Fall is here! My tomatoes are going bonkers, potatoes are amazing, peppers, carrots and onions are at their peak. Dove season arrived and there are still a few around. Seems like I can get a dozen or so on two or three occasions, and they depart. That is the importance of Tuesday. We will have a 20+ degree drop in temperature on Tuesday for a couple of days. 

Several things happen with the first significant cold snap! Without a doubt and no hesitation the mourning doves head for Texas.  Interestingly, the collared and white wing doves that hang out in town tend to stick around. Fishing is good right now and white bass want to jump in the boat. Catfish are still eager suckers for vintage soybeans and stink bait. If the lake turns over, it will slow down for a while. This is the time to catch walleye and whitebass on slab bait. My friend, Jimmy Finley, in Texas has sent me a few pounds of slabs. They really do work!

The teal are being sneaky into the Bottoms. I get glimpses of Teal and a few other ducks, but the main migration is still some days away.  They are staying out in the deep part of the marsh and being very shy. It will change.

I hope you read the front page article in the Great Bend Tribune last Wednesday. Mr. Hogg did a super article on Phragmites. That is a terrible weed.  It sucks water out of everything. The horrible infestation along the Smoky and Saline rivers is going to lower the water level a lot. It’s almost impossible to fish the river any more. I hope Kansas has the foresight to start controlling this intruder. We have almost lost the upper end of Wilson Lake to Phgragmites also. The state of Michigan has a special task force that does nothing but kill phragmites. Mr. Wagner hired a helicopter to spray these weeds in pool 2 at the Bottoms. I remember Karl struggling with these weeds years ago. They are now all over the state—lots in pastures and fields. Pheasant think they are swell—our dogs don’t. They parallel red cedars in their ability to spread and do harm. 

I still enjoy the cattle egrets and great egrets when they are here. There are lots of gulls still hanging around looking just elegant. Shore birds and ducks are on the way and the fall in going to get serious. Deer are starting to lose their velvet, and it seems like there are more exceptional bucks than I can recall.  

Its not going to get cold enough to kill the mosquitoes, but the cold weather coming next week will slow them down a bit. Crickets are creeping in the house, flies are doing everything they can to invade the kitchen and they find cracks to creep through that you will never see. 

Go see the deer starting to move about, the gulls chasing small fish, and the cattle egrets standing on the backs of the livestock. It is a beautiful sight to see!

Doc

Doctor Dan Witt is a retired physician and nature enthusiast.