Stryker Sportsmen's Club

This Saturday. Buckeye Cup. Will you be there?

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You can estimate the age of most backyard wildlife without touching anything. The animal is wearing the answer.

The crow at your feeder with blue eyes — she hatched this spring. By next year the eyes will darken. Once they're dark, you can't tell her age anymore.

The red-tailed hawk soaring overhead with a brown banded tail — she's a juvenile, less than two years old. She doesn't earn the red tail until her second year. The one with the red tail has been hunting your neighborhood for at least two seasons.

🌿 Three more you can read on sight:

The box turtle has growth rings on her shell scutes, one per year — like tree rings. They compress after fifteen or twenty years, so it's a rough clock, not an exact one.

The buck's antler points roughly track age and nutrition. But a well-fed three-year-old can match a malnourished five-year-old. Diet matters more than birthdays.

And the bald eagle flying overhead that's entirely brown — she's under five. The white head and tail take a full five years to come in.

Blue eyes on a crow, red tail on a hawk, white head on an eagle. Three clocks you can read from the ground 🐾

The Best Catch Was Never A Fish ❤️🎣

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