Sorry ... needed to make room for new photos.

[ 05-07-2003, 17:08: Message edited by: Nickudu ]

WOW I thought New York was all concrete and steel.As always nice pic's Nick.

Bakes

Excellent as usual. Thanks Nick. Hey, you killed any woodchucks yet?

No, not as yet, Ann. Just spotting and charting now. I've learned the fastest way to ruin an area is to take the females too early. I wait for the pups to get out on their own before getting down to business. At the moment, the males are still bouncing from girlfriend to girlfriend, doing their thing. I saw 2 coyote at midday, last time up and some of the "smarter" turkey hunters doing a bit of scouting and getting their favorite spots set up. Love this time of year in the Catskills.

nice nik...I live in ny and appreciate it as well. I havent been in the adirondacks since the 70's, but I see and hunt from the catskills while waterfowling every fall. speaking of chucks I used to be a two day a weekend chuckster in the 80's...used to get about 15-20 a day...coyotes came in and it dwindled to 1-2 per. We used to always wait till the pups were independant also. But were never advertised it to the farmer though!. I miss shooting those mini grizzly bears. Bob

That's why there should be a North NY and a South NY... Like other civilized lands. Great job of showing the real but unkown NY.

Very nice Nick! I expected to see asphalt, concrete, thugs, pollution....

An excellent variation on ALF's theme. I have been planning on doing a "My British Columbia" post (since ALF lives here but lives in a rainy hole and doesn't seem to appreciate all of what BC has to offer --- although I do understand why he pines over RSA....I do too!!), but just haven't gotten around to scanning all of my scenery shots yet.

Did you take all of those pics, Nick?

Moose in NY???????????

Cheers,
Canuck

ps: Thursday night, 470 and I will be in front of my new TV, beer and popcorn in hand, watching you and your 505 stomp some cape buff. Now there's some "Must See TV"! I am looking forward to it.

[ 04-22-2003, 19:25: Message edited by: Canuck ]

Ah, beautiful! I can almost feel the black flies going up my nose.

222 blr - (always fancied one of those) Coyotes, yes, well lots of locals feel it must all be due to the coyotes but I think it must be more involved than that. The rabies that killed off so many of the racoons, skunks and rabbits may have played a role (though they say chucks are not affected), in some areas anyhow. Still mucho chucks on the southern tier and east of the Hudson, like any other shotgun only zones. I downplay the role of the coyotes for two reasons. First, the chucks are diurnal and the coyotes hunt when the chucks are sleeping safely in their dens. Also, I'd expect to see a hell of a lot more coyotes, considering I hunt from dawn till dusk. Guys like me, who sneak around in the woods, know the chuck holes better than the locals, sometimes better than the farmer! Too many holes in "chuck-city" are now dormant to attribute all to the influx of a few coyotes, IMHO.

[ 04-24-2003, 14:12: Message edited by: Nickudu ]

Nickudu,
Whereabouts are you in NY. I'm down around Albany, and get up to the Battenkill every once in a while or maybe to Lake Placid. Your pictures are making me want to take a road trip with my trout pole.

Clement

Nick,

You are gonna cringe but I kill any and all woodchucks without hesitation. They are given no opportunity to propogate period!

Chucks, like all rodents, are not rabies vectors. But they can carry other diseases.....

Canuck, No ... none of these are my own photos. Actually, I have many better photos of my own but I'm too lazy to start scanning them ... no digital cameras in my day, I'm afraid. These particular photos are nice but they can only hint at the true beauty of this State. There are special places here, places which can overwhelm a person with a "quality" that is hard to define. Not on a physical scale, so majestic as the Rockies, B.C., the Yukon and the like, but there's a tangible sense of history here. I know I've found some of these places and they somehow tell me how deeply our predecessors loved it too.

The big wild West gets all the press, the names of it's indian tribes are those most often committed to memory, but let me tell you, there is magic in the eastern woodlands.

Nickudu,

Wonderful photos, as usual with all the ones you post.

Thank you for sharing them with us.

Ann,
I've done the same but since I've made friends in certain areas of the State, I want to ensure the chuck population remains healthy there. Out in Wyoming, in the BigHorns, I took 37 rockchucks in two hours, one morning and only squeezed on the largest ones!

[ 04-22-2003, 21:53: Message edited by: Nickudu ]

Clement,
I reside on the south shore of Long Island. These days, I hunt woodchucks on the farms of locals I've come to know well over the years, primarily in N/W Catskill Park and around Schoharie Resevoir. In my younger days, I hunted woodchucks across the entire State and others, too, from Maine to as far south as the Carolinas.

nickudu, I bought the blr for my wife to shoot CHUCKS!, because she is a lefty, but I wanted something I could still use..alas, she hasnt shot it much....I shoot dutchess and ower columbia...if I get going again , maybe I could save you some driving time...I havent shot the tight necked 22-250 at a chuck for at least 7 years now...on the south shore, you should be spending time on waterfowl!!!!!.....bob

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 222blr:
[QB]...if I get going again , maybe I could save you some driving time...

Music to my ears. Dutchess County ... down Pumpkin Lane, past the old country store in the triangle and up the road on the right. That's where I shot my first woodchuck.

So Nick, how long of a drive is it from Long Island to the Catskills?

It looks like a place that would be hard to leave to go back to work.

Can you take the subway?

Beautiful pictures.

Thanks,
Rick.

Hi Ric,
It's about 3 1/2 hours to my favorite area, with normal traffic. The tough part is usually getting on and off Long Island. There are beautiful places much closer, though. Where I go, I hike from farm to farm to farm. It's a blast!

Nickudu

You're making me jealous. I lived in Woodstock NY from 1979-1990 and I've been stuck in the midwest since 1992. Sure do miss "my" Catskills!

Nikudu,
Your New York looks alot like my West Virginia,we are licky for sure!

West Virginia is fabulous country. Hills and valleys and more hills and more valleys. Do you pay state income tax there? I may move.

Nickudu do u live just pst the New York State line? I saw the lakes and I was wondering if those are the finger lakes. I think that one of them is actaully really deep and hte Navy uses them to test teh submarines. Just curious really nice lad by the way.

Sorry John 17,
No photos of the Fingerlakes Region, here. They are far too beautiful for "furriners" to gaze upon.

Oh, what a world it must have been for the Onondaga, the Seneca, Onieda, Cayuga and the rest of the Iroquois Nation. This area holds many of those "special places" I spoke of earlier.

It takes me 4.5-5 hours to get to my stomping grounds in Otsego county... and by far the part I dred the most is the first 45 minutes getting off the damn island.

The only thing worse is on the way back... the 4-4 1/2 hours down is a breeze compaired to the last bit on the Long Island Distressway.

CAS,
Don't I know it. Makes you wonder if you actually enjoyed yourself. When I die, they'll surely put a plaque on the Throggs Neck Bridge in my honor, afterall ... I paid for it!

Ric,
Guess you could say the same about anyplace.
If you've only been to Pittsburg you sure ain't seen Pennsylvannia! I've got an aunt in Plano, Texas and a stepbrother in N.C. and a stepsister in Alabama. Pretty close, ey?

Nick

Thanks for the pics.

I have only visited New York once in September in 1999 and flying low over the hills and farmlands in full autumn colour had me glued to the aircraft window.

Planned to get out of the city to see some of the "Fall countryside" but was only there for a week. Actually hoped to do just a days shooting but its damned hard to find out anything about hunting in the state from the city.

Nice picks, I never thought New York looked like that. All I ever think of is big buildings, and alot of people. Never been there, my brother just happens to be up there this weekend from school. I told him to bring me some pictures back.

Thank you for these pictures, Nickudu. This is what we need to see. In my youth, there were a lot of old men in our village that had been to the US. These are like the great pictures of it they brought back (black and white). These are so much like the pictures on my grandfathers wall, and in his bound volumes of Time and National G magazines, that forged mine and my brothers picture of the US. The pictures we get these days are made up by media, and so far from the beauty of your land. Yours did bring back great memories.
My great grandfather was sent to the US by my great-great grandfather..wish I had met them.
Beautiful. Just like the feeling of reading Fenimore Cooper..
My boys had a glance at them, and they want to go there.

boha

Buckmaster, Welcome to the Forum!
"Nice picks, I never thought New York looked like that."

That is why I posted them and will post more in the future. Too many people think of New York City and do not realize the beauty of the Empire State. People from all countries should seek out the natural gifts of their homeland and share them with others. Acts like these bring us closer together in universal appreciation of our world.

Boha My Friend,
Words such as yours are my reward, indeed, and I am truly grateful for them.

Nick, did you live in Pittsburgh at one time?

Pittsburgh was the "BIG CITY" to us about 50 mi. away in WV. We got to go there every 3-4 years to see the zoo.

I remember one time Dad loaded us all in the car to head for the zoo.... He drove around all day in Pittsburg, getting directions from one person after another, and then one old guy told him,

"The zoo? Lawd 'a mercy! No way you can get there before they close!"

It was a sad, tired, quiet family in that car driving back home..

Rick.

I lived in Tennessee in the early '90's. When I told people I was from New York, they think of the city.From my house to the Bronx is 80 miles,I lived closer to Nashville then I do to nyc. Now when I travel, I tell people I'm from Long Island. I do not get the same reaction as saying New York. Great pictures Nick. How about some of beautifull Long Island? Like the big duck, peconic bay, shinnicock canal, plum Island Robins Island? If I had a digetal camera I would post them. wayne

I don't have many e-pics of the island. They're so busy squeezing houses in every square patch of land. Paradise lost.

CAS, You're on the North Shore? Looks like the Sound ... Port Jeff?

That's it.. a few months ago.

I thought I recognized that seagull. Nice timing on that shot, BTW!

Nick,
I expected Natty Bumpo to walk out of the woods at any moment. Not like NYC is it?

DR. Duc,
No it's really not, I suppose. Central Park is even prettier!!