March is a good transitional month for outdoors people. Fishing is just starting to pick up a little bit on warmer strings of days, but it is not yet consistent. Hunting is all but done until Spring Gobbler season. There are squirrel and rabbit seasons open through the end of the month.
However, an investment of your time and effort now to put up some bird houses or duck boxes will not only provide some birds a home and place to raise a few broods, but you will be helping conservation in the process. As a bonus you can enjoy the fruits of your labor by watching the birds feed their young and seeing them fledge.
One of the most popular bird boxes to build is a bluebird box. Two bluebird boxes can be made from a single 1x12x8 piece of pine shelving which can generally be had for less than $25. Some time with a saw, tape measure, drill and a handful of screws and maybe some paint will be all that is needed.
Last year I put up a bluebird box outside of our sliding glass door and we watched three families or broods of bluebirds result from that one box. We learned a lot about bluebirds in the process too. These birds will tolerate some human activity if the house is mounted high enough or far enough away to give them some measure of safety. I put our box up on a piece of electrical conduit that I was able to sink into the ground. Take care to put your box out of reach of any cats. Years ago I did not consider that and noticed the cat perched on the top of the box one day waiting for a parent to arrive.
When placing your box, place it in a sunny location and face it east if possible to keep our north and western winds from whistling into it so much. Shady areas are not that great for bluebirds. Areas with grass under them are good for bugging.
You can put some grass, straw or hay in the box but let the parents finish off the nesting chore. Be sure you score the inside face of the board with the entrance hole. This gives the young birds a foot hold to climb out. Resist putting pegs or nails near the entrance holes. This is not a good idea as other birds may perch there to harass the bluebirds.
Bluebirds have several broods and the young from earlier broods will sometimes assist the parents with care taking duties for the second or third brood. Don’t put bluebird boxes too close together. They like their own space. It is very entertaining and even soothing to watch the birds grow up and fledge right off your porch.
Another good project is a wood duck box. Wood ducks love marshy and swampy waters with standing timber, but often standing timber with holes in it that wood ducks would use for nesting is also easy access for raccoons to steal the eggs or eat the young. A wood duck box is not hard to make. There are plans for both wood duck boxes and bluebird boxes online.
When making a wood duck box, be sure to put a hinged side door for cleaning it out each winter so that the female duck has a fresh start. Pine shavings are great as are cedar shavings. Paint the box a drab color and follow the plans closely so you get the hole size correct. Again, no peg or perch is needed. If the hen needs a perch she will find a nearby tree or simply stand on top of the box.
Do a search online of baby wood ducks and watch as they jump out of a nest box into the water. The videos alone will spur you to make a wood duck box! Wood ducks are probably the most gorgeous ducks around here. They perch and roost in trees unlike other ducks and they are acrobatic fliers.
February is an excellent month to do a small project with big dividends for wildlife. A small investment in time and a little cash at your local hardware or lumber yard will result in something to watch this spring and summer. If you have kids, get them involved. The past few years the King George Outdoor Club has put together bluebird boxes and wood duck boxes courtesy of a donation for the James Madison Garden Club in King George. Kids like hands on activities and this one is simple enough but interesting enough to forget about COVID and other distractions while enjoying yourself.
bluebird box plans
wood duck box plans

Mark Fike
Farmers have a tough lot when it comes to making a living. They have to deal with rain, drought, seed prices, market prices for crops and fight to avoid disease. Simply put, the costs of farming often outweigh the profit unless the farmer is savvy and efficient. In this vein of thought, the equipment farmers have had available to them in the recent years has been very efficient at not only harvesting crops but also grinding up the stubble and stems that remained of the parts of the plants that hunters used to brush or camo their blinds when hunting in fields after the harvest.
We noticed this when we went to gather material to brush our blinds for the goose season the past few years. The farmer that worked the fields we hunted was using a much newer piece of equipment and method to harvest and prepare the field for the coming spring. Unlike years past, there was no bean stubble or corn husks laying in the field. That left us scrambling to figure out how in the world we were going to camo our layout blinds. Powder and random small pieces of plant material were all that was left plus some nice green cover crop of some sort that looked like a grass but was only a few inches in length.
The procedure we used to follow each fall included finding material such as stems or empty corn stalks and husks from the field we were going to hunt and inserting them into elastic straps on the blind to make it blend into the field and become part of it. This was a time consuming process and often worked well but with some drawbacks.
First, if we hunted a corn field but later wanted to go hunt a bean field, we had to strip out the corn stubble and change it to bean stubble and possibly change it back. Second, the material was heavy, especially if it got wet. Third, it regularly fell out and needed dressing up. Last, it could get moldy and for those with allergies, that can be a big problem to lay in a pile of moldy material and not have an allergy or asthmatic event.
So, in my search for a solution, I found a company called Arcturus online https://arcturusgear.com/. They specialize in camo and particularly Ghillie suits. However, they make accessories to include the threads that people can make Ghillie suits with.  These synthetic thread bundles come in 9 colors. The thread is lightweight, fire retardant, waterproof so it should not rot or mold. The colors are bundled in half pound packages and are 18 inches long.
We found the dry grass color which includes some olive drab in it, matches very well with local farm fields and looks to be a great fit for field goose hunts. No more allergies and the whole blind weighs half what it did before! It does not smell and can be washed although I doubt I will wash mine beyond a spray down if the blind gets too muddy.
When we got the thread bundles, we found that two knots were effective at making our blind disappear. For the sides an overhand knot which allows the thread to hang down and overlap the row of elastic strips below it worked well.
On the tops or for areas that lay flat, a simple granny knot or basic knot worked well because it left threads hanging in two directions to cover our blind.
To use the thread, we pulled 10-15 threads in a tiny bundle and tied them as a group. To do one layout blind we took a few hours and 8 bundles of thread. But we could have went much faster.
A benefit to the Arcturus thread is that we should not have to redo our blind for years unlike the corn or soybean husks which needed done pretty much each year. No more scrambling to fix our blinds each fall!
So far the product Arcturus makes appears to be top notch. I like how it is lightweight, blends well and has a 3 D appearance. You can find them online to purchase some of their thread or other products for your blinds or hunting apparel. Keep in mind that you can add other material to your blind to really blend it in addition to the Arcturus thread. I think for archery season their products will be a big plus to have too!

Fishing this month has been pretty good despite the rains we have been getting.
Rappahannock River--smallmouth bass are reportedly hitting fairly well upstream of Frederickburg. Fish the edges or seams of current as the fish are in the summer pattern. Redbreast sunfish are hitting beetle spins and live bait in eddies, along log jams and other structure in those same areas.
Further downriver, some anglers are catching snakeheads. Bass anglers are reportedly getting into decent fish on blowdowns with plastics and spinnerbaits. The shad are pretty much done. Some striper are being caught (and hopefully released). Catfish are in the spawning mode but can be caught as evident by the picture above. Jaylen and Nate caught a decent stringer in King George this week.
Potomac River--bass are reportedly hitting on the edge of the vegetation on lipless cranks and other cranks. Flip finesse worms in the pockets. Topwater works early and late as it will most of the summer. Weedless frogs are a good starting point. Try the creeks for the best action.
Further downriver there are no reports of croaker yet. That is sad. Ten years ago we were thick with croaker by June. There are some smaller striper being caught well downriver. Catfish are all the way to the mouth of the river!
Lake Anna reports show crappie have gone deep. Some nice bass are being caught on points with jigs and plastics. Striper are early and late on live bait and some hybrids are also in the mix. Use a cast net to catch your own shad for bait if you are able. They work better than minnows.
Ponds are giving up crappie, bass and nice bream right now. Some ponds are seeing bream coming off the beds while some are still on the beds.

My daughter has started her own breeding business for Labrador Retrievers that are especially suited for hunting purposes and companion animals. She got her first dog from Liberty pups (www.liberty-pups.com) in Stafford, Virginia after doing a LOT of research. We were VERY pleased with the dog which Kristy has founded her own kennel on. We found Rebekah Moss to be  honest, down to earth and  helpful. Despite knowing that Kristy would be trying to start her own breeding business, Rebekah has been nothing but helpful and kind to her. That is how Rebekah is; she treats people decently and she also loves and treats her dogs extremely well too. Her  business model  is quality dogs over quantity of dogs.  That said, I have some news for any readers looking for a potential hunting dog or companion  animal.

She  has a 1 yr old chocolate female for sale, her name is Oakley.  She has the sweetest personality and melts your heart, she just needs a great home and little extra TLC.  She has her AKC papers and all shot records.  She's been spayed, and is crate trained and knows the basics but possibly could use a little attention to fine tune her obedience. The dog is already spayed and ready to go to a good home.  Please contact Rebekah  for the pedigree and details. This is your chance to own a dog that has done through the basics and just needs a little bit of  TLC and a few short training sessions to get her where you want her. Awesome looking lab!   www.liberty-pups.com 



Rebekah is also expecting a few litters next month. Check out her site for the details. Here is a pic of the dog she has for sale.

Deer hunting season ended on a bit of a whimper for those of us on the Northern Neck. Some hunters have done OK but the vast majority of the ones I have spoken to report slim pickings this season both for meat and for antlers. This is particularly true after the rut started in mid November. We are waiting on the official numbers of deer killed to comment further. My comments above are based on anecdotal info from speaking with a number of hunters in our area.
Duck season is another sore subject. My personal experience to include going back through photos of trips from 20 years ago show that the duck numbers for the immediate King George area seem to be on a serious decline. This is particularly true of the past few years. I hunt on a tributary off the Potomac River. 20 years ago the ruddy duck, bufflehead and bluebill numbers were sky high and we never bothered to shoot them unless our puddle duck hunt was lackluster. Seeing mergansers was a regular and almost annoying event. The past few years seeing a merganser near my blind has been something to look forward to. I don't see many of the other ducks and rarely see any puddle ducks. Not sure what has  happened but it is sad time to take up waterfowl hunting for the first time. It can be discouraging. I hope scientists can find out what is going on and we can reverse this trend.
Goose numbers are also down and if you have not heard, the hatch in spring of 2018 was really poor. That means that goose bag limits for next year will be 1 bird per day per person. Mallard bag limits will be cut in half too.
We did get into some geese yesterday in a field locally but our communication was not what it should have been so instead of some geese staying with us for a ride home, most got to continue on their way.

Katelyn Spuchesi was in a ground blind with her father when her buck came into view. At first she was not going to shoot but then decided after looking him over in the scope that he needed to go home with her. She made it happen with one shot! What a great buck!