Well I'll be durned!!!

Thanksgiving is generally the 3rd week of November right??? The third Thursday of November.

Deer Gun season always starts on the Saturday before. 

So I was talking to the grand daughter last night and she informed me that I was wrong! What? WHUT?

Well I looked it up and indeed, Thanksgiving is on the 28th. Duh. I was wrong wrong wrong. However, I did get all of my outdoor work done for the gun season I thought was starting this weekend. It isn't, so hurray for me. I got everything done a week ahead of time. That includes most of the ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Maybe I was having a Miss Merry Moment! 💖

Well, that actually made me very happy in so many ways! I have another 7 days of being able to go out to the woods and play! [Um, hike...I mean. Hike. Yeah.]

The trail cams have really been capturing a lot of very cool bucks doing some fun things right in front of the trail cam. I'm glad I turned on the option for short videos. It really helps me study what the deer are doing.

Two different large bucks are walking right up to a little branch in front of the camera and rubbing their faces on it. Later in the night there is a doe that stands under the branch and smells it intently. 

Does that mean that the bucks are leaving a scent on that branch as a message to the ladies? Maybe. I am no deer expert. So I looked it up. Bucks do rub their faces on branches to mark their territory. They also lick the branches to leave markers for the ladies.

Until I had a camera that could take some video, I had no idea. I knew the 'marked' territory, but I thought it was just like dogs and coyotes did. By peeing on things. In a buck's case, maybe peeing and scraping his antlers on trees. 

I learn something every day!

So this buck does exactly that .. and later on, a doe comes up to check it out! 20 second video.

I think this is the way the way a white tail buck leaves an email on his dating app!

Well. I'll be durned!

Have a neat weekend.

The Meadow

There is a chill in the meadow that echoes my thoughts.

The frost lays heavy and hard across the land.

I wait while leaning against an old oak.

Watching.

A murder of crows breaks the morning quiet.

I wonder what set them off.

They circle in the east and fly off over the silver meadow.

I wait.

Eventually they come one by one out of the forest.

Searching silently.

Morning breaks and they disappear back into the brush.

The day begins.

Wild Life

My husband's vision isn't supposed to be THIS good! However, he notices anything out of place anywhere he can see out a window.

"Hey, what is that?" he said to me. 
Earlier this year we had a Turkey Vulture sit on a tree right next to where this hawk is.

I ran over to the Oly camera that had the monster zoom on it and walked out on the porch. This hawk was probably 200-300 yards away. [I cannot tell distance, but hubby can!]

Count me tickled and happy!

I got some lucky shots for sure.

Here is another shot of a doe approaching our fence line from the neighbor's land to the east. That land encompasses over 400 acres of woods where I usually do a lot of my close to home hiking.

Did she see or smell me? I don't think so. She jumped the fence and moseyed on through our summer pasture.

These quiet mornings are pretty nice. AND...
I have to sit still and be quiet. Which is a good thing for me to learn, as I am not very good at it.

Here is a photo of a nice buck we spotted on our Trail Cam:

He is nice enough that hubby wishes he still hunted. For the meat and for the nice rack this guy has. I'm happy enough to catch glimpses of him on the camera.

I'd be tickled pink and all sorts of colors to get him in my viewfinder on the camera.

On our other trail camera we often get a lot of deer taking naps or doing cute things like this:

The spot above seems to be a gathering place for deer to settle in. 

It is pouring cats and dogs outside so it looks like this Saturday will be an indoor day. 

Perhaps I should get out the lego people and some dragons and see what happens in the Still Life Department!

Deer Stories

There was Homer, Jethro, and Zelda.

Oh but there were so many more, but those were the three out of about a dozen Sunday morning that caught my eye and the focus of my camera.

While sitting in a tiny blind in the dark and waiting for the deer to may---beee show up and maybe NOT show up can be boring.

However I listened to the birdsong and peeked out as the day went slowly from dark to dim, to sunrise. I heard and saw both Robins and Bluebirds along with the constant cry from the pack of Crows that live nearby. 

A rabbit slowly came out of the brush and nibbled on some plants not far from me. 

Slowly some young deer came out of the woods and entered the meadow. It was a surprise as I'd just looked and they were not there and...then they were.

Pretty quickly there were about 6 deer in the meadow. Some obviously still not yearlings and some does. A couple of young ones played chase and then settled in to nibble in the meadow.

They all turned when a spike buck walked out of the woods. He ignored them and walked over to the neighbor's fence line and jumped it to graze I suppose on the fallen apples.

Soon the another spike buck appeared. I've been seeing them with regularity so I named one Homer and one Jethro.

Homer thinks he is a real stud.

When he started chasing the girls around he did this....

So some gals watched and others just ran off.

Zelda said, NO Way!

Eventually Homer decided to follow.

All in the pursuit of love, right?

Monday morning was a bit of a dud, but I did get to watch a squirrel do some interesting things. We all know they bury nuts right? They do, but this guy did something different.

I know squirrels bury their nuts, but I didn't know that they hid them too!

Here he is burying his nut

and then covering it up with oak leaves.

Isn't nature just amazing?

Shooting Deer.

I think sitting still is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It wasn't bad early inn the morning. I brought my mini thermos of fresh hot coffee and sat quietly sipping it while watching out the blind that my Kenosha friends had brought and placed near the apple tree that sits in the Merry Meadow.

Here was one of the views.

It doesn't look like much at all. But with a little bucket to sit on or the chair that Daryl left behind, it wasn't bad. The cold winds didn't get to me and I brought that nice hot coffee.

I mean, what else is a tripod really for? I did find out that using a tripod was pretty useless when trying to 'shoot' deer. They don't stand still.

I 'shot' this doe through the screen on the side of the blind along the mule's summer pasture.

The electric fence is disconnected along this section of the pasture, as this portion of the land is in 'rest' mode. Also since the fence separates us from the neighbor's land ... we never let our mules out there during gun season. I sometimes have my reservations about the type of people that the neighbor's brother lets out on that land to hunt. [It is just safe to say that not all of those who walk that land in those 9 days are conscientious hunters.]

Here is the morning Doe smelling the air. She did a lot of head bobbing.

Then she moved a bit and I got a few more shots of her before she moved on.

I either moved in the blind and she saw me or that gust of wind that came from behind the blind gave away my smell. Either way, she turned and flagged her tail as she ran off.

I considered the outing a success because I got to take some nice photos of this one doe. But the little wildlife bug hit me and I decided to go back for an hour in the evening.

However I needed to dress just a bit warmer.

I walked out slowly to the blind at 3PM. A doe jumped up from the thicket of Buckthorn and ran north.
Oh darn.

I sat in the blind and listened to the wind gusts above me. It blew harder on the top of the ridge and the Meadow was half way between the ridge top and the valley floor.

I'd swapped to my long lens a Tamaron 18 to 200mm lens. It wasn't as sharp and clear as the 85mm prime lens I'd used in the morning and poor light is not its friend. It is a lot slower to focus, however I thought I'd give it a go anyway. Perhaps I could get a 'closer' shot with it.
Of course in my mind I was mulling over that used Nikon lens I'd seen, the 70-300 lens.
Oh sigh.
Now that I was enjoying sitting still and watching wildlife, perhaps I could do with a 'longer' lens.

And then the cheapo in me said "Wait, see what you can do with what you have."

My friend had mentioned a teleconverter. Okay.
Sigh again.

I finally pulled out my mini notebook and started to write. Just words. Things that were on my mind and bothering me. The call from the nurse who said my MIL was being evaluated for Assisted Living, was she a danger to herself alone? MIL had refused to shower or bath for months. I'd notified them in August when the Guardian took over.
I write: "Sitting alone in the blind right now is more satisfying than fielding calls about my MIL or trying to get my husband to get out of bed and move his body. 

Note: Let him win at Backgammon. He gets upset if he doesn't."

I put the little notebook down and just let my mind wander and decide that being in the blind just a few hundred yards from the house was a good thing. I didn't have to sit and watch my husband lean towards the screen and watch endless hours of Netflix.

"My feet are a bit cold. Next time I need wool socks in my boots. My hands oddly are warm. Strange right? 1/2 hour to go until chore time."

Oh! A doe!

She picks her way around and around. I wonder if she can hear the soft snap snap of the camera.

She moves off.

4:25.
Time to pack up.

The light is fading fast and there isn't enough light to take a good photo now. I stand up and stretch only to come to a standstill.

A large buck is walking across the middle of the Meadow.

Oh .. Wow!

It would have been nice if he'd have followed the doe up to the apple tree so I could've gotten a good photo of him.

I watch him walk off. Then I walk up the little trail past the oak tree and then back down towards the little house.

Shooting Deer with the camera had been nice. Quiet time was nice.

And darkness falls into a cold November night.

Wild Things.

I should do this more often, but I really only think about the trail camera near and during deer season. I've used it on a deer carcass I found last year also which produced some very interesting results

And then there was this wild thing!

And then back to some wildlife.

And some characters from last year.

I enjoy seeing what goes on in the woods when I am not there.

I once set this camera up in a mule pasture one summer night. I was amazed at what those mules did at night!
I suppose it would be interesting to put a camera on our Dexter cattle for a day too.

Well there you go. Let's have a Wild Life Party!

Last Days of Gun Deer Season

Him: "Watchya doing today?"
Me: "Stuff."

Him: "You wanna get dressed up and walk down through the creek and make some noise?  Then you can go to the ridge road and work your way through all those apple trees and back down towards me."

Ahhh yup.  It was that time of year again.  The last few days of Deer Gun Season I get to play 'dog' ... as he calls it.

These were a couple of visitors to our creek bottom yesterday morning before the sun came out.

Off I went after hubby went on his way to wait.  My first walk yielded nothing, but I did get to see interesting tracks and feel the warm sun on my back.
The temperatures were rapidly rising and things were beginning to melt quickly.

I walked down through the creek and spent a lot of time just 'browsing' the area.
It changes so much from summer to winter.  I actually think it is more beautiful in winter and early spring.

The water from the trees above left circles in the creek pond....

I eventually went up and old cow/mule trail that is nearly impossible to find in the summer.  I had a bit of a struggle with briers once in a while, but I was able to make it to the top of the ridge.

Further down the valley I'd seen a group of hunters and had decided to stay out of their way.

I can't say that I 'love' deer season.  I certainly don't love the inept hunters that seem to show up on my neighbor's land.  Simply put, I don't trust them to tell Blaze Orange from Deer Brown.

That said I do trust my husband and will walk the woods for him.

The day went quietly.  No monster buck came through.
I personally think that he is hiding.

Good luck to the legendary 12 pt buck!

The Day Before Deer Hunting...

...and all through the house it was quiet...
...you could even hear the ol' fella snoring...
...dreaming of BIG Bucks 
...he dreamt of big Antlers
...a prize winning trophy
...such as never seen before...

...bold and beautiful
...handsome and strutting.

Yeah, then I woke up the great hunter and asked if he wanted some coffee.  He said I ruined his beautiful dream.
But we had animals to move closer to the buildings and chores to do, tree stands to check on, and last minute preparations for the annual WI 9 Day Gun Season.

The first few days I don't like to go outside much.  Too many anxious hunters in the surrounding woods looking to shoot anything that 'sounds' like a deer.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against deer harvest.  I like venison.  I have issues with those hunters who just shoot and wound and don't bother finding their deer.

Tomorrow is opening day.  Blaze Orange will be the outfit of choice.