Twelve Days of a Sportsman’s Christmas

Last night I was outside building a seven-foot snowman with my four-year-old daughter and heard rustling just across the street. I looked up just in time to see three Hungarian Partridges land on the neighbor’s lawn. I grabbed my dog Cid and started to creep on the birds. That’s when she spied a single “Hun” that was only 10 feet away in a juniper brush. We froze, the bird froze, and for a moment we were stopped in time. Then a small explosion erupted and all the birds flew down to another neighbor’s place, hopefully to fascinate them as much as they did us. It wasn’t the prairie but definitely a gift from mother nature. Make sure you get out and enjoy the “holidaze” and enjoy this little rhyme!

The Twelve Days of a Sportsman’s Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a Hungarian Partridge on the prairie,
On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two hundred doves,
On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three flying pheasants,
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a four point buck,
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, FIVE GOLDEN TROUT,
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six Geese a-landing,
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven teal a-whistling,
On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a royal bull a-bugling,
On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a nine weight rod,
On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, ten smallmouth bass,
On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eleven northern mallards,
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve-pounder walleyes!

Land Tawney

Land is a 5th generation Montanan who garnered his conservation ethic in duck blinds on warm water sloughs in the Bitterroot Valley, on the end of a rod during the salmon fly hatch on the Big Hole River, and chasing the wiley wapiti in Cinnabar Basin. Land received a BS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 2000 and a PHD in Post Hole Digging fencing in the family quarter horses and mules. Fresh out of school, he worked for a newly formed sportsmen organization called the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership as their National Grassroots Coordinator. After four years working for TRCP, Land joined the staff of the National Wildlife Federation as Regional Representative in Missoula, Montana serving the states of Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota. Today, Land serves as the Senior Manger for Sportsmen Leadership for National Wi! ldlife Federation. In this capacity he works with national hunting and fishing organizations on a host of sportsmen issues with emphasis on coastal Louisiana restoration, wildlife funding, access for hunters and anglers federal land management and leadership development. Most recently Land has begun work with the Wildlife Hunting Heritage Conservation Council sponsored by the Secretary of Interior and Secretary of Agriculture. In his spare time, Land sits on the board of the Phil Tawney Hunters Conservation Endowment and is the President of Hellgate Hunters and Anglers. Any other spare time is spent on the stream, in a duck blind, or chasing big game. Land enjoys anything outside with his wife Glenna, four-year old daughter Cidney, one-year old son Colin, and two labs…Gabriel, ”The Arch Angel of Ducks” and Triple “T”, Teller Turk Tawney.