3/1/15

         March brought a little bit warmer weather today. I took my little sister Mindy with me to go for a hike in the woods to see what we could see. It was still a little too cold for the two of us to sit as the sun went down. We started by walking through a grassy area the runs along the Raccoon River. We were hoping to flush some pheasants out on our way to the woods. Halfway through I noticed something in the patch of snow in front of me. This was not new snow so there were plenty of deer and coyote tracks around, but I could tell that this track had been left within the last couple hours. I told Mindy to come check it out. I soon could tell they were deer tracks and by the the snow sprayed in front of the tracks I could tell that the deer was running. (In the snow, old tracks maintain their overall shape but you cannot see key markings, new tracks appear to be clear, crisp, and concise). We decided to follow them for a little ways. We soon lost track of them as we found less and less snow. Soon we started heading back towards the woods. I told Mindy to keep an eye out for deer antlers that they would have recently shed. (I love finding these pieces of bone, each antler can tell quite a story). There were tracks all over the area, mainly of deer. Some were very fresh, others could have been days old. In the woods we walked under a few tree stands a hunter had used during the fall and we made our way up the hill as branches and snow cracked beneath our every footstep. Before we headed back towards the car to look at a different spot I wanted to check an area in the timber where I often encounter deer and turkeys. We crept across a bean field and peeked into the timber. Nothing. I decided to sneak along the edge of the woods and see if anything would jump up. We stopped for a moment when it happened. Not five yards away a turkey flew into the air, crashing its wings against the tree tops as it flew away. That bird could have stayed motionless and I would have never known of its presence. We went to check out the scene where it had just been and we found only a feather and a set of tracks leading up to it. We decided to walk a little further just to see if anything else was in the area, the whole time I was looking for a shed antler. At one point I heard at least one more turkey fly up somewhere in the distance. As we walked through the timber I could not help but notice that there were turkey and deer tracks everywhere. I am excited to see all of this turkey sign. With all the time that I spent deer hunting in this same woods this fall, I never saw this much sign.
         We made our way back to the car and drove up the road to a different part of the farm that over looks miles of land. I pulled out the binoculars to see if anything stood out but nothing did. We got back into the car and went a couple hundred yards down the road to another spot. I told Mindy that there was a place where the deer bed down. Just as the documentary I discussed talked about deer living on the edge, that is precisely the area I was going to. Its an area in between timber and corn where the farmer has laid massive piles of brush together. My dad and I have discovered that this is a prime bedding area where deer can escape into woods for safety or get up and start feeding at a moments notice. As we crept over the hill top I half expected a deer or two to jump up and run in one direction or another as I had seen so many times before but no such thing occurred. We went a little further just past the first barbed-wire fence when I saw something that looked like thick pieces of grass sticking up about 60 yards away. I asked Mindy for the binoculars and it only took me a moment to know exactly what they were. I immediately gave the binoculars back to Mindy and rushed over to pick up the antler that a deer had been recently cast. It was not huge by any standards, it had four points, a deer that was probably a few years old. Finding that single piece of bone made the trip worth it. I hope to get out again soon and hopefully find more of these antlers. I see a few days with 50 degrees in the ten-day, I'll have to circle those on the calender!

A feather from the turkey that flew into the air next to us.

Deer hair that was caught in a thorny branch.

Mindy walking back to the car under a bright blue sky.

The first shed antler that I found so far this year.