May | 2013 | SoCalHunt

Archive for May, 2013

Free Hunter Education Class Set for San Jacinto Wildlife Area Saturday, June 1st

Published May 22, 2013 Announcements Closed

San Jacinto Wildlife Area is holding its annual Hunter Education Class on Saturday,

June 1^st 2013. Students are to assemble at 6:30 am; class begins at 7 am, at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area Headquarters office on Davis Road, in Lakeview / Nuevo, Riverside County.

Check out the attached flyer below for details (click for a full sized image)

An Off Season Visit To San Jacinto

Published May 15, 2013 General Closed

Seeing as it has been since the last Wednesday of duck season, in fact, when SoCalHunt visited San Jacinto Wildlife Area we decided to head out there for a quick look around and photo session.

In a nutshell the place looks nice. I have to give kudos to the group who participated in the volunteer blind clean up day back on March 9^th. The several blinds we looked in were completely trash free! There was not a lot of water in the refuge ponds but, of course, its not that time of year anyway. The two lower Walker ponds and the upper “F” pond, along with Pond 1 looked about full and most of the other ponds were completely dry or nearly so. We walked across the dry pond from B4 to B2, which would normally be a waist to chest high wade. Several pictures were taken (check below, click for a full sized image).

One highlight of the day was just missing what could have been one of the top pictures of my life. We were walking up the dike between “B” and “C” ponds and a bunch of doves took off out of the trees there. I looked over at the tree the doves had just vacated and there was some type of dove-sized songbird still sitting on a branch about 20 feet away from me. I was just about to raise the camera to get a picture of that bird when a hawk swooped down and grabbed the bird right out of the tree. If the hawk had waited 5 seconds it would have been a great picture, but at least I have the memory. Also, it looked like there was a pretty good fire over the hill at Perris Lake. I was a little concerned that it might grow big enough to come over the hill and do damage to the refuge. Fortunately there was little or no wind and it took about an hour and a half for the firefighters working it to extinguish the flames.

Anyway, it was nice to get out on good old SJ again. Here’s a few pictures for your enjoyment…

Mallards at Pond 1…