Michael Pearce’s outdoors newsletter

Hey,

A belated “Happy Anniversary!”

My boss, Kirk Seminoff, and I were doing a little research earlier this week and learned we began this e-letter on Feb. 4, 2001.

My, how time flies.

UPCOMING COVERAGE

Sunday’s Outdoors page will feature a Saturday goose hunt with several kids from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and their mentors with Flatland Waterfowl, a guide service in Stafford County.

If it’s a hunt in a field, the kids may help put out more than 1,000 decoys. If it’s a hunt over water, they may get by with “only” about 400 decoys.

For some of the kids it will be their first waterfowl hunt. Wow, what a way to break in, huh?

I’ll also have an article with a legislative update. Until I learn more from Topeka I don’t know if the article will be on one bill and its issue or several.

Things can change rapidly in the legislature.

On Sunday, Feb. 19, we’ll have the winners of our Wichita Eagle Great Outdoors Photo Contest.

Further down the road I’m hoping to get some fishing stories in fairly soon. Later in the spring, I’m hoping to spend a couple of days on a Kansas hiking trail that’s often ranked as one of the top trails of its size in the nation.

I also should spend some time photographing lesser prairie chickens displaying on a lek. I’ve heard the show is somewhat different than that of greater ’chickens.

I’ll at least have an online photo gallery of the displaying birds.

UPDATES

Entries are rolling in for the photo contest. As usual, I’m pretty envious of some of the pics. Remember you can go to Kansas.com and see most of this year’s entries.

Kansans wanting to legalize the use of crossbows during the archery deer season seem pretty serious about their goal. There are now bills in the house and senate that would make them legal.

That’s on top of consideration the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism commission is also giving the issue, too.

Goose hunting success has been hot and cold, though I’m not hearing from as many people as I thought I would this late in the season. I think sloppy fields from last week’s rains probably contributed to that.

The weather hasn’t been too favorable to fishing, either. I’m getting reports from around the state of unusually high coyote populations this year.

I’m not sure if they’re just more visible because the drought didn’t leave a lot of cover or if numbers have bounced back after some mange-related declines.

I see Wildlife and Parks reached its quota of trappers taking 100 river otters in the first season on the animals. (I’d still love to see one in the wild.)

MICHAEL’S WORLD

Since I’m working Saturday to cover the kids’ goose hunt, I decided to take off on Tuesday and do some goose hunting.

Yes, that was the day when it was spitting rain or snow for most of the day, which made fields even gooier than they already were.

Basically I’d planned on just a morning hunt, but when not much flew in the morning, I just kept talking myself into staying a little longer, knowing the birds would have to fly out to feed sometime soon.

Things often don’t work as I “know” they should in the outdoors.

All in all, I didn’t see more than 100 geese all day, and none were interested in anything but a field I couldn’t hunt across the road.

Fortunately Bill Mills came out, hunted a bit, and helped pick up the decoy spread.

I now have a garage with assorted coats, gloves and hats hanging about.

When it’s raining and cold, I put down two decoy bags for my dog Hank to lay on, then toss an old coat I’ve brought along for that purpose on his back.

I can then cover most of his body with an open-backed super-magnum goose decoy to keep him better protected from the wind and dry.

The cold seems to have bothered him more the past two seasons. He used to use a collapsible camo dog house but because of his age he can’t get in and turn around any more.

We’ll close out goose seasons - all the hunting seasons, for that matter – somewhere on Sunday.

It seems like it just flew by, then I sit back and think of all the places we went, things we saw and fun times that were had.

I’m finally getting a little more interest in getting the garden ready for spring. I also need to head up to our farm and frost-seed some clover patches.

That’s where you broadcast the seed directly atop the ground. The seed normally works its way down into the soil.

It’s worked pretty well when I’ve done it in past years.

Hey, don’t forget that you can start voting for photo contest finalists on Tuesday at Kansas.com.

Be sure to come by our booth and see me at the Sports Show, too.

Bests,

Michael Pearce

mpearce@wichitaeagle.com

VENISON CHILI

1½-lbs. ground venison

½ lb. sliced fresh mushrooms

1 green pepper, coarsely chopped

1-141/2-oz. can sliced, stewed tomatoes

1-6 oz. can tomato paste

3-14 ½-oz. can kidney beans, undrained

½ tsp. hot sauce

½ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. cumin

2-3 dashes black pepper

2-3 dashes crushed red pepper

2-3 dashes garlic powder

Combine ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for about eight hours. Can be topped with chopped onion and shredded cheddar cheese.

Karen Mehall

Outdoor Celebrities Cookbook