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may

In this issue:

from our President... Well, “sh*t happens” is the old saying. When Blaine called Fred Thurston to confirm that all was set for our clinic at his farm Saturday, it was an “oh sh*t” moment for both Blaine and Fred! The early spring had Fred getting his fields ready for the Wounded Warrior Hunt he will be hosting in the fall. He had just finished rototilling all the fields when Blaine called. He felt very bad and apolo-gized over and over. Being a “not your normal,” chapter we went into damage control quickly. Nancy told me to breathe deeply, Dick called the state, Dick mowed the parking lot, Jason contacted bird delivery, Cindy canceled one toilet and ordered another, Chip put a sign up at Fred’s, Mark Levasseur sent an alert to our website, Judie sent a flier to the membership and called those not receiving email and me, I just ran in circles!! You guys are all the best!!! The clinic went extremely well. Bill and Cindy had registration, Blaine organized the training groups, Bob and Debbie kept a continuous flow of UT dogs to the fields. Matt and his gunners were professional and helpful; Casey and Chip brought their ATVs to speed up the work. The remedial work groups helped handlers deal with issues prior to going to the bird field. At the end of a very long day there were many positive compliments and lots of awesome dog work so early in the season. I personally want to express a huge thanks, respect and admiration to Jason Carter who planted every UT bird and coached every handler throughout the day. Thank you to Terry Wilson and Jason Wade for suggesting we use all chukar at the early events. They were great fun for the gunners too. I think around 20 chapter members attended the Ruffed Grouse Society banquet in Augusta recently. It was great to see many bird hunters and NAVHDA friends supporting this event. Terry and Nancy even traveled from VT to join us all at our two re-served, “not your normal” tables. Randy and Chris Schon won the $500.00 Ugly Dog shopping spree. The next event on the docket is the Vermont Clinic hosted by Ugly Dog. It is a guaranteed good time. Nancy reports clinic is FULL and she and Terry are gearing up (it’s more like bracing themselves) for a wild and crazy weekend full of dogs of all shapes and sizes. Matt reports committee is working hard to make sure everything is perfect for the Veterans Hunt on September 22. The Yankee Chapter’s responsibility is to show what a great conservation tool a NAVHDA trained hunting dog can be. Scott Cataldi has many groups and companies donating time and dollars for this wonderful event. Stay posted for more….. Our Spring Test still has a few openings if you are considering running. Please send your entry to Margo if you’d like to test this spring. More details on our website.

Check out the latest Photo Gallery pictures from the Spring events.

See you in Vermont or Dresden and good luck getting your turkey. -- Patti

...not your normal chapterwww.yankeenavhda.org

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!Brett Roberts from Chesterville, MEAndy Samara from Hinesburg, VT Josh Swan from Hollis Center, MEDavid Hamel from Brunswick, ME

Photos from the Maine Sportsman’s Show, April clinic, and more! Upcoming clinic info, “Birds are Where the Dogs Find Them,” nifty things to do with coffee filters (!), member news and more!

Springtime is puppy time!

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member news and photos

2012 YANKEE CHAPTER GUN RAFFLE

Tickets are on sale now for the 28-gauge Fausti side-by-side donated by Terry Wilson. This super light gun has an English stock, 28” barrel, and full set of choke tubes. It’s built on a true 28-gauge frame and retails for $2000. 150 tickets will be sold at $20 per ticket. For tickets or more informa-tion contact Patti Carter: mmkennels@myfairpoint.net

THANK YOU to the following

contributors to the Kenny King / Bob Bisson Fund:

Casey MatthewsMartin & Sarah Brady

Congratulations: For her outstanding season, Sarah Wade has been named the Morning Sentinel Girls Nordic Skier of the Year.

Award winning painter and sculpter David Footer has given the chapter two of his beautiful fish prints. We will be auctioning one off at each of our tests. THANK YOU David for your generosity!

Congratulations to Betty Blackman and Patti Carter who both won ribbons for their artwork at the Maine Sports-man Show. Patti took second place in acrylics with “LLB” showing a pair of high-top Bean boots. Betty Blackman took 3rd with a face-shot photo of her setter Fly with a butterfly on her nose, entitled, naturally, “Fly and Butterfly.” Betty’s work was also accepted to the juried Maine Photography Show in Boothbay, running April 14 - May 4.

Merrymeeting’s Tiza sent this photo and wrote, “I couldn’t go to the show but I want you to know I would’ve kicked butt in the CHEETO CHAL-LENGE, and I placed first out of these five other competitors. You can see here my opponents are exhausted.”

TREASURER’S REPORT:

The Chapter made $70 when David Kuritzky was highest bidder on a Sport-dog e-collar auction off at our April clinic. Many thanks to Jim Hynson who donated the collar. Thank you’s also to Patti Carter who donated some Lilac bushes that were auctioned off for $25. Our regular raffle brought in $118. -- Cindy Tracy

Equipment updates: The Chapter pur-chased four orange fanny packs for the chapter gunners to use at clinics and tests. Nick Racioppi is looking into monogram-ming for us. We will keep these stored in the trailer for “safe keeping”. Raymond Dyer has purchased a spare tire for the trailer for 50.00. Thank you, Ray!

Be a Proud Yankee!Don’t forget to buy your Yankee Chap-ter pins and license holders! Available at all Yankee clinics and tests. Pins $6 License Holders $1

The chapter received the following three applicants for the Kenny King Bob Bisson Scholarship to the Bryant Pond 4H Camp and Learning Center. We extend a huge congrats to Ella, Katarina and Miqueias, as they are Yankee Chapter’s 2012 scholar-ship recipients! We look forward to seeing you at chapter events this training season and hear about your outdoor adventures. Dear NAVHDA, I have been to a camp at Bryant Pond last year and I really enjoyed it. So I would really like to go and learn how the other camps work. I like to hike and explore the facts about nature and become better in the outdoors. I can’t wait to build a camp-site out in the wilderness. I’m so excited to go to summer camp! -- Ella Carter

Dear NAVHDA My sister went to camp last year and when she came home she bragged about how much she learned and how I would like to go. Thank you. -- Miqueias Biasuz

Dear NAVHDA Last year I went to camp. They taught me how to do Fox Walk and how to build a fire. I learned a lot and would like to go again. Thank you and bye -- Katarina Biasuz

Kris Anderson sent in this terrific update on his son Max who is finishing his Junior year at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia. He was just promoted to Platoon Sargent, NCO officer rank, and can now lead his platoon with a saber. Pretty cool. He is on the Varsity Swim Team and was able to qualify for the Eastern Zone Championships and finished well. Max also competed with 50 other guys for one of 5 open slots on the Rifle Team. He not only won one of the slots, he went on to shoot the top score in the Virginia State Championships.

TheYankee Chapter made a strong showing at the Ruffed Grouse Soci-ety’s Burton Spiller Chapter’s annual banquet in Augusta. Prez Patti Carter made sure our tables were clearly marked with a “Not Your Normal”place card.

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Vermont Training Clinic -- May 5, Hinesburg, VTSaturday, May 5th, Terry Wilson and Nancy Anisfield will host a training clinic in Hinesburg, VT. This clinic introduces local folks to NAVHDA and gives them access to training expertise unavailable in the area. Blaine and Patti Carter will lead the clinic with the help of outstanding Yankee Chapter volunteers. There’s no charge for attending, just for the birds. The clinic is open to non-NAVHDA members, and to retrievers/flushers as well as pointing dogs. Space is limited to 30 dogs. To find out if space is still available, get directions or ask questions, email Nancy at anisfield@gmavt.net.

Training Clinic May 19, Dresden, MEOur next Maine training clinic will be held on Saturday, May 19th at the Green Point Wildlife Management Area, Dresden, ME.

The clinic will start at 9 am. At noon, a BBQ lunch will be served. We’d really appreciate it if you could bring a side dish, salad or dessert to donate.

We’ll have signs showing where to “air” out your dog. Please keep him or her on a leash when it’s not your time in the field or water.

RAFFLE! We’ll be holding another great lunchtime raffle and welcome any and all donations. Anything goes! As a reminder, raffle funds are used to offset clinic costs, i.e. shotgun shells, port-a-potties, training equipment, etc. Thank you for your con-tinued generosity and dedication to our Yankee Chapter “family.”

Reminders: The May training clinic in Dresden is a popular event. While we do our best to estimate the number of birds needed, sometimes the crowd exceeds our expectations. Be sure to get there before 9:00, and sign up for your birds as soon as you arrive.

The Yankee clinics are planned to give everyone and their dogs a variety of training opportunities. When it’s not your turn in the field or at the water, it’s easy to find something else for you and your dog to do: practice heeling and stay on the place boards, alone and with other dogs as distractions. Find a partner and do retrieving drills. Ask to walk along with other dogs in the field to pick up tips and field strategies. Offer to be a “gallery” for dogs practicing tracks and drags. And don’t forget to chip in to help our hard-working lunch crew!

BIRD PRICES Bird prices for the Dresden clnics are as follows: Quail $ 8 Chukar $10 Pheasant $14 Duck $14 There will be a limit of two quail and one chukar per dog.

May Training Clinics

Directions to Dresden train-ing grounds:Here are directions to the Green Point Wildlife Management Area:

Take I-295 to Exit 43. Go east on Route 197 through Richmond. Turn right onto Route 128. Go 1 mile. Grounds are on the right side.Watch for signs.

More information about our training sites is available on our website: www.yankeenavhda.org.

TRAINING TIP QUESTION: What is this handler doing right that is very important but many people forget to do?

Answer on page 6.

Sebasticook ChapterHANDLER’S CLINIC

July 14 - 15, 2012Space is still available!

Contact Peter Wade:207-778-4868

uplandhunter@myfairpoint.net

Update: September 22nd Veterans Hunt Scott Cataldi has made some incredible contacts and received some great donations. Scott, Nick Racioppi, Chip Amergian, David Trahan, Casey Matthews,and myself went and checked out the property that Scott has permission to hold the event on. It is a beautiful piece of land and will be a great place to hold such an event. We also went and met one of the owners of the property. Scott has done such an awesome job of taking care of the big things, that we basically just have to show up and let the dogs do the work! He has food, ammo, shelter, water, fire and rescue, and Veterans. We still have some plans going on but it’s getting there! -- Matt Lorello

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Spring Training Clinic -- April 21st, Dresden, MaineAfter a last minute switch from Fred Thurston’s farm in New Gloucester to the Green Point Wildlife Management Area in Dresden, everything went smoothly. Some of the fields at Fred’s farm had just been tilled, and even though he generously offered to let us use the lower fields, the logistics of moving dogs, vehicles and equipment made the switch to Dresden more practical. Director of Grounds, Dick Dilley, brush hogged the parking area and edges, so conditions there were per-fect. And there was no rain, snow, tornados or earthquakes. The afternoon sunshine was the best surprise.

We had an excellent turnout, signed up two new members, and finished the last UT dog at 6PM. Our volunteer crew is the best! Jason Carter did a terrific job overseeing the UT training, working with each dog and handler from early morning to late in the afternoon. Blaine Carter and Dick Dilley put the NA dogs through their paces while Casey Mattews and Tom Barks ran a variety of retrieving drills that kept handlers and dogs busy throughout the day. Matt Lorello’s gunning teams were, according to one report, “very helpful and deadly too.” It was great to see all the dogs off to a strong start for the 2012 training season!

Photos by Patti Carterand Nancy Anisfield

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CRANKY YANKEESThis column offers advice by Nick Racioppi and Jason Carter about Maine’s hunting laws and regulations. The Cranky Yankee’s are not lawyers. They give their best interpretation of often complex laws. Is there a hunting regulation you don’t understand? A situation in the field you weren’t sure how to handle? Send the Cranky Yankees an email and let them look into it for you Jason: jcarter@rsu1.org Nick: feathersfins@comcast.net

Wildlife Goodies...

Judie Bayles captured this great photo of a dovelet she estimated was about 8-9 days old on April 3rd.

CORRECTION: Apologies to Mark Levasseur whose photo of woodcock eggs was incorrectly credited in the April newsletter. Sorry, Mark!

Nancy Anisfield caught this shot of a hooded merganzer in the pond behind their house April 12th.

Jason Carter’s Phys. Ed. class will be doing a wood duck box project next winter. He reports: “I met with the biologist and I’m excited to report that he gave us the go ahead to take some wood duck boxes. Next winter we can place the boxes up when there’s enough ice. This spring we can mark trees that are suitable and look to see if each is a good location based on food, water and protection from predators. This is something they can’t offer others, but due to all the work of the Yankee Chapter of NAVHDA this winter, it was their way of saying thank you for our support. Very Cool!”

David Kuritzky took this cool photo of a snake chowing down on a frog on April 14th. It was the first Hudson Val-ley NAVHDA training day at Stewart forest. “We are not the only ones who like frog legs,” says Dave.

Questions were posed to the Cranky Yankees about blood tracking rules and regs. Do I need a license? What does it cost? What are the state’s requirements? Our intrepid researchers found this info:

Leashed Dog Tracking License A license is available which allows the tracking of wounded deer, moose, and bear with dogs. The fee for this license is $27 per year. The fee for a 3-year license is $81. A person who holds a valid license may charge a fee for dog tracking services without having to hold a guides license as long as that is the only service provided. Contact the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for details. If you are a current Maine Hunting Guide, complete the application, including your hunting license # and your guide license # and submit with a check for $81.00. No testing is required. If you are not a current Maine Hunting Guide you must complete the applica-tion and submit a $27.00 non-refundable application fee. Possession of a current hunting license is required to apply. You will receive a letter of acknowledging receipt of your application and fee and instructions to schedule for the written exam. All written exams are held once a month at the Augusta National Guard Armory. Upon completion of the written exam, you will be notified in writing of the results. You will need a passing score of 80% before you can purchase your license. The license fee is $81.00 for a 3-year license. In case of a failed score, you will also be notified that you will need to retake the written exam.

Conditions: Leashed Tracking Dog License (1) A person who has wounded or killed, or reasonably believes he or she has wounded or killed a deer, moose or bear during any applicable open season on that animal may engage a licensee to track and recover the animal. That person must, unless physically incapacitated, accompany the licensee when tracking the animal. If that person is physically incapacitated, the licensee may track and dispatch the animal if the licensee is in possession of a written signed statement from that person listing: (a) the date; (b) the hunter’s name, address, telephone number and big game license number, and (c) a certification that that person has engaged the licensee to track the animal that that person has wounded or killed, and that they are unable to accompany the licensee because of physical inca-pacitation. (6)The licensee must maintain physical control of the leashed tracking dog(s) at all times while conducting activities pursuant to such license by means of a lead attached to the dog’s collar or harness. This lead must be at least twelve (12) feet in length.

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Birds Are Where Dogs Find Themby Paul von Hardenberg

Have you ever seen a dog go on point and someone say “There’s no bird there,” then a bird is produced? After a hunt, have you ever returned to your vehicle, un-loaded your gun, then have your dog go on point? Birds just aren’t supposed to be there – but, your dog says they are there. The grouse hunter’s statement is often ‘Birds are where you find them.’ But, we should add, ‘Birds are where dogs find them.’ Sometime back I was hunting with Tucker for pheasants along the edge cover of a large field. Suddenly Tucker ran out into the field, which had low cut grass like a lawn, and then slammed into a point. My immediate thought was ‘What’s going on – I can see that there’s no bird in sight.’ I dutifully walked out to Tucker and saw him looking at the ‘lawn’ in front of him. Then a pheasant burst up from out of nowhere! That bird was unbelievably hunkered down and hidden. A few years later Joan and I were hunting pheasants with Dusty. The grass was high; Dusty stopped on a point in front of some matted down grass. Joan got the camera ready for action. I moved up in front of Dusty with gun ready, but no bird. I expanded my search. After several minutes I went to Dusty and saw his eyes focused immediately in front of him, but the grass was flat and no bird was to be seen. Dusty took one step forward and crouched on his stomach, put his nose down into the grass and then looked up at me with an expression that read like ‘Bird down there.’ Still confused, I opened the gun, laid it on the ground and started pawing through the matted grass. To my surprise I found the back of a large rooster, which had somehow buried itself completely. This year I did a couple of quail hunts with my son and grandson. Last February it was cold; birds were being put into the rear of my hunting coat, and then taken out. We thought we had gotten 18 birds until we came home to clean them. Dusty per-sistently got his head into my hunting coat finally coming out with another ‘missed quail.’ Glad I didn’t put that coat away for the season! Lastly, we did another quail hunt in March and it was very hot (82 deg-F.). Dusty was in the ponds regularly. One time I tried to call him back to the field, but he re-mained at the shore. I got closer and found him pointing a quail, which was sitting on a log in the pond! The moral to the story is what we hear all the time – ‘Trust your dog – the nose knows.’

Another body parts shot, no head! Identify this mys-tery canine: The first person to figure out who the featured canine is wins a Yankee Chapter pin. Email your best guess to anisfield@gmavt.net.

We had another winning tie last month when Ron Budesheim and Carol Trahan sent in simultaneous emails identifying the proud belly of Patti Carter’s Tiza.

NAME DAT DAWG! Answer to the training tip question on page 3: The handler is looking at the dog when she tosses the chukar. Too often, we get distracted by the bird flushing or by our throwing the bird in the air and forget to concentrate on the dog. That can result in missing the opportunity to make a correction the instant it’s needed.

Did you know...

Canes Venatici ( /ˈkeɪniːz vɨˈnætɨsaɪ/) is one of the 88 official modern constellations. It is a small northern constellation that was created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Its name is Latin for “hunting dogs,” and the constellation is often depicted in illustrations as representing the dogs of Boötes the Herdsman, a neighboring constellation.

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Bubba Day Seminar: Eider Study (Somateria molissima dresseri) by Brad Allen, Notes by Remillie Norsworthy

Second on the docket of Bubba Day 2012 came Maine DIF&W’s biologist Brad (“Big Bird”) Allen, whose re-search specialties include woodcock and common eider ducks. He reported on his recent completion of a 10-year study focused on eider hen survival of our country’s largest sea ducks AND added more than a touch of culture to the day by punctuating his talk with slides of paintings by many famous artists showing eiders and their habitat. Brad and his crew have banded 12,000 eiders. Banded hens have had nearly 90% annual survival since the 90’s; males return at about 84%--good evidence that hunting pressure is not a major factor in population reduction. Satellite transmitters are also be-ing sparingly used (at cost of $4000 per bird!) to track wintering habit—3 of 4 birds wintered in Massachusetts, while the 4th stayed in Stonington, Maine.

Some population history: Brad started by stating that as a result of long-term study, daily bag limits of eiders have had to be adjusted from 7 to 5 and now 4 birds, while the season remains very long. His data show that current hunting pres-sure isn’t really harming the ADULT population, but it is a major factor we can control. The next phase of Brad’s work will be to attempt to study and improve duckling survival. Although eiders live a long time, with 22 years being the current record, delayed maturity (they don’t nest until 3-4 years of age) and small clutches of eggs (4 average) are two factors that make these birds vulnerable to overharvest-ing and predation. Duckling survival must reach 30% if populations are to remain stable, and is currently only 10% at many sites along the Maine coast. Predation includes herring gulls, which eat eider eggs, and great black-backed gulls, which eat eider duck-lings—gulls live to be 30 and nest on many of the same islands as eiders. These island ducks were also prey historically to human meat-and-egg hunters (both early island residents and commercial concerns), some lighthouse keepers who cleared “their” islands of birds to protect their drinking-water cisterns, now-extinct sea minks, ravens and occasional big-swimming river otters. Absent in Maine until 1928, the duckling-guzzling black-backed gull arrived here in 1929, pos-sibly drawn to waste from chicken- and fish-processing plants. Today, black-backed gulls have been reduced 40%, due to predation by bald eagles. Eagle populations are improving, which also affects eiders, because and the young eagles prey on ducklings for up to 5 years before nesting themselves. Eider populations improved when human island residents were forced for economic reasons to desert the islands between 1870 and 1890. Later came regulations against egging and spring hunting, but nearly too late. By 1907, Maine’s eider population was down to 2 pairs! Today, it likely numbers around 20,000 pairs. This population rebound after 1907 probably resulted from eider immigration from Nova Scotia and a complete moratorium on eider hunting until 1935. However, recently the numbers have plummeted, and it was Brad’s job to de-termine why and what to do about it. He was able to determine that, while there is plenty of habitat and good adult hen survival, duckling mortality appears to be the main reason for population instability today. Disease can also be a threat, including a recent (2006) virus that has been described, but not as yet identified, which killed 6000 birds in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, alone!

Eider facts:• Common eiders (Somateria mollissima) are exclusively saltwater ducks, with Maine as the southern nesting limit—eiders are circumpolar (Arctic) birds. Our regional subspecies (Somateria mollissima dresseri) ranges from Labra-dor through Maine with a small population in Massachusetts.• They nest densely on islands because few mammalian predators can get to them; they like to nest under dense vegetation as protection from aerial predators.• They eat primarily (90%) blue mussels.• Banded hen eiders have nearly a 90% survival return to the previous year’s nesting island. • An average clutch contains 4 eggs: long, copper-marbled-pale-green color.• The hen comes ashore, drops an egg, returns to the water, repeats, then usually with the third egg begins to pull the famous eiderdown from her breast to line the nest. In Iceland, land of down parkas and comforters, collectors take half the down from the nest when eggs are still in it, then go back to collect the remainder after the nest is abandoned. Eider-down collection is illegal in Maine because there are too many predators to swoop in on the eggs if the nest is disturbed.• During 26-day gestation in April, the hen doesn’t leave the nest; nearly starved, she takes her ducklings to water, where black-backed gulls exploit her exhaustion to steal babies.• Multiple females group to protect ducklings in a crèche (French for “cradle”). Recently crèches have been coming to mainland shores to avoid gulls, with some success.• Eiders nest on 300 islands off our coast, so predator control on all of them isn’t feasible.o Damariscove Island has 1500 nesting eiders, but also 2000 nests of duckling predators (mostly black-backed gulls). Killing gulls coast-wide is not the answer and impossible to carry out. Destroying gull nests is no help, either, be-cause instead of being busy nesting for 24 days, the gulls have that much more time to kill ducklings.o However, some islands have a more favorable ratio. Flag Island, for example, has 500 eiders, but only 50 gull nests, so gull management here may help stabilize the population. continued on next page...

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Once againg the Yankee Chapter dog demos were a popular feature at the Maine Sportsman Show. Rem Norsworthy reports, “The show went really well...my girls, Betty Blackman’s and the Brey’s Emma opened each show in costume. Sable the Terrorist is now Sable the HAM--she gets upset if she can’t be on stage 3 or 4 times per show and preens for the audience. Gabby was able to be the egg-weight retriever at 3 of the 4 shows, so both earned a lot of interest for the wirehair persuasion from several folks looking to select a breed for their next dog. They were good ambassadors for ‘our’ breed all weekend.” Rem adds that the crowd saw German wirehairs, German shorthairs, Brittanys, English setters, and a vizsla and a chocolate Lab puppy on stage for the demos. Despite small audiences Friday night and Sunday afternoon, the Yankee seminars were consistently the best-attended.

Maine Sportsman Show Dog Demos

For more photos from the show, visit www.yankeenavhda.com.

Eider Study continued...

o One island purchased by the state for eider conservation is covered in poison ivy, which certainly helps prevent human disturbance to the nests, but researchers must wear Tyvek suits to be able to do their jobs there! The birds must suspect an alien invasion!• Though Cape Cod is the historical southern wintering limit, Eiders seem to be wintering farther south (Long Island), possibly because they need a specific size of mussel to feed effi-ciently—we certainly have plenty of mussels, but maybe not the “right” ones?

Common Eiders: Maine’s second duck stamp, 1985, by David Maass

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Folded coffee filters are easy to carry in a pocket or to store in your vehicle’s glove compartment. For dog/hunting applications, try these:

1. A stack of 4 or 5 makes a quick, easy-to-carry bowl for dry dog food in travel situations.

2. Forget your treat pouch? Keep your pockets free of training crumbs by lining pocket with a coffee filter before dumping in the treats/bait.

3. For breeds with hairy paws, a sleeve of coffee filter with holes poked in ap-propriate places allows you to slide the holes over dog nails and hold back the hairs under the filter as you hold the paw to trim nails. (I always had to wet my wirehairs’ and setters’ paws to be able to see the nail well--now I just slip on the filter “glove” for a faster and easier clip--and my floors and furniture stay dry!)

4. Since filter-paper is quite tough, a quick, disposable drag-pouch for training can be made by adding a few drops of bird scent to the filter, putting some feath-ers in the center of the filter, then tying it into a pouch with a loop in the tie-string to be hooked to a drag line to lay down a track.

5. Use a center-bunched coffee filter wrapped around the end of a cleaning rod (or, in a pinch, a straight stick) to do a quick field cleaning of your gun barrel; spray with gun cleaner or gun oil as needed to enhance the effect.

6. When cleaning firearms, use coffee filters to corral springs, screws, pins, trig-ger parts and also to dip those parts into a bowl of cleaner.

Rethinking Coffee Filters by Remillie Norsworthy

NEW WEBSITE: To help and educate all hunters, anglers, trappers, recreational shoot-ers, and persons with an interest in the great outdoors and conservation, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance has launched “The Sportsmen’s Daily”—a new website covering all things out-doors. The new site focuses on issues and news around the nation and is updated frequently.Take a tour at www.ussportsmen.org.

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President Patti Carter 33 Simpson’s Point Road, Brunswick, ME 04011 207-725-8229 mmkennels@myfairpoint.netVice Pres Nancy Anisfield 1067 Silver Street, Hinesburg, VT 05461 802-482-2561 anisfield@gmavt.net Secretary Nick Racioppi 55 Hedge Bridge Road, Woolwich, ME 04579 207-442-7252 feathersfins@comcast.netTreasurer Cindy Tracy 37 Eider Lane, Topsham, ME 04086 207-725-4562 trac4fam@comcast.net

Director of Testing: Jason Wade Director of Communications: Judie BaylesDirector of Judge Development: Dave Trahan Test Secretary: Margo MaloneyDirector of Gunning: Matt Lorello Director of Training: Blaine CarterDelegate at Large: Bill Tracy Director of Grounds: Dick Dilley

YANKEE CHAPTER CALENDAR OF EVENTS

May 5 Vermont Clinic 1067 Silver Street, Hinesburg, VT

May 19 Training Clinic Green Point Wildlife Management Area, Dresden, ME

June 2 Pre-test Clinic Green Point Wildlife Management Area, Dresden, ME

June 9 & 10 Testing Green Point Wildlife Management Area, Dresden, ME July 13, 14 & 15 Spinoni Only Days Bowdoinham Wildlife Management Area

July 21 Water Clinic Hopkinton, NH August 4 Dean Croxford Memorial Shoot Varney’s Clay Sports, Richmond, ME

August 25 Pre-test Clinic Bowdoinham WIldlife Management Area

September 7, 8 & 9 Testing Bowdoinham Wildlife Management Area

January 6, 2013 Yankee Chapter Annual Meeting January 25-27, 2013 NAVHDA Annual Meeting Zion, Illinois

Change of address or email address? Don’t forget to let us know! Send any changes to Ju-die at judiebay@comcast.net.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS CONTACT INFO

Barking Dog GuidelinesLitter Ads - 1/4 page max size free for members $15 / month non-membersBusiness Card Ads - $25 /year members $35 / year non-membersDisplay Ads - 1/4 page max size $35 / year members $50 / non-members

Story submissions -- 350-500 words max!

Check out this sweet photo of Howard and Ziva Keene -- doesn’t get much better than that, eh?

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Got a boat, gun, trailer or some-thing you’d like to sell? Send me the info in an email -- 50 words max, including price and phone. Make sure you get it to me by the Monday of the last full week in the month. anisfield@gmavt.net

SS Shamrock 4 Kennel Dog Topper for a full size truck. Comes with fans and a ladder. The kennel is in excellent condition. Owner wants $1,500 for it. Contact Nick Racioppi, 207-442-7252, feathersfins@comcast.net.

New Alpha 32 caliber gauge starter pistol (see photo below) with leather holster and case. The Z-MAC zinc-aluminum frame with a rust resistant blued finish and the high strength heat-treated steel parts promise trouble free usage. Bright or-ange grips; six shot swing out cylinder. Value $250.00. Will sell for $175.00. Contact Patti Carter, 207-725-8229, mmkennels@myfairpoint.net.

Easy Loader two-dog kennel (see photo above), excellent condition, welded wire doors, high density polymer, 33 pounds, fits full size pick up. Dimensions 21 high x 49 wide x 23.5 deep. New 260.00. Selling for $150.00. Call Blaine Carter 207-725-8229.

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It’s BUMPER time!