Hunting

Photo: Scotty Lovett

When I'm not spending time with my family and friends, or working, I am out watching the wildlife with my hunting buddies, Mark and Bob, near Centreville, Mississippi.

From October through January, I am often in my deer stand watching the white tail deer.

JSS3 & Easter Gobbler

Mark Abernethy and Bob Price Opening Day 2000

I carry my Black Widow recurve bow and shoot "instinctively" without sights, making it a challenge to bring home the venison.

From March to April, it is a real thrill just listening to the "gobble" of an Easter Wild Turkey. There is nothing as exciting as to fool a mature gobbler to come within 40 yards to get a shot with my old well-worn camouflaged Mossberg 12 ga. pump, the "ugly mother".

If we were keeping score, the turkeys are winning! And if it was easy, I wouldn't do it! If you have never hunted turkeys, then I cannot explain it. I am addicted, plain and simple.

Nature

There is another sound in nature that is music to my ears. When the Purple Martins return to the houses I have provided for them each January, it is a family ritual that was taught me by my grandparents in Shreveport. Here's how they looked in May, 2002 swarming around my Martin houses, and the music of their sound (WAV).

I am an avid "birder" with several hummingbird feeders placed strategically around the yards. The Ruby Throats swarm when there is a shower in late summer. Carolina Wrens, Cardinals, and Mourning Doves insist on raising kids in Rebel's hanging baskets on the patio.