I’ve often been told but haven’t personally seen Bald Eagles at Barren Lake.

This week I heard from someone who has actually identified our national emblem at the lake.

Ken Berry lives near the junctures of Skaggs and Beaver Creeks. He first saw a single bird gliding through the sky and fetched his binoculars. He was able to confirm it was indeed a Bald Eagle and minutes later, saw another circling, probably mates. Ken thinks they may be nesting somewhere in the Coon Creek area.

I hope to see them for myself in the next few days.



When you write something for the newspaper that is available worldwide on the Web, you never know who’s going to read it. You may remember recently we talked about turkey hunting dogs after overhearing a conversation between Bill Logsdon and Don Price.

This week I received an e-mail from Jon Freis of the American Wild Turkey Hunting Dog Association who had seen the column and wanted to share some information with us. Freis has written a book called Wild Turkey Dogs which goes into detail about training and hunting with this unique breed and the many generations of Virginia hunters who raised these special dogs.

Freis thinks the breeder that Bill had read about was probably John Byrnes who is best known for promoting but wasn’t the originator of the breed. We also learned that there is an organization in Kentucky devoted to promoting the dog. More information on turkey hunting dogs is available online at www.turkeydog.org.



Kentucky’s modern gun deer season is now over statewide and we learn this week from Hayley Lynch of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife that the total harvest passed 108,000 deer. Even with several days of archery and crossbow hunting left this month, the November harvest of more than 88,000 deer has already topped every season but 2004.

“I thought we might kill 115,000 to 116,000 deer this season, but I think we’re going to do better than that,” said David Yancy, a wildlife biologist in the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources’ big game program. “If it’s a pretty typical December muzzleloader season, that’ll help us toward 120,000.”

The high harvest eases the minds of the state’s deer managers, who closely watched last year’s severe outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). Kentucky Fish and Wildlife received reports of more than 4,000 suspected EHD cases last year. The state’s deer herd is estimated at 1 million animals.

“If EHD had an impact, the November harvest should be down,” said Yancy. “But it’s not down – it’s up. That tells me that EHD didn’t have a significant impact to statewide deer numbers.”

Overall harvest trends are a much better indicator of deer populations than single-year results, however. Kentucky’s total deer harvest has stair-stepped up and down only slightly since 2000, varying by fewer than 10,000 deer most years. “When you take a step back and look at that – that’s stable,” said Yancy.

Hunter harvest of male and female deer has also stabilized, with hunters taking a nearly even split of bucks and does each year. About 52 percent of deer taken so far this season have been bucks.

“We go into gun season usually slightly ahead on antlerless deer,” said Yancy. “Bowhunters are more willing to take antlerless deer – it’s a challenge just to kill a deer with a bow.”

During modern gun deer season, however, the buck-to-doe balance tips toward antlered deer. “Gun hunters are out there buck hunting,” Yancy said. “Some already have some venison in the freezer from early muzzleloader or bow, and others say I can get my antlerless deer during late muzzleloader to fill my freezer. It shifts back in late muzzleloader season, and we end up with slightly more females taken.”

The 9-day late muzzleloader season typically adds another 8,000 to 10,000 deer to the overall harvest. Yancy hopes to see more deer taken in high-density counties, where doe harvest is especially important to keep the population in balance with available habitat.

“Counties like Jefferson, Shelby, Franklin, and from there north to the Ohio River – we would definitely like to see more deer taken, especially female deer in those counties,” said Yancy. “That’s what it’s going to take to get them down to a Zone 2 level.”

Southeastern Kentucky’s Zone 4 counties are a different story. Deer populations are smaller than managers and hunters would like, due to the region’s mountainous, forested habitat that isn’t ideal for deer. The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission voted this year to restrict this zone’s antlerless deer harvest during late muzzleloader season to the final three days only. Hunters in Zone 4 may take only antlered deer during the season’s first six days.

“The point of it is to reduce kill on females and young deer,” said Yancy. “We thought we were being restrictive enough, but we weren’t. We’re trying to allow some opportunity, but not too much. We’ll see in the next 2 to 3 years how this affects Zone 4 populations.”

Late muzzleloader season for deer runs Dec. 13-21 statewide.



Kentucky Afield TV reminds busy fans over the holidays that the program is always available online. With “Kentucky Afield” preempted this weekend, December 6 and 7, to accommodate KET’s WinterPledge 2008 programming, viewing opportunities still abound. Full-length “Kentucky Afield” episodes are available 24/7 on the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources‚ website: http://fw.ky.gov/kyafieldtv.asp.

For favorite story segments and recipes, visit www.YouTube.com and search Kentucky Afield TV.