10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2014

Fish and Wildlife Service has announced the death of two Whooping Cranes in Hopkins County, Kentucky. Making bad news worse, officials speculate that the Whooping Cranes likely weren’t killed by hunters, but instead by thrill-seekers. What thrill there is in murdering an endangered species, I’ll never know.).

Kentucky 258

Kentucky Killing Endangered Species United States 258

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2011

This time, it’s the full commission– nine members of the Kentucky Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources—who will get together on June 3, 2011, to vote on whether to open season on Sandhill Cranes in Kentucky. Hunters frequently refer to them as “Rib-eye in the Sky” due to the excellent taste. ”

Kentucky 259

Kentucky Hunting Tennessee Indiana 259

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2014

(The pair shot last year in Kentucky belonged to Operation Migration’s project establishing a migratory flock in the eastern United States; there is also the last true wild flock , which winters in Texas and summers in Canada.) Seriously, hunters. (Or, Please get our endangered species out of your sights, and shoot something else.

Louisiana 274

Louisiana Kentucky Hunters United States 274

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2011

Bald Eagle image is by Francois Portmann and is used with permission You know, I’ve been thinking about this whole dustup over hunting cranes in Tennessee and now Kentucky. There was a lot of hunting for Bald Eagles—it is traditionally a game species. Bald Eagles will provide a sporting challenge for hunters.

Bald Eagle 264

Bald Eagle Eagles Hunting Kentucky 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2011

As you’ll remember, Kentucky’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources unanimously passed its sandhill crane hunting proposal. All eight hunters on the commission think it’s a good idea to shoot cranes in Kentucky. The public comment period on the Kentucky sandhill crane hunting proposal ends AUGUST 1 2011.

Kentucky 260

Kentucky Hunters Hunting Protest 260

10,000 Birds

JULY 8, 2013

You don’t feed, encourage and celebrate a large, lovely, charismatic species for 17 years, attracting thousands of devotees who travel each year just to admire it, and then turn around and kill it in front of them. The initiative for this hunt comes from a small group of hunters.

Tennessee 247

Tennessee Hunting Hunters Wisconsin 247

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2019

I generally wait until I have at least a dozen species on my year list before having my first drink of the year. Crow, a Scottish chemist-physician who settled in Frankfort, Kentucky in the 1820s. Grant, Mark Twain, and Hunter S. But which species of crow is our Old Crow – Fish or American?

Mississippi 153

Mississippi Kentucky New York Tennessee 153