I only go there for squirrels. I've seen plenty of deer out there and some day will try for them. But with almost 4 square miles of mostly wooded ravines, this is squirrel heaven.
Today was the first day of upland game season. Rabbit and pheasant could now be hunted and the hunter fact sheet says those creatures are here. For the six years I've been coming here, I've never seen either. I've never seen tracks in the snow for either. Mainly squirrel, deer and coyote tracks. I've assumed the coyote takes care of the others.
To cut to the end, apparently a handful of rabbits were taken today and one pheasant. That's not bad. I don't expect to ever see either. These guys were hunting with hound dogs. I could hear them off in the distance chasing things down and then some shooting. I knew they weren't after squirrel.
I was going to try an area I never went to before. It's more open with a former farm now turned into a big field. The wind was pretty stiff and I decided against it. It was too open and nothing was blocking the wind. Besides, there were too many deer hunters coming to this area and I didn't want to be wandering around that many of them.
I wound up in a wooded area, almost like a peninsula, between two deep ravines with pretty steep banks. I know this area and one other like the back of my hand already. I knew exactly where to go and it's relatively easy to do even in the early morning dark. The one thing I didn't like was the wind. I had heard and have proved to myself numerous times that squirrels don't like to come out and play in the wind. Today proved to be no exception to that rule. That's too bad. With mild temperatures and clear skies the walk in the woods was beautiful.
The woods can get pretty thick, but the deer seem to have done a pretty good job of keeping the forest floor clear. It's rare that you have to bush whack your way through dense brush.
It must be just warm enough on the forest floor to keep some things warm and green. The trees were pretty much devoid of leaves, but the smaller brush didn't want to give up their color. I was in this same area the first week of November a year ago. Half the leaves were still on the trees and made hunting impossible. Goes to show what one of the coldest Octobers on record will do to the trees.
The conditions were perfect for squirrel hunting. With all the leaves gone, it was easy to spot the squirrel nests and any squirrels that might be running up and down the trees. While still dark, I planted myself in the middle of an area that was surrounded by 6 nests all within shooting distance. An hour later when all the squirrels should have been waking up, nothing was happening. This is how the whole morning went.
I wound up seeing only 3 squirrels. One was unfortunate enough to be within shooting range. I had been out there since 6 AM. I got the squirrel just before 10. That's a lot of work for one squirrel. I had pretty much given up hope of seeing a squirrel and had resigned myself to just sitting in the woods when that last one appeared out of nowhere. Another hour and no more squirrels and I called it quits.
When I first started hunting I would take pictures of the things I killed. Seemed to be the thing to do. Now I look at those pictures and wonder why I did that. I get nothing from them. So now it is extremely rare that I take a picture of the things that I kill to eat. There has to be something unique or oddly beautiful about the animal for me to take their picture.
Instead, I take pictures of my surroundings. When I go back at a later date and look at the pictures, the memories of the day will be much more pronounced by those than some picture of some dead animal.
Seems a little more fair to the dead animal too.
By noon I was heading home. For a couple of hours I cut up and chopped up some wood for the coming cold days when a fire in the fire place is called for. Di was heading for work around 3 PM. On such a beautiful day it seemed a shame to waste it hanging around the house by myself.
So I went fishing.