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Steve Pollick

Steve Pollick: New Year’s resolutions for the outdoorsman

Featured, Fishing, Hunting, National Fishing, National Hunting, Ohio, Opinion /

So, here we are, on the doorstep of the Brave New World of 2025. Time for well-meant New Year’s resolutions, including for outdoors folks.
For me, that means things like resolving to involve a young person in the outdoors – initially or more deeply. And I don’t mean more daddies sitting little 7-year-old juniors on their laps over bait in a ground blind or tree stand and doing everything but pulling the trigger on big bucks. Or handing them a bass rod with a 5-pounder on the line so little He or She can mug the camera with a Big One.

Steve Pollick: New Year’s resolutions for the outdoorsman Read More »

Steve Pollick: In a big year for birds, snowy owls the latest to find a home in Ohio

Blogs, Featured, Nature Page & Night Sky, Ohio, Opinion /

A third invasion of big white birds appears on the way to Ohio latitudes this autumn and winter, this time with snowy owls following on the heels of tundra swans and American white Pelicans in the last month or so.
“If you spot a ‘white plastic bag’ on corn stubble, you might want to take a closer look,” said Lori Monska, a spokesman for the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Association near Oak Harbor. It could be a snowy owl.

Steve Pollick: In a big year for birds, snowy owls the latest to find a home in Ohio Read More »

Steve Pollick: Owls make fine friends at Froggy Bottom in Ohio’s Sandusky County

Featured, Nature Page & Night Sky, Ohio /

Some hunters have been prowling Froggy Bottom here at night lately, but they are not jacklighting deer poachers.
A screech owl and a great horned owl are the culprits. The little screech – a tufted-ear, gray-phase version of this robin-sized owl – showed up on the 12th for the third November in a row, renewing winter residence in a 40-year-old wood duck box that prior to his arrival was unused by woodies or anything else.

Steve Pollick: Owls make fine friends at Froggy Bottom in Ohio’s Sandusky County Read More »

Steve Pollick: Big flock of white pelicans, rarely seen in these parts, spotted at Ottawa NWR in Ohio

Blogs, Featured, Nature Page & Night Sky, Ohio, Opinion /

The continued eastward expansion into the Great Lakes of the range of the American white pelican, the second largest bird in North America, recently received an exclamation point along western Lake Erie with the spotting of some 500 of the great white birds at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in western Ottawa County, Ohio.
White pelicans, with wingspans that can stretch more than nine feet, are second only to the fabled California condor in terms of size. They can weigh anywhere from 8 to 30 pounds, averaging 11 to 20 pounds, and are distinctive for their “scoop-shovel” pouched bills.

Steve Pollick: Big flock of white pelicans, rarely seen in these parts, spotted at Ottawa NWR in Ohio Read More »

Steve Pollick: Ohio DNR’s ups and downs in first 75 years

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, National Fishing, National Hunting, Nature Page & Night Sky, Ohio, Opinion /

The “DNR.” To many hunters, anglers, and other outdoors folks in many states, Ohio included, that is shorthand for The Law.
But that is a pretty narrow, sometimes even adversarial, view. It is one that needs a little parsing, especially because the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, our “DNR,” is 75 years old this year. It has come a long way since 1949, morphed several times, and grown substantially from small beginnings.

Steve Pollick: Ohio DNR’s ups and downs in first 75 years Read More »

Steve Pollick: Witch hazel can teach us a true nature lesson

Blogs, Featured, Nature Page & Night Sky, Ohio, Opinion /

Once while sitting on bow stand in the autumn deer woods, in absolutely still conditions when every sound is sharp and magnified, I could hear what seemed to be a “pop” and then a small “plop.”
Intrigued, I temporarily abandoned my deer quest to investigate. I moved very slowly, lest the sound of my own movements mute the soft pops and plops. I came upon the source – a blooming yellow witch-hazel bush, “spitting” its seeds.

Steve Pollick: Witch hazel can teach us a true nature lesson Read More »

Dragonflies and more detailed in new tome from Ohio writers

Featured, Nature Page & Night Sky, News, Ohio /

As I walk Froggy Bottom Creek sometime each May and into early June every spring, I find myself greeted by a succession of familiar “friends” – ebony jewelwing damselflies.
These dark-winged, iridescent members of the Odonata order of flying insects flutter softly along the creek, landing softly on vegetation, always just ahead. They flap ahead at every turn. But their seeming gentle, casual behavior is not indicative of their true nature.

Dragonflies and more detailed in new tome from Ohio writers Read More »

Steve Pollick: This year’s drought in Ohio provides wildlife lessons to ponder

Featured, Fishing, Hunting, Nature Page & Night Sky, Ohio, Opinion /

If I were a minnow in Froggy Bottom Creek, out behind my house, I would be worried about losing life and limb.
The current drought, which has afflicted more than 90% of Ohio and all or parts of 87 of 88 counties at this writing, is drying up its aquatic home and the remaining “little fish” are being crowded into skinnier and skinnier water. I corralled a couple of them the other day and asked my friend and colleague, Fred Snyder, about them.

Steve Pollick: This year’s drought in Ohio provides wildlife lessons to ponder Read More »

Steve Pollick: Re-outfitting a Remington 721 with great results

Blogs, Featured, Ohio, Opinion /

A long quest for a satisfactory “old-fashioned” big-game utility rifle – a mostly go-anywhere, do-anything classic piece – at last is over for me.
The rifle is a Remington 721 bolt-action, chambered in .30/06. It is not quite the rifle it was when it came out of the fabled Ilion, N.Y., factory in 1948, its first year of production and the year I was born. But it’s close, and I think, better.

Steve Pollick: Re-outfitting a Remington 721 with great results Read More »

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