On February 1, 2018 eight members of the King George Outdoor Club met at KGMS after school to learn about wood ducks, conservation and biology of the beautiful waterfowl. Mr. Limbrick and Mr. Fike, both avid waterfowl hunters, presented information to the youth to give them a background before they started the conservation project.
After the PowerPoint presentation and discussion with Mr. Limbrick and Mr. Fike, the students were then given sets of precut wood pieces to make a wood duck box for hens to raise their young in. Instruction on how to use power drills and screw guns was given, followed by a diagram of the pieces and how they were to be put together. Tips such as drilling a pilot hole first before putting in a screw and flushing up the ends of the wood to keep the box straight were offered to the youth. Then under the supervision of Limerick and Fike, the students began learning how to use the tools and put the boxes together. After a few minor reversals to fix some mistakes, the students were able to assemble and even paint the wood duck boxes. Seven boxes were made during the event which will be installed in likely habitat before March which is when the wood ducks are busy looking for a nesting location.
At the end of the event, the students learned the biology and life cycle of wood ducks, about predators, reproduction of the ducks, and characteristics that make them very different from most ducks. In addition, the students learned how to operate power tools safely and the importance of measuring and checking construction items as they go to make sure things are going together as planned. It appeared the young people had a good time.
We will be installing the boxes in a few weeks after we are able to secure funding for the poles and predator guards. Our goal is to observe the boxes and possibly put a camera on an active box to film the little ones jumping out of the box after they hatch.
We may take a field trip to a lease that a local partner has to help him clean out his existing duck boxes and possibly put our boxes up so the youth can see how it is done correctly. Stay tuned for details on that opportunity!
We would like to give a huge thanks to the James Madison Garden Club in King George and Lowes on Banks Ford Parkway in Stafford for partnering with us to provide funding (James Madison Garden Club) and offer us the wood and screws to us at cost (Lowes). Without these two partners this conservation project would not have been possible.
Thanks to the youth who spent their time after school working on the boxes. They did a nice job!

Local hunter, Steve Purks of King George County, was inducted into the VA NWTF Conservation Hall of Fame yesterday in Roanoke. Steve is a self taught turkey, waterfowl and deer hunter. He shared that his first turkey he ever brought home was taken with the aid of an old Lynch box call that his grandfather had given him. The old bird, as Steve put it, was not necessarily fooled by his calling but rather by the fact that another gobbler on the other side of him started gobbling that morning and the two started dueling for the affection of the "hen" between them. That was the start to Steve's passion for turkey hunting. While he won't admit it, he has become a master at turkey hunting and has guided many people to their birds, quite a few to their first ever turkey, further lighting the fire of turkey hunting.
Steve's desire to excel at hunting has brought him full circle. He now spends an incredible amount of his free time studying wildlife and game animals' habits and teaching others what he knows. He is a very unselfish man who never asks for a thing in return when he takes someone hunting. Steve has spent a lot of his time taking women from NWTF's Women in the Outdoors program hunting for waterfowl and turkey. He also has volunteered many years to help the late Buddy Fines conduct and guide youngsters for youth hunts. He also helps Rick Wilks conduct his youth hunts in the area. As if that is not enough he has become the "unofficial guide" for the youth of the King George Outdoor Club (www.kgoutdoorclub.com) for geese.
Steve is very careful when managing wildlife on properties he hunts. If there are not enough game animals to be harvested and still leave numbers to procreate for the following season, he does not harvest any game until the numbers are sufficiently restored.
To be nominated for this award and lifetime achievement, the individual must be a member of NWTF for at least 5 years and must exhibit traits and character that exemplifies NWTF’s mission to conserve, hunt and share. To be inducted is a huge honor and not something taken lightly. Three Virginians were inducted in January at the banquet. They were Kirk Gordan, Billy Thurman and Steve Purks. They join previous recipients such as Bob Duncan (VDGIF Director), Sherry Crumley (board member of NWTF), and Gary Norman (VDGIF’s turkey biologist). No one has ever been nominated, much less received an induction to the VA NWTF Hall of Fame before from our region. The fact that Steve got this honor speaks volumes about his dedication to hunting, sharing what he knows and conservation. A number of people wrote letters recommending him to include the youth that he has taken hunting. Some spoke of his generosity, others of the time he takes to help them learn, his patience when teaching them and his humor. The youth that he has impacted spans many years. We are thrilled Steve Purks was able to receive this well deserved honor and are proud to call him our friend!

Julie Abel, the VA Women in the Outdoors Coordinator and Chapter President of the Rappahannock Spurs Chapter of NWTF, was the recipient of the 3rd highest number of Women in the Outdoors members for the year in the entire state! Julie works very hard to provide opportunities for women across the state and she has been an invaluable friend to the King George Outdoor Club. Without Julie steering us towards opportunities and integrating us into NWTF, we would not have the fun we have.  Julie is a forward thinker who strives to include everyone in hunting and the outdoors. Additionally she is working with my daughter and the other young ladies to begin a "Young Women in the Outdoors" chapter. Many of our young ladies have benefited from her leadership and planning and have become hunters and outdoorswomen. We look forward to continuing to work with Julie and commend and congratulate her on a job well done! Way to go Julie!

By Kristy Fike
We jumped out of the truck and then we formed a semi-circle around our mentors. Mr. Spuchesi, our local game warden, conducted a safety brief and introduced us to our mentors for the day.  Katelyn was mentored by Julie Abel, Courtney was mentored by Monty Clift, Kayla was mentored by Steve Abel, and I (Kristy) was mentored by Mr. Summers. Katelyn, Julie Abel, Mr. Summers and I were standing about 10 yards apart on a grassy road right in front of a huge grass, sapling, and briar thicket. Courtney and Monty Clift were standing just outside of the grass, sapling, and briar thicket towards our left in a cornfield. Kayla and Steve Abel were standing just outside the grass, sapling and briar thicket towards our right in a grassy field.   
Once we were stationed in our spots, it only took a couple minutes for the pack of dogs to uncover a rabbit’s trail.  All of us began scanning the terrain in front of us keeping in mind that the rabbit is way ahead of the dogs, sometimes even 100 yards. The dogs were happily trailing multiple rabbits straight up the middle into a huge briar thicket. Then the dogs looped away and trailed another rabbit into the briar thicket with their crisp howls bellowing throughout the land. Meanwhile, Mr. Summers and I spotted a rabbit in range with a safe background and Mr. Summers whispered “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” I pulled the trigger. I bagged the first rabbit of the day! Only a couple minutes passed, and we saw another rabbit. Once again with the rabbit in range and a safe background, I shot. With a second rabbit in the bag, I was off to a pretty good start, although I preferred that a girl that had not harvested a rabbit before would have gotten the rabbits. Finally, we heard a couple shots from Kayla’s direction…… she did not get the rabbit. Mr. Abel advised her to take off one of her jackets so it would be easier for her to get her gun in her shoulder. Two back to back shots later she had two rabbits.
We all shouted, “Good job Kayla!” She shouted back “Thanks!”
Meanwhile Courtney missed one rabbit. Meanwhile, Katelyn and I had switched spots, so I was now standing with Julie Abel and Katelyn was standing with Mr. Summers. We knew once the dogs pushed all the way through the thicket where all the rabbits where holing up, it was going to become a stampede of rabbits charging at Katelyn and me. Well it happened just like that! The scene was crazy because six rabbits came flying right through our feet. There was no real safe shot. All we could really do was stand there and look for a safe shot, but those rabbits were gone within a second. We just looked at each other with our eyes nearly popped out of our heads, and we laughed and talked about how amazing and crazy that was. Meanwhile, Kayla bagged more rabbits. She is such a great shot.
Within a few minutes. BANG! The shot came from Courtney’s direction. Curiosity was killing us wanting to know if she bagged the rabbit or not. A shriek echoed loud enough for us all to hear. We got our answer! Courtney was jumping up and down screaming in delight.  While walking over, we all yelled “GREAT JOB COURTNEY! WOOH GO COURTNEY!” This was a HUGE deal, because not only was this her first rabbit, but it was also her first kill ever with her new gun! We swarmed her with hugs, high-fives, and congratulations. After taking some pictures, we made our way back to our hunting spots.
A couple rabbits darted in front of me but, I had no shot. Katelyn also had some rabbits in front of her, but she had no shot. The pack was baying and howling their way closer to Katelyn and me.  I switched spots with her, putting her where the rabbit was going to cross any minute. The rabbit appeared, and it blended in with the brown grass which made it harder to see. Katelyn was struggling to see him for a few seconds. Then she recognized the rabbit’s outline in the tall brown grass, and she pulled the trigger; her shot splattered right behind him. Meanwhile, Kayla bagged yet another rabbit.
Mr. Spuchesi was calling out to the dogs “TALLY-HO, TALLY-HO!”
He was trying to get them to come to him and put them on another trail. He succeeded.
The pack was rolling. Courtney bagged another rabbit. Katelyn and I turned around facing a smaller briar patch and a hill. The dogs worked their way up the hill and were trying to find a trail. Once they did, they brought rabbits right at Katelyn and me. Katelyn was able to fire off a couple more shots. The dog ended up looping around and coming back and worked their way back up the hill. While they were trying to discover a hot rabbit trail, I took a shot on a rabbit and missed. Kayla finally limited out. The limit is six and she did it! That does not happen very often. She put her gun in the truck and broke out her food. She came over by me and sat on the ground watching.
Mr. Abel stood right behind me, being extra eyes. The dogs’ baying was getting closer and closer to the top of the hill.
“There’s one! Shoot! Shoot!” Mr. Abel said.
I put my gun up, took the shot and missed; the rabbit ran. Mr. Abel helped swing me around, so I could try to take another shot. I missed again.  The packed looped back around and worked back up the hill. Mr. Spuchesi was walking up the hill also trying to get the pack on another trail. After a few moments we could hear the pack getting closer again. Mr. Abel spotted another rabbit. It was a safe shot and I took it. I bagged the rabbit. Soon after, the dogs came rolling down the hill. After a while of trying to pick up another trail, we headed for another nearby spot.
 We all got stationed out in various locations and got ready. The dogs were hot on one. After a few moments we heard a shot come from Katelyn’s direction. The rabbit kept making the same loop over and over. The dogs stayed on him pretty good until, the rabbit finally went into a hole. We called it a day. On our way out, we saw a couple rabbits, but there was no safe shot on them. We headed for the trucks. Once we got to the trucks we removed layers of camo and laughing retold stories of our hunt.  Surely everyone slept well that night, especially the dogs. Thanks to Mr. Spuchesi for taking us all out, our mentors, and the dogs which did a phenomenally good job. A couple of the girls experienced their first rabbit hunt, we put dinner on the table, and we all were able to have fellowship with each other. Thank you so much!
This program is supported by the 2017 Virginia Wildlife Grant Program through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia.

NWTF has been a leader, not only in conservation, but also in exposing people to the joys of the outdoors and our tradition of hunting and shooting. The Women In The Outdoors program is one of the ways that NWTF has been successful. The Virginia coordinator for this group is Julie Abel. Miss Julie, as the younger women refer to her, has encouraged my daughter, KD, to start utilizing the young ladies in the King George Outdoor Club and form a Young Women In The Outdoors group.
KD held her first event December 2nd which was an informal fun shoot. She invited 12 young ladies over to learn how to shoot pistol and shotgun. We have a very rudimentary range that will allow basic shooting on our property and it served its purpose.
KD put up Shoot N C targets provided by Howard Communications and Birchwood Casey. These targets were used for their ease of seeing where shots were going. Each young lady was given personal one on one instruction on safety and shooting stance, hold of the handgun and then minor corrections and tuning up of the shooting was done by Mark Fike, Mr. Randall (one of our dad's to a young lady). Mr. Randall was an expert shot and once was on the Army pistol team. We also had some great assistance from Mrs. Cupka whose daughter Sam was attention. Mrs. Cupka is a former police officer and was great helping the young ladies get their shooting stance and maintaining safety first and foremost.
After the girls were hitting their targets with regularity, (and that did not take long for them to do), KD put up "bad guy targets" and the girls went to work taking out the bad guy. We have heard that some of the girls now have their target displayed on their walls at home!
The shotgun shooting was next and some instruction was again given before bright orange clays were hurled skyward. The girls were all able to give the shooting a try until they were satisfied they had shot enough. The day was cold and some venison soup was on tap to warm up moms and daughters. NWTF was the sponsor for this event and it went off without a hitch. Some mental notes were made to improvements/adjustments that will be taken care of for next time and the girls were encouraged to come back again when the weather is better for more events.
If you are interested in participating in the Young Women In The Outdoors, please contact KD at [email protected]

November 25th was a much better day weather wise than the previous year but the host and location were once again superb destinations for the youth of the King George Outdoor Club. Kinlock Farm owner, Bruce Lee, and huntmaster Mac McLennan, run a great hunt. As in previous years, the youth that were invited were young aspiring hunters that had not harvested a deer yet. We were able to take 10 youth down from our club.
Once at the farm, the youth were given a safety brief after being checked in and then a demonstration was given by a hunter on how to skin a buck and quarter it up. The youth and adults watched closely as the gentleman explained why he was making the cuts he was making. Next, a brief by Cameron Dobyns, a VDGIF Conservation Police Officer, was given. Officer Dobyns held the attention of the youth with his quiet but professional voice that he spoke to the youth with. He encouraged them to not only be safe but make ethical choices today AND in the future. As his presentation was winding down, he got a call about an incident not too far away and as they say, "Duty calls!"
Things began to get exciting as a shooting competition was held by Mac. He runs a welcoming but safe competition. The competition was pretty tight, but once the smoke cleared, the muzzleloader bullets and slugs had punched their targets, there were three winners. Madison Long of King George had fired her trustworthy CVA muzzleloader and punched a bullet into the edge of the bullseye. Second place went to Nathan Lanham who won a knife set, and third went to Gavin Graves, who was using a borrowed Mossberg 20 gauge slug gun. He won a trail camera package.
A feast had been prepared by Mac who had arrived at 0630 to set things up. There was a huge pan of venison BBQ, mac and cheese, hot dogs, chips and assorted snacks and deserts.
A brief was then held by Mac and Bruce to discuss club hunting rules and shot placement. A quick poll was taken to determine who needed close shots due to the firearm limitations. Then stands were handed out with Mac's number on slips of paper for the mentors to call when a deer was taken.
I was fortunate enough to be able to mentor CJ Conroy whose older sister is also in our outdoor club. CJ and I drew Bruce's stand which overlooked a beautiful oat plot. A few hundred yards away from us was Gavin Graves and his stepdad in a box blind and also within our area was Alina Puentes and her stepdad Mike. CJ and Alina had visited my range a few days prior and actually sighted in two CVA WOLF muzzleloaders I was able to purchase with a grant I received from VDGIF and through a special deal I worked out with muzzle-loaders.com. These rifles are simple to operate but tack drivers to 100 yards. These two rifles came custom fitted with a youth stock and a 3x9 scope thanks to muzzle-loaders.com. Because of the attention to detail that they made before shipping them (bore sighting and torquing down everything very well) Alina and CJ were punching the bulls within a half dozen shots. The shots were touching and an intense but friendly competition was going between the two youth. And that practice paid off.
CJ took his first game animal ever with an 80 yard shot at a big spike buck. Alina took the biggest deer of the hunt with a 5.5 year old 5 point buck. Gavin was able to harvest a spike buck and Mason Long and Austin Sanders   from our club also took deer.
The hard work of Bruce Lee, his club members, Mac McLennan and the youth paid off in a big way.
 The Northern Neck Chapter of VDHA, Hounds F4R Heroes, Bruce Lee and his club members, and Mac McLennan are to be commended for furthering our traditions in such a great way. A thank you also goes out to VDGIF’s CPO Cameron Dobyns and the VDGIF for their grant that allowed the King George Outdoor Club members to be able to have a firearm that fit them be available to use. The parents and mentors were key in supervision and an integral part of the hunt. Last, Muzzle-loaders.com is thanked for working out a great deal on the muzzleloaders and accessories. All of us remember our first deer that we harvested and the memories we still have of it.  Imagine how these young people felt that evening. With technology these days, photos of the deer were instantly shared with friends and family all over the country. Let’s hope the fire started turns into a roaring desire to hunt for the rest of their lives.

As the sun climbed into the eastern sky, its reflection creeping over the calm waters of the Rappahannock River near Tappahannock, Virginia, a caravan of biologists, technicians and volunteers led by VDGIF’s Ben Lewis and Dr. Gary Costanzo, convoyed out of a parking lot and onto Rt. 17 to head to the first of seven locations that the crew would visit in an effort to band resident Canada geese.
Lewis and Costanzo, VDGIF’s waterfowl biologists, along with district biologists from around the state, lead an annual effort to band roughly 1% of the state’s resident goose population, which is approximately 150,000 birds. This effort includes locating, capturing, banding and recording data from the bands of Canada geese throughout Virginia. Biologists keep track of the number of geese they capture at each site, the number of recaptures (geese that had been tagged previously), the number of adults or juveniles (which indicates the reproductive rates for this year’s population and they notate the band numbers.
If the geese are harvested by hunters, the numbers on the bands should be entered by hunters at the USGS www.reportbands.gov website and a location notated allowing biologists to keep a pulse on the non-migratory population of the geese here in Virginia. Sometimes, geese are recaptured and biologists keep track of those geese too. So, how do the biologists capture the geese?
Because the geese molt during the early summer, they don’t fly or at least they don’t fly very well. Geese are very gregarious animals meaning they tend to stick with other geese and some of the geese have young and won’t leave their young. Because of these behaviors and timing of the molt, the biologists were able to use net panels to herd and capture the geese before beginning their banding and data collection.
The work is not always a clean job. Some of the geese are wet from swimming in a lake or pond. Some get frightened and excrete their waste or poop on those handling them. A few geese get showy and display their size, wings and feathers to try to intimidate the handlers, and a few will sometimes peck. The volunteers watched the biologists show them how to handle the big birds safely and were soon getting their own experiences holding and handling the geese. An assembly line formed with two people in the “makeshift pen” catching the geese and handing them out to others. Those workers held the geese and allowed banders to place aluminum bands on the legs of the geese. The bands had unique numbers on them for future data collection. Next, the handlers took the geese to biologists who checked the sex of the bird. The sex of the bird, age, and band number was called out to a technician who recorded the data. Then the bird was released unharmed. Most of the birds immediately ran back to the nearby water to rejoin their flock.
Then the whole team broke down the holding pen, gathered the gear, loaded it back into the truck convoy before loading up themselves and headed to the next destination. In addition to biologists and technicians from VDGIF, Lauren Cruz from USFWS at Rappahannock River NWR assisted as well as a handful of other volunteers including a small cadre of youth from the King George Outdoor Club. The youth from the King George Outdoor Club came to learn more about waterfowl, careers in wildlife biology and wildlife management. They did a nice job and worked well all day long. Their day started at 6 AM with their journey to Tappahannock and the last youth got home at nearly 8 PM that evening. However, none of them wanted to stop the work. Their club leader, Mark Fike, was asked several times if they could go to one more location to band more geese.
While many of us are thinking about swimming in a pool or lake in the hot summer, biologists are still thinking waterfowl management. The work that biologists with VDGIF do to manage waterfowl populations continues even in the off season. This annual goose banding event is just one example of such work.

The weather people promised two things on Saturday and those included the rain holding off until at least the afternoon or evening and they promised it would be hot and muggy. Five young women along with some moms can attest that the rain did hold off and later in the morning the temperatures did start to become hot and humid.
By then the fun was had. Shotgun blasts reverberated across the rolling hills of an old Civil War plantation as the women tracked and smashed bright orange clays flying in all different directions in the sky. Julie Abel, Women in the Outdoors Coordinator for NWTF in Virginia, arranged a young women's and mothers clay shoot at Rose Hill Game Preserve just outside of Culpeper for the morning.
Julie seeks to bring young women into the hunting tradition at a younger age than adult so that they will have time to hone their skills and take them with them into adulthood when they will begin their own families. Abel is passionate about passing on these skills and she lights up when the girls are successful and enjoy the outdoors.
The girls all took turns as the young man running the electronic throwers sent them flying as requested. There were eight throwers sending the blaze orange disks angling towards, away, overhead, across and even a low crossing shot. While most five stand events run in a predicted order and through sequential stations, these ladies were there to have fun, hone their skills and enjoy themselves. They called for throwers that they wanted to try as their turn came. It was a relaxing and no pressure kind of fun event for them.
One of the young ladies took the time to teach her mother how to load, set up her stance and when to pull the trigger. On the first shot her mom connected, breaking the clay in half! The small crowd cheered as Miss Lisa smiled. I overheard her saying to another mom how nice it was to have her own daughter teach her how to do something that she enjoyed doing.
The women shot 25 clays before lunch and then talked for a bit as they broke down their set up. Julie Abel brought wraps, pasta and water for lunch which the women dug into between rounds. She also spoke to the girls about her vision to create a young women's group under Women in the Outdoors and she encouraged them to let her know when they wanted to do things and to also let her know what types of activities they were interested in. They were also told to invite other young women to come try the outdoors.
It appears the women had a lot of fun and enjoyed a girls' day out. Events like these are great ways to enjoy the outdoors. Thanks to Julie Abel and NWTF these ladies did have a great time.
We would also like to thank Rose Hill for hosting the event and Big Dog Outfitters in King George County for always supporting the King George Outdoor Club and now this ladies event too. Big Dog has been very helpful in supplying ammunition for the new and young shooters to use.

The King George Outdoor Club did a little fishing on Friday night and then met up again for some shooting on Saturday at a private farm in King George. We want to thank the following people for supporting the events:
The landowner and our conservation police officers for facilitating this event.
Big Dog Outfitters in King George for supplying the ammunition and always helping our youth out
Catfish Kelly's Country Store in Ferry Farm for helping us out with bait
Wal Mart at Ferry Farm for supplying fishing supplies, bug spray, and water.

Friday night was our fishing event. The fishing was not red hot by any means even though the temps were closing in on that. The kids stuck with it and some nice fish were caught. Three really nice bass measuring between 17-19 inches were caught. A few huge panfish were also taken. For some of the youth, these were first fish of their lives. What a great memory to catch a nice fish for  your first!
On Saturday we met again to do some clay shooting and for the younger youth, a .22 practice session. The kids had a blast before it got hot. Thanks to Mike Woods for coming out to  help supervise. Woods is  a  Hunter Education  Instructor and a  World  History  I  teacher at KGMS.  He is also one of the Outdoor Club  Leaders. Thanks also to my daughters KD and Kristy for helping out.  
The youth did well shooting. Check out the photos!