tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104139322011-12-14T22:13:47.457-05:00Facts, fantasy and feverish speculation about animals, birds, plants and fish in their natural habitat. Mark Trail would never approve....Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-90279143320439633822007-05-30T10:42:00.000-04:002007-05-30T10:48:49.405-04:00

ON CREATING A MONSTERThe generation before us used to warn us about dope fiends.Don’t know that I ever ran into one of those, but I’m sorry to say that I may have – with the best of intentions – created a fishing fiend.For years I have advocated taking kids fishing. Introduce them to the natural world by way of a river or lake, I preached. Let them learn the singular pleasure of learning to make

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-43472073858683104452007-05-23T10:23:00.000-04:002007-05-23T10:29:00.883-04:00

Everybody move back a step. I want to explode a myth.Despite what you may have heard, fishermen do not gobble down stuff that would gag a Toggenburg goat and call it a meal. Not all the time anyway.Quite naturally, fishermen hear a different dinner bell when it comes time to eat.By necessity, their choice of food on rivers and lakes leans in the direction of what you might call "the basics."

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-34468398562221175222007-04-13T08:16:00.000-04:002007-04-13T08:18:41.937-04:00

I returned in September, before the snow started flying, from a cross-country driving trip from the Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay to the California coast.It was a trip that covered 10,000 miles and took a month. I deliberately took what writer William Least Heat-Moon called "the blue highways." Those are the old blue lines on the map, the secondary roads where they still sell Blue Plate lunches.And I

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-32752542620234428742007-03-25T10:10:00.000-04:002007-03-25T10:11:16.382-04:00

SUNDAY HUNTING IS CANCELLEDForget hunting on Sunday in Virginia for another year. The Virginia General Assembly has caved in to (mostly) state landowners, and the issue is dead in the water yet again.Virginia is one of the few states that does not allow Sunday hunting. Each year, a push is made to open the entire weekend to those who love to go afield with gun and dog, and each year the issue

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-75388170062114078062007-03-23T09:47:00.000-04:002007-03-23T09:51:38.512-04:00

SUNDAY HUNTING IS CANCELLEDForget hunting on Sunday in Virginia for another year. The Virginia General Assembly has caved in to (mostly) state landowners, and the issue is dead in the water yet again.Virginia is one of the few states that does not allow Sunday hunting. Each year, a push is made to open the entire weekend to those who love to go afield with gun and dog, and each year the issue

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1174504028382650572007-03-21T16:05:00.000-04:002007-03-21T16:07:08.393-04:00

SUNDAY HUNTING IS CANCELLEDForget hunting on Sunday in Virginia for another year. The Virginia General Assembly has caved in to (mostly) state landowners, and the issue is dead in the water yet again.Virginia is one of the few states that does not allow Sunday hunting. Each year, a push is made to open the entire weekend to those who love to go afield with gun and dog, and each year the issue

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1170520840717765562007-02-03T11:38:00.000-05:002007-02-03T11:40:40.736-05:00

WESTERN VIRGINIA SPORTS SHOW RETURNS FOR 20TH YEAR.Now in its second decade, a sprawling and popular outdoor show will open its doors at Augusta Expoland near Staunton, Va., the weekend of Feb. 16-18. It goes without saying that an outdoor sports/travel show is a fine way to dispel the winter blahs."With more than a 50 percent increase in arena space for vendors and visitors, as well as

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1169661173773072512007-01-24T12:51:00.000-05:002007-01-24T12:52:53.796-05:00

About 15 years ago, while still working for The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia’s state newspaper, I pulled the boo-boo of my career.What I did was suggest in a column that the time had come for Virginians to consider – not necessarily enact, just consider – hunting on Sunday.You’d have thought I called Robert E. Lee a coward and a child molester.Never in my 33 years in that gentle profession

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1168187480022541302007-01-07T11:29:00.000-05:002007-01-07T11:31:20.040-05:00

All outdoor columns offer tips and helpful advice. This one is no exception.Problem is, as an angling technocrat, I’m a good camel driver.I’ve always held a grudging admiration for those outdoor types who can do everything from repair a malfunctioning shotgun in a duck blind to tying dry flies in a hurricane.Unfortunately, my do-it-yourself abilities are limited. In fact, there are only two

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1167150935228361752006-12-26T11:33:00.000-05:002006-12-26T11:35:35.260-05:00

We are awash in The Holidays.I want to wish for you something nice, yet I feel most of the traditional expressions of good cheer have been amply covered in salutation, sermon and song.So bear with me while I make up my own list,This coming year, 2007, I wish for you the following:Eyes that see more of the natural world. More fish. More game. More beauty.As winter progresses, may you find time to

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1165578907604806082006-12-08T06:53:00.000-05:002006-12-08T06:55:07.620-05:00

Let’s team up with Bambi this season to provide hungry people – many of them children -- a gift that will keep on giving.Rather than exchange gifts this Christmas, members of my family are going to use the money to donate to our favorite charities. We’ve all got about as much "stuff" as we can use. By contrast, there are people truly in need this winter, and we – you too – can help.One of my

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1164112652108436072006-11-21T07:35:00.000-05:002006-11-21T07:37:32.120-05:00

As everyone on the planet knows, deer season is here.As everyone on the planet is also aware, this is the season of the rut, which is a tender term for "courting season for deer."It’s no accident that hunting season is scheduled each autumn during the rut. That’s because deer go bonkers. They lose all natural caution and common sense. They charge into places they don’t belong and run amok,

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1156447375453310792006-08-24T15:21:00.000-04:002006-08-24T15:22:55.470-04:00

THE OUTER BANKS ARE RUINED. PASS IT ON.Let the word go forth.The Outer Banks of North Carolina are ruined. Pass it on.On a recent sentimental journey along those once-pristine barrier islands that string south like a foam-laced necklace from Nags Head to Morehead City, I could not help but feel that "progress" had not simply overtaken me, but passed me by.To put it as simply as I can, the problem

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1129808177233915312005-10-20T07:34:00.000-04:002005-10-20T07:36:17.240-04:00

It is slightly past now, but its effects continue to widen.The full moon of October has traditionally been known as the Hunter’s Moon. For good reason.That’s because, when such things mattered, the crops were in. Remember September’s Harvest Moon? There’s also the great yellow orb in the sky these clear October nights. It throws plenty of light for hunters and their restless, excited coon dogs.I

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1129143361560401482005-10-12T14:53:00.000-04:002005-10-12T14:56:01.570-04:00

AUTUMN WOOLY WORMS: A MODEST MARVELOf the all the attractive but simpleminded natural fauna you’re likely to see rambling around in the fall of the year, the wooly worm caterpillar is perhaps the most abundant and easily recognizable.(Come to think of it, those are the same words we used to describe my weird brother Tosh in his salad days – attractive but simpleminded, and way too abundant.)The

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1128013280792572882005-09-29T12:57:00.000-04:002005-09-29T13:01:20.803-04:00

OCTOBER SHOWCASES PERFECTIONSometimes, even a poet can miss the mark.How did he say it?"Then if ever come perfect days," I believe it was.But the poet was referring to springtime.My choice would be the flip side, when autumn tides are enhanced. That would be October.To borrow from The Eagles, October has always been when "some fine things have been laid upon my table."For example, from a bed at

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1127239790673747832005-09-20T14:06:00.000-04:002005-09-20T14:09:50.680-04:00

De Lawd invented flashlights for one reason – to see snakes after dark.Carry a light until cold weather, when snakes will den up for winter.I’ve got a five-foot blacksnake living in the creative clutter underneath my back porch. He’s welcome to stay there. No harm will befall him. That’s because he keeps field mice and chipmunks from moving in, eating my bird seed and pooping all over the

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1126880656766399872005-09-16T10:20:00.000-04:002005-09-16T10:24:16.773-04:00

Over the years, I’ve learned to discount most mountain lion (cougar) sightings.Most reports of seeing or hearing the big cats – also called pumas and catamounts – come from drunks and other unreliables.Until recently.Before that, the last sighting came from an old girl friend still living in Dump Truck, Ala., who said a cougar screamed one night outside her shanty, which had once been our love

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1126872230382910302005-09-16T08:00:00.000-04:002005-09-16T08:03:50.390-04:00

CROSSBOWS OFFER NEW HUNTING TWISTSolomon was wise. But, like the rest of us, he could be wrong occasionally too.He said there was "nothing new under the sun."Wrong, baby-breath.In Virginia this fall, a new hunting season opens – one never before offered to the general populace of the Commonwealth.The new season, which allows crossbows to be used for the first time by the general public, is

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1125516798730884872005-08-31T15:27:00.000-04:002005-08-31T15:33:18.740-04:00

In our latitudes, September marks a major change in the natural world.Summer still hangs on like an unwanted drunk at a wedding party. But never fear. The drunk is ever-so-subtly being eased out a side door.Look closely. The foliage that was so brilliantly green just a month ago has lost some of its sharpness.Walnut leaves are already turning yellow and falling into bass rivers and trout streams.

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1124969698053795272005-08-25T07:31:00.000-04:002005-08-25T07:34:58.060-04:00

I thought I knew every pig trail in Virginia.Turns out I don’t. At least not as well as I thought.On a recent prowl through the mountains and piedmont area of central-southwest Virginia surrounding Bedford, I uncovered several relatively unknown treasures for the outdoor lover.The town of Bedford is best known for losing more young men (19) during the World War II invasion of Normandy than any

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1124382075931682812005-08-18T12:17:00.000-04:002005-08-18T12:21:15.953-04:00

Where are the monarchs?We’re not talking about kings and queens, but something more ancient and worthy.We’re talking about the monarch, or milkweed, butterfly.Late summer and early autumn is the time of year for their annual migration from the United States to a remote range of misty mountains in Mexico, where they spend the winter.They travel by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions, and

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1123697584510087082005-08-10T14:09:00.000-04:002005-08-10T14:13:04.526-04:00

These miserable times, then, are the days of the dog star Sirius.That’s the 40 days and nights when Sirius is aligned with the sun. In ancient times, residents in countries bordering the Mediterranean noted that the excessive heat not only made them mean and picky, but that particularly nasty diseases seemed to flare up during the most blistering breath of summer.They called the time from early

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1123091446014774832005-08-03T13:47:00.000-04:002005-08-03T13:50:46.033-04:00

Let’s be honest. Squirrels are freeloaders in the most aggravating sense of the word.They take over our birdfeeders. Steal the dog’s food. Gnaw through phone and electrical insulation.They are, in fact, little more than semi-airborne rodents with a propensity for theft and mischief.Plus there are about nine times more of them than there ought to be.There’s a way to even up things, and make money

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1122466507298106252005-07-27T08:10:00.000-04:002005-07-27T08:15:07.306-04:00

It’s time to do a thinning job on the cormorant population.These large fish-eating birds – called black geese around the Chesapeake Bay – are as efficient at decimating a fish population as a redneck with a stick of dynamite.The non-native birds are “reproducing and spreading exponentially,” says Bob Duncan, chief of the wildlife division of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1120302731320454452005-07-02T07:11:00.000-04:002005-07-03T08:41:33.216-04:00

Maybe the critics are right.Maybe fishing has gone south on the North Fork of the Holston River in Virginia and Tennessee.Let me put it this way. I’ve caught more fish in a bathtub while playing with my Rubber Duckie than I’ve been able to catch recently on the North Fork.And this from what was one of the finest smallmouth rivers in two states just a few short years ago.Locals blame river otters

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1120302466679175352005-07-02T07:05:00.000-04:002005-07-03T08:13:09.713-04:00

This is the time of the snake.Black snake. Garter snake. Diamond-back rattlehead.You name it. Snakes are out and about these hot summer days, doing the things snakes do, which is mostly scaring humans into issuing primal screams.I have a theory. Snake venom doesn’t kill animals as large as humans. Not often, anyway. But pure, unadulterated fear and loathing can douse your lights quicker

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1118248458965771662005-06-08T12:31:00.000-04:002005-06-09T07:48:43.106-04:00

photos.comThe bears are back.They’ve been hiding deep in the recesses of Shenandoah National Park, which my property adjoins, since the first gun fired in the Blue Ridge Mountains last fall.Bears look sort of dimwitted, but they’re smarter than they look. Obviously, they carry around a copy of that little brochure that tells when hunting seasons open and close.No bruiser bears have shown up yet.

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1117127522866938952005-05-26T12:39:00.000-04:002005-06-10T20:48:59.876-04:00

I have a slight headache involving a sex-starved cardinal.A cardinal who was apparently last in line for donations from the gene pool is beating her silly brains out against my plate-glass window which looks out over the Shenandoah Valley.Yes, I know what they say when cardinals (or redbirds) attack their reflections in windows and wheel covers on cars: They're attacking what they perceive to be

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1110391675740437902005-03-09T12:58:00.000-05:002005-03-09T17:56:36.333-05:00

photos.comI have returned to the land of the raven.These Blue Ridge Mountains are a special country, and a special bird makes its home here.A half dozen ravens were in the back yard when I returned. They scooted as if they were late for something, but not before they’d polished off the last of the sunflower seed and cracked corn left for more common species – doves, juncos, chickadees -- 10 days

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1109715157390749172005-03-01T17:09:00.000-05:002005-03-09T13:14:34.630-05:00

photos.comThey are beautiful to watch – two globs of black quicksilver pulsating, twisting and chasing each other among the stone ledges that serrate the North Fork of the Holston River in the mountains of Southwest Virginia.I am standing as mute and still as a post along the bank of the river, watching two otters chase each other like kittens.River otters apparently live to do only two things;

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10413932.post-1108404980841660312005-02-14T12:26:00.000-05:002005-02-14T13:16:20.900-05:00

Sometimes I suspect that I provide my family and friends with too much amusement.Inadvertently, and at no cost.I like stuff. Outdoor stuff. And I use it in unique ways.For example, a friend just about ripped a stitch laughing recently when I showed up with an Orvis magnifying glass attached to my hat brim.What the friend failed to comprehend is that the magnifying glass is designed to attach to a

Garvey Winegarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113009246121795037noreply@blogger.com4