A Quick Trip

The immortal words from Jimmy Buffett rang true this week,



..."I ran away from politics, its too bizarre at home"



Don't tell anyone but I ditched work on Tuesday afternoon and and headed to Bollingbrook. By 10:30 on Wednesday I was on the road, headed home, and back to work, with a proverbial B-12 shot of God's Country in me. Unfortuantely, or fortunately, I will need another soon.

As I made my way through the front gate I was greeted by a beautiful Accipiter, perched on a newly planted sawtooth oak. Of course I left my camera in Pensacola, so I have no proof of how close he let me get to him before he lifted off to a safer perch much higher in an enormous pecan tree.

The pond is filling up due in large part to three days of rain, and with more in the forecast, worries will hopefully be submerged.

The hunting was ok, nothing special, but it was beautiful and solitary. I saw the usual cast of young bucks, that remind me of adolescent boys at a high school dance. The young bucks are constantly roaming this time of year, not running, not walking, not eating, but smelling the air for Ms. Right. The mature bucks are fashionable late, and won't make apperance until the time is right. With any luck I will be there too. Stay tuned.

Weekend Report

The activity is heating up ayt Bollingbrook as the rut approaches. I saw quite a few deer this past weekend. At least 10 deer on two seprate hunts. We seem to have alot of young bucks as well, everytime I've sat in a stand I have seen at least one buch, however, most are about the same size and age as the two pictured above. Nevertheless, as the rut appraoches, the big boys will start moving more.

First Published Photo

Great News! A photo that I took at the farm was recently published in the University of Florida's IFAS Extension Gardening in the Panhandle Newsletter. This is very exciting because it represents my first published photograph. It looks like I am on my way to being a full time wildlife photographer and blogger. Ha, yeah right! Nevertheless, I am very excited for my early fall whitetails that made the newsletter. Hopefully this is the first of many. Honestly, it motivates me to get out there and take more photos. check the link below to read the newsletter, not only does it have Bollingbrook Plantation whitetails in it, but its also a very informative publication.
http://santarosa.ifas.ufl.edu/documents/November-DecemberColor.pdf

Spring Creek Lodge

The photos above were taken recently at a neighboring farm called Spring Creek Lodge which is owned by Nick Collins. Along with having a beautiful place, Nick is a great story teller, and serves good strong drinks. In other words, he's my type of guy. Great photos and great looking bucks as well. I'm getting excited about this weekend.

Photogentic Young Buck

This young guy was photographed by my father yesterday afternoon. Obviously he's a young deer, but he looks healthy and in a couple of years could be a fine buck. I'm always amazed at how relaxed young bucks are and how much they change as they grow older. Catching a photo of a mature deer would be quite a feat, but for this guy its no big deal. In fact, when I retrieved my trail camera this morning, the display screen said I had 1200 photos. Not suprisingly the same buck was photographed hundreds of times. I won't bore you with duplicates, but I will say this young buck needs to wise up if he wants to survive the winter. I can't garauntee our neighbors will be as benelovant as we are.

I had a fine morning hunt today: 1 seven point, 2 six points (not Mr. Photogentic), 5 does, 2 montpillier woodpeckers, and 10 squirels. The cherry on top was the covey of 20 quail I flushed on my way back to the house. Being able to see the variety of wildlife that lives on our farm in one morning is one of the most rewarding things for me.

Duck Pond: Update

As I write this entry there are two tractors and one bull dozier creeping along in a clockwise pattern. Each one taking dirt from one area and depositing it in another. At its deepest point the pond is 12 feet deep, at least. It measures 175 feet long and 225, just under 1 acre. Its amazing how big it looks though. The tractors are dwarfed inside the pond. The well is in place and now we are waiting for the completion of the earth movers.

Weekend Doves

I was not able to make it to Bollingbrook this past weekend. My son's first Halloween and a Halloween party planned by my wife kept me close to home. I was able to slip away on Saturday afternoon for a dove hhunt at a friend's house in Baldwin County, Alabama.
A very cool morning gave way to a warm and sunny afternoon, I spent the afternoon on the edge of loblolly pine plantation overlooking a wheat field, with my lab jeb at heel. As it is with most dove shoots, its more about the food, and visting with frieds that the actually shooting. Nevertheless, I bagged a hanful of doves, and was delighted that Jeb's first day in the field this season was an absolute success. He made bee line retievers on all of my birds, and helped one another shooter on three more. Jeb's manners and abilities always make me overestimate my training prowess. Jeb is a natural, I am not, we both had alot of fun though.

A Worthwhile Read

If you are reading this blog then chances are you are interested in wildlife, and wild places. I would like to pass along a recommendation for book I just finished for the second time, For a Handful of Feathers, written by Guy de la Valdene. I read this book for the first time probably 5 years ago and at that point was ignorant to the work and effort that goes into shaping a piece of land into a haven for wildlife.

For a handfl of Feathers is one year look at an 800 acre quail farm located in the redhills of North Florida, approximately a hour south of Bollingbrook. Valdene shares his thoughts on quail management, hunting philisophy and even his culinary adventures with wild game. These topics have always been of great interest to me, but after having my own place and working to shape every square inch into my vision Valdene's words have much more meaning than the first time around.

While at times the frenchmen is less than complementary about southern cooking, and deer hunters. I can't say that I disagree with him on many isssues. Furthermore, Guy de la Valdene is successful in his elequent description of the joy, pride, heartache and frustration that comes with hunting quail, living with bird dogs and working one's own land.

October 24th, 2008 - Sparring Match

I arrived at the farm on Thursday afteroon excited to see how the pond was coming along. I was amazed when I made the first turn on the two track road and saw at the bottom of the hill, a deep red clay whole much larger than we had planned. Gerald said it was going to work and I really didn't have a choice but to believe him. Shortly thereafter the rain came and did not stop until Friday afternoon. I spent the day inside with Krisitn and Hudson just relaxing, and watching our duck pond fill up with water.
When the rain broke I snuck out to the big field to sit for a hour or so before dark. Bored, I decided to get down and walk. As I approached the point where the planted longleaf meets the soybean field I saw two does wander out into the field. I sat on the ground and enjoyed the show, minutes passed and six more deer where in the field including two 2 1/2 year old six point bucks who put on quite a sparring match for me. The wind was in my face and and the wet conditions supressed my scent so much so that two of the does came within 15 feet of me! They never spooked and as the moved to the low end of the field I crept up and back towards the house.

This weekend at Bollingbrook

I had the chance to spend a little time with my dad away from the office and at Bollingbrook this weekend. With the various hunting season and cool weather (hopefully) on the way we had some serious work that needed to be done. Luckily for us we have one of the finest dozier operators in southwest Georgia at our disposal, Gerald McGaha. We are constanlty coming up with projects for Gerald to work on, one thing we have found out is that you need the right equipment to get a job done and Gerald does a wonderful job.

This weekend we got a start on the duck pond, a project I mentioned in an earlier post, we cleared a new food plot in some planted pines and we moved two tripod stands. Finally, I must have pushed over 50 undesirable dead trees that had been poinsoned by a chop and spray application we did last spring. Our place is really looking great and I am truly proud to be a steward of it.

New Toy

We have a new toy here at Bollingbrook! I took it out for a spin Thursday afternoon and it is a smooth riding vehicle! Plus it seats six and still has room for all the dogs, equipment, coolers, game, etc...

We need a name for it though, what do you think?

New Projects Part 1: Operation Duck Pond

We have been discussing the prospect of constructing a duck pond on the plantation. We have quite a few spots in mind, however, this photo represents what we think will be a good location for the first one. As you can see there is a ditch to the right of the pond area where the water has been flowing, so the area stays wet all the time. We would need to use a dozier to dig it out and construct a small dam where the current road is.

I think it would be a great spot to attract ducks and dove. Plus, its close to the lodge, so the view from the front porch would be enhanced.

If anyone has any thoughts on construction methods for ponds, or about the location, etc. let me know. I would love to have some feedback before we start pushing dirt around.

More Trail Cam Photos

A buddy of mine sent this photo to me, its from a Merriweather County Georgia. What a great buck! I hope we have one or two like this at Bollingbrook.

p.s. I know I've been heavy on whitetail photos, there's more variety on the way.

While We were there...

In my last post I shared some photos that were taken with the trail camera. These photos were taken with my Canon last Friday afternoon. I love how red the deer are this time of year.

When we are away...

My wife Krisitn gave me a digital trail camera for christmas last year, and its awesome! Check out the photo album link below to see what's been happen at Bollingbrook the past couple of weeks. I have repositioned the camera to what I hope is a more active area for wildlife, The camera was setup close to the main entrance so I had plenty of photos of our caretaker coming in and out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30077375@N02/sets/72157607039830356/show/

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for Bollingbrook Plantation, a small patch of woods, fields, and swamps located in Southwest Georgia. Bollingbrooke is many things; a retreat, where plenty of hard work is done and plenty of relaxing too! We have alot of fun at Bollingbrook and this blog will keep up with all the actvities we enjoy.
I think we have finally turned the corner on a long hot summer and thoughts of cool mornings in the piney woods are filling my mind. More updates coming soon on the approaching season at Bollingbrook.