MIKE BRAUN Books give tips, triumphs of hunts

With the majority of the deer seasons all but over in Ohio and Pennsylvania, hunters who still have a bit of buck fever in them would do well to pick up a couple of books hot off the press.
The folks at Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine have published two books that are full of information about hunting for trophy whitetail deer.
"Hunting Trophy Whitetails: Tales of Record-Book Bucks" and "Hunting Trophy Deer: The Best of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine" cover a host of topics nearly every deer hunter would enjoy.
"Hunting Trophy Whitetails," 167 pages at $19.95, recounts how the nation's top hunters got their record bucks.
These hunters, who have repeatedly harvested white-tailed deer that qualified for entry into Buckmasters' "Whitetail Trophy Records," go into great detail about how they nabbed their trophy deer. Each story lists the hunter's name, choice of weaponry and date the animal was harvested, as well as drawings and photographs of each situation.
Local notable
This book starts off with a case close to our area, the "culvert buck." This deer was taken in the woodlands of western Pennsylvania during that state's archery season of 1994.
Hunter Richard Blauser describes the hunt which resulted in the harvest of deer with a BTR score of 1471/8 (typical).
The second book, "Hunting Trophy Deer," 150 pages at $19.95, offers 20 top articles that have appeared in the pages of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine.
Topics covered in this book include tips for setting up an all-day stand, bow tuning, offbeat tactics for big bucks, tracking wounded deer, the science of using wind to your advantage and much more.
Authors include Berry Wensel, Kathy Etling, Chuck Adams and Buckmasters' own Jackie Bushman.
Both books are worthy additions to your hunting library and contain many valuable tips and tricks for future hunting trips.
The two books join a large library of hunting publications offered by Buckmasters.
A trip to the Buckmasters online store at http://store.yahoo.com/ buckmasters-online/ turns up more than two dozen books on topics from general hunting to cooking to outdoor survival.
To order the two new, hardcover books, call (800) 962-0973 or write The Lyons Press, 246 Goose Lane, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, Conn. 06437.
FeederWatch needs help
Throughout the winter of 2001, more than 16,000 individuals in the United States and Canada participated in Project FeederWatch -- a survey that monitors backyard bird populations.
FeederWatch counts -- compiled over the course of the winter -- are submitted by participants as often as every week from November through early April via the Internet to scientists who use the data to examine trends in bird populations.
Participants are being sought for the survey this winter.
According to information from FeederWatch, the data compiled provide a detailed picture of weekly changes in the distribution and abundance of birds across the continent.
Programs such as FeederWatch are important for identifying the impact of disease on bird populations. In fact, such data have recently been used to track the spread of an eye disease affecting house finch populations.
Additionally, FeederWatch data will be used to gauge the impact of the West Nile virus on birds.
How to join
You can join the 16th season of Project FeederWatch and learn more about the project at www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw.
A $15 annual participation fee gets participants a subscription to Birdscope (the quarterly newsletter of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) and a research kit that includes the FeederWatch Handbook, a guide to feeding birds; a full-color poster of common feeder birds; a 14-month bird-watching calendar; instructions on how to participate; and paper data forms and/or access to the online data-entry system.
Further information is available at the Web site or by calling (800) 843-2473.
braun@vindy.com