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Peggy Poe at Melvins 90th birthday celebration / Douglas Lees photo
Peggy Poe of Hume, Virginia, passed away peacefully on January 18, 2021. She was eighty-eight.
Peggy was best known for her unfailing hospitality, her devotion to her family, and her fifty-one year's marriage and partnership with legendary huntsman Melvin M. Poe.
Huntsman John Dean and the foxhounds of the Radnor Hunt / Jim Graham photo
John Howard Dean, III, huntsman of the Radnor Hunt (PA), died in Paoli Hospital on January 16, 2021. He was hospitalized fighting Covid-19 along with other issues over a period of weeks. According to the Masters’ announcement made the day following his death, John appeared at one point to be on the mend but his condition reversed.
Red Fox / Mike Roberts photo
A recent study reveals that wild mammals—even big predators—are getting portions of up to half of their diet from human leavings, crops, or smaller mammals that live near people. The study included wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, coyote, foxes, fishers, and martens across the country.
These wild animals are relying less and less on foods found naturally, as human population spreads and presents wildlife with domestic dietary alternatives. The outcome naturally puts wild creatures in conflict with one another, and leads to more human-carnivore encounters in territorial boundary areas and suburban backyards.
Jeep Cochran and her Calf Pasture Bassets
As dedicated, passionate—some might even say fanatical—members of the global sporting community of those who hunt with hounds, we all feel the loss of our treasured activities as the COVID pandemic rages across our countries. During this time of suffering it seems insensitive to mourn the departure of a single individual from our sporting scene, but in this case a large group of people has lost the opportunity to celebrate the career, times, and exemplary hunting life of the retiring Master of the Calf Pasture Bassets, Evelyn "Jeep" Cochran.
What? Is she dead? Emphatically not! But the pandemic has robbed all her friends of the chance to celebrate her life, her hounds, her triumphs too numerous to tally...at hound shows, at field trials, and over the course of a sporting life lived over an impressive span of years.
Surely, one of the thrills of the foxhunting field is the sound of the huntsman’s horn. When huntsman and hounds are out of sight, the horn keeps the knowledgeable foxhunter informed as to the progress of the hunt.
When the huntsman doubles it in covert, that’s a good time to check your girth. When you hear the Gone Away, you watch your Field Master and anticipate that moment when the saddle tosses you standing in your stirrups and dancing to that seductive three-beat rhythm. The knowledgeable foxhunter can distinguish when the huntsman is blowing Gone to Ground to celebrate a successful conclusion, or simply collecting hounds after a loss. But have you ever tried to blow the thing yourself? Not easy!
After the close of last season, professional whipper-in Erin McKenney was tapped to take over the horn at the Millbrook Hunt (NY). What’s it like to be a first-year huntsman following in the boot prints of a retiring, respected, experienced huntsman and long-time hound breeder like Donald Philhower? Butterflies, sure, but what goes through the mind of a huntsman responsible for giving sport every hunting day? Erin gives us a taste.
Lindsay Baldwin photo
November 5, 2020, 9-1/2 couple
It was a warm, bluebird sort of day with a dry wind which didn’t bode too well for scenting conditions. I took a smaller pack since it is a tight fixture.
I went with idea of taking older, slower hounds, with some younger ones for an educational day. I’m not convinced when young hounds are flying on a coyote that they’re learning a ton, except to keep up. The seasoned hounds may not be so quick under this day’s conditions, and the younger ones should have a chance to really get their noses down and learn.
Masters Ken and Arle Adams, Palm Beach Hounds in the 1980s
Wellington, Florida pioneer and a founder of the Palm Beach Hounds, Kenneth Adams, died after a prolonged illness on Wednesday, November 11, 2020. He was ninety.
Ken served with his late wife, Arle, as the first Masters of the Palm Beach Hounds from its inception in 1980 to 1990. He was huntsman for most of that period.
A retired U.S. Air Force Major, Ken sold his chain of True Value Hardware stores in upstate New York to settle with Arle in Palm Beach County, Florida. The couple made their home in the Little Ranches neighborhood in 1978, where they kept horses and foxhounds. Ken started the first foxhunt in Wellington with the help of fellow Wellington pioneer A.W. “Bink” Glisson in the then-undeveloped area that came to be known as Bink’s Forest.
The last frame of the day! Photographed in Yellowstone National Park by Mike Roberts with Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera fitted with Canon 600mm lens. Tripod Head: Wimberly WH-200 (with quick release plate). Tripod: Gitzo Mountaineer (carbon fiber).
Click image for a larger view.
As a naturalist I’ve never considered anthropomorphism an appropriate concept. Yet, even in my mind, the red fox has long worn the mask of a humanistic villain. English literature and folklore is littered with fox personifications, as is Native American culture. With eyes that can stare into the depths of one’s soul, and those downright sneaky behavioral traits, Vulpes vulpes remains one of my favorite, but most difficult subjects to photograph in the wilds of America. So lay another seasoned chunk of oak on the andirons, pour a steaming cup of tea, pull up a chair, and allow me to share this paramount photography adventure.
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