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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Tuesday, January 19, 2021:
Texas surf fishing excellent during fall, winter for multiple species
The savage murder of warden Neil LaFave, Part 2
This is Part Two of a two-part series on the 1971 murder of Warden Neil LaFave. Part One covers how Brian Hussong decapitated LaFave and the historic investigation for his murder weapon. Part Two covers Hussong’s daring escape from prison and his 12 weeks spent hiding in the forest.
Wisconsin conservation warden Dale Morey slept with his loaded .38-caliber handgun beneath his pillow for three and a half months after the killer he helped convict escaped prison in August 1981.
Anyone who knew of Brian Hussong and how he brutally murdered Neil LaFave, 32, a decade earlier knew Morey wasn’t overreacting. Hussong was 21 when he killed LaFave, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wildlife technician and conservation warden. Hussong shot LaFave repeatedly in the face with a .22 rifle on Sept. 24, 1971, then decapitated him with multiple .30-06 blasts and a shovel blade. He buried LaFave’s head and body nearby in separate, shallow graves inside the Sensiba Wildlife Area northwest of Green Bay.
In fact, everyone who helped investigate, prosecute, and imprison Hussong in 1971-72 took precautions after Hussong escaped and disappeared for 104 days. Donald Zuidmulder—the district attorney who prosecuted Hussong—sent his wife and children from their Green Bay home to the family’s cottage 40 miles northeast in Door County.
Bald eagles are Texas’ ultimate snow birds
I have a hierarchy of things in the wild that get my heart beating. Actually it is a long list, but I will narrow it down to three: elk bugling, migrating geese in an aerodynamic V formation and seeing a bald eagle soaring overhead.
I have to travel quite a bit to enjoy the first two, but with luck I can spot an eagle or two each winter in East Texas.
Commonplace in some states, eagle sightings are still a rarity in Texas even if the birds are not. They are found on most river systems and lakes around the state. A number of pictures have popped up recently of bald eagles at Lake Tyler and Lake Palestine as they have arrived for their winter stay and have started to prepare for nesting.
Poacher kills 60 deer with illegally-owned gun, artificial light, Kansas officials say
A Kansas man killed dozens of deer using an illegal firearm and artificial light, authorities say.
John Blick, Jr. pleaded guilty to poaching 60 whitetail and mule deer and possession of a firearm as a felon after an extensive, multi-year investigation, according to Kansas Wildlife, Parks & Tourism Game Wardens.
The Sharon man was sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay a $310,000 fine — the estimated value of the deer.
Whitetail fawns likely falling to more than just predators, new study says
While many deer hunters blame predators – particularly coyotes and black bears – for nearly any white-tailed deer fawn that fails to survive into adulthood, a new Penn State study suggests that predation is just one of the things in the wild that kills fawns.
Inspecting only the dead bodies of fawns that have already been picked over by predators and scavengers may provide incomplete information that can lead to inaccurate assumptions about cause of death in the fawns.
A first-ever study of the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the saliva of newborn white-tailed deer suggests that predation is not the only thing in the wild killing fawns.
“We think the hormone offers a way to evaluate factors in the environment that affect fawns, such as disease, but are difficult to evaluate when just looking at a carcass that has been picked over by predators,” said Duane Diefenbach, adjunct professor of wildlife ecology at Penn State. “By then, it’s impossible to be certain what truly caused the fawn’s demise.”
Other Stuff That Might Tickle Your Fancy
If he was the winner, can you imagine what the loser looked like! Shared by Pat Hill. #IAMSPORTSMAN #hunting #deer #whitetails #bucks #bigbucks #deerhunting #deerhunter #BBD pic.twitter.com/XzTFZoFwF7
— Sportsman Channel (@SPORTSMANchnl) January 19, 2021
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