Small Game Season Coming Soon

Like some other outdoor writers, I'm unsure about how to approach writing a column about small-game hunting. Hunting for squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, and Pennsylvania's beleaguered grouse, which was a major outdoor activity for sportsmen when I was young, is only a minor type of hunting for present-day sportsmen, many who are locked in to putting their tags on whitetails.

Squirrel season, which began on Sept. 10, has basically been ignored locally. I have not seen even one squirrel hunter on my trips around the Cove since then. You wouldn't know the junior hunt for rabbits began on Oct. 1. T...