beaver boy and the Professor, have some big hunts planned, but once again we need to see what the western states have to say about license availability. We discussed both a fishing trip in upstate N.Y. or a pheasant hunt in the Midwest and my cousin John is chomping at the bit to do some early season muzzleloader hunting as well.

I guess I will have to see how things work out, but I know that we are going to make something happen in the not-too-distant future!

Until we meet again, look forward to all that nature shares with us and get out there into the great outdoors.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle