Last week (Week before Thanksgiving) I did something I had not done in over 25 years. I was deer hunting with a friend, who agreed we should hunt all day long... daylight to dark!
This is a long time in the deer stand, but in my old age, it is not has long as it used to be. Indeed the day went by surprisingly fast. First the pre-sunrise beauty of the sky lit by the coming sun. then, the glory of the sunrise, seen almost exclusively with those whose work requires them to be early to work and work in a place that can see the sun. Get up early over the next few weeks and see what I saw.
The area was rich with squirrels and chipmunks. In deer hunting, you must be alert for the flick of a deer's tail, or the twitch of an ear. So, every squirrel hop, every shake of the tail, draws my attention. The gray squirrels are relatively big and bold. The tiny chipmunks are maybe a tenth the size, and are very shy. Squirrels may hop casually here and there, but the chippys run at full speed most of the time. One chipper had a burrow in front of my stand. Late in the day, he made several trips along a log that led from the scattered acorns to his burrow just beyond the roots of the log.
Surprisingly there weren't that many birds, one here or there. But there were two birds that I loved to see. Frist was a small hawk. It may have been a Ssharpshin, or maybe a Cooper's, but my woods were part of his hunting area, so I saw him a couple of times. Near dark a young turkey gobbler decided to roost in a tall oak in front of my stand. He flew up, moved up the limb a bit and scouted out his surroundings. I was afraid to have a turkey in clear site of me. If I saw a deer, and moved to get my rifle on it, the turkey would surely spook. So I didn't want to turkey sitting so close. Fortunately, he was equally unhappy with me, so he flew east and left me alone. to the east, was his flock mates, and I saw several of them fly up and pick their roost. I am not sure why, maybe this is typical, but several of the big birds changed roosts a couple of times.
I saw several deer from that stand, and I LOVE seeing deer in the woods, which is why I would spend a day afield. But there is so much more to see, in a day in the woods.
This is a long time in the deer stand, but in my old age, it is not has long as it used to be. Indeed the day went by surprisingly fast. First the pre-sunrise beauty of the sky lit by the coming sun. then, the glory of the sunrise, seen almost exclusively with those whose work requires them to be early to work and work in a place that can see the sun. Get up early over the next few weeks and see what I saw.
The area was rich with squirrels and chipmunks. In deer hunting, you must be alert for the flick of a deer's tail, or the twitch of an ear. So, every squirrel hop, every shake of the tail, draws my attention. The gray squirrels are relatively big and bold. The tiny chipmunks are maybe a tenth the size, and are very shy. Squirrels may hop casually here and there, but the chippys run at full speed most of the time. One chipper had a burrow in front of my stand. Late in the day, he made several trips along a log that led from the scattered acorns to his burrow just beyond the roots of the log.
Surprisingly there weren't that many birds, one here or there. But there were two birds that I loved to see. Frist was a small hawk. It may have been a Ssharpshin, or maybe a Cooper's, but my woods were part of his hunting area, so I saw him a couple of times. Near dark a young turkey gobbler decided to roost in a tall oak in front of my stand. He flew up, moved up the limb a bit and scouted out his surroundings. I was afraid to have a turkey in clear site of me. If I saw a deer, and moved to get my rifle on it, the turkey would surely spook. So I didn't want to turkey sitting so close. Fortunately, he was equally unhappy with me, so he flew east and left me alone. to the east, was his flock mates, and I saw several of them fly up and pick their roost. I am not sure why, maybe this is typical, but several of the big birds changed roosts a couple of times.
I saw several deer from that stand, and I LOVE seeing deer in the woods, which is why I would spend a day afield. But there is so much more to see, in a day in the woods.
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