I have learned 2 things this hunting season: 1. I can now wear enough gear (awesome wool jacket) to mimic an owl. I bundle up so much that all that is exposed are my eyes and nose. I move my head and that's really it when I am in my tree seat. 2. I need to sleep the night before.
Thursday night, Dad told me about the huge tracks he saw around my seat. I went to bed at 10 and tossed and turned about the big buck. At 5:30am, I was in my seat waiting for the sun to come up. I sat and I sat. 5 hours later, dad came to get me. Nothing. He did see 3 does and hoped there was a buck near by but that was not the case. We sat in the Sky Condo in the afternoon. It has been windy every day that we have been hunting. Not a crazy wind, but windy enough to keep your ears sharp for the difference between leaves blowing, squirrels running around and a deer. Or so I thought. I was in the SC, checking all of our shooting lanes. I looked straight ahead, where we have been seeing deer before the season started and where we shot our deer last year. Looking. I heard leaves to my right but assuming it was a squirrel, I didnt really pay attention. When it got loud, I turned to see a deer run by. It was maybe 100 feet from the SC and by the time I realized it was a deer, it was gone. I saw the whole deer, but I could not tell you if it was a buck or doe. For the sake of my self-esteem, lets say it was a doe. We left the woods empty handed.
Saturday - nothing. We own 400 acres near my parents house and Dad had seen a lot of scrapes and rubs (finally). We walked around for 2 hours trying to jump something. Dad put me on a skidder trail and told me to walk up and over the mountain and we would meet at an intersection. I took my time and followed the trail. Dad lets bikers ride around the mountain, and I got off on their trail and not on the one I was supposed to be one. Crap. I found tree with orange tape and trees with yellow paint. Not an intersection and no trail really in sight. Im glad we carry cell phones. I had to call Dad to find out where I needed to go - he was literally 60 seconds behind me following the yellow trees. While it was a lot of fun to walk around the mountain, we need some meat.
This weekend is the end of the season. Thanksgiving, Friday and Saturday. Fingers crossed I have a nice picture to post!!!
There are a few less turkeys in Maine to hunt this year. A few months ago, Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife in partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation , captured and released more than 50 birds into East Texas with the hope of rebuilding their population. “Eastern turkeys are where the restocking efforts originally began,” explained Shawn Roberts, Director of Field Operations for the National Wild Turkey Federation, “We tried in the 1920’s but it didn’t work. We tried pen-raised birds and that didn’t work either. The only thing that was successful was to trap birds and relocate them to good habitat.” “We started this current effort in the early ‘80s and we had to begin looking outside the state to see if we could get them moved in. We didn’t want to violate The Lacey Act so we had to come up with a way to compensate the states that were giving up a resource either by trading other wildlife or paying them monetarily,” said Roberts. Texas is on the very edge o
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