Cold bird morning, Deer evening

Well, the snow on Monday stopped the state from stocking birds for Tuesday so they were doubling up the stocking for today. I was so psyched because I knew that the place would have a bunch of birds...WRONG! It was a very cold morning...only 6 degrees. It was cold with the birds too. Greg and I did manage to get one bird at the crest of the right side of the hill but that's the only bird we saw all day. We didn't hear much shooting at all, saw hardly any tracks in the snow and all the other guys we met up with said the same thing. What happened to the double stocking?! What a crappy way to end the season! As soon as I left the woods, I headed home to drop off the dog, change and zoomed to Gianna's basketball tournament. As soon as that was over I went behind the recycling center. It was a beautiful afternoon and the post was really enjoyable...I didn't see a thing, however. I saw only two tracks from deer in the snow as well.

Snow on the ground...

Went deer hunting up at the club today. It snowed like crazy on Tuesday (got about 2 feet) and I so i was excited to go deer hunting at the club to see what kind of tracks there were. I went up to 13 to see if the feeder was still up and working and to see if the tracks would be leading into it. I was surprised to see not one deer track heading into the feeder. So I decided to go to 9 instead. I sat up on the mound. I only saw a fox but it was a really nice sit. All except for my back killing me so I had a hard time sitting still. The club didn't get as much snow as I did but it was nice just the same.

Really slow day

Went bird hunting today...it was a really slow day. Greg and I both skunked. They hardly stocked anything...no shots heard anywhere.

Cockbirds galore!!

It's the last Saturday of bird season. I went up to Flatbrook and met up with Greg. We walked down the road again and started on the left side of the field. I can't necessarily say where all the flushes were but all I can say is omg, they were everywhere. We saw a few birds in the field but nothing to shoot at. We doubled back to get into the woods and as we were the guys at the end of the field kicked up a bird and he flew our way. I shot him as a crossing shot...I was happy, I usually miss those. Now into the woods and that's when everything happened. There were cockbirds running everywhere. Bacci kicked up a few, he was in sensory overload...we were in sensory overload trying to get to all the running birds. We made a lot of "through the trees" shots and missed a lot. It was a ton of fun though. At the end, Greg ended up with two birds that he didn't shoot...one Bacci pounced on before he could get up and the other someone else shot and couldn't find but Bacci did.

After bird hunting I went to the Tower to sit for deer with the bow. It was a crisp, sunny day. So wonderful to be in the tree!! At 2:30 I saw a small deer, looked to be a button, walking up the hill about 60 yards away. I saw a fox and a flock of turkeys. Nothing else...but it was wonderful! Can't wait to get back out for deer! I missed it!

No, I'm not Goldie Locks!

Went to the club today to do a drive with Tony and Greg. I got up there a bit early and sat at the end of the field that 10 is on. Shortly afterwards I saw Tony coming out of the woods so I met him and we waited for Greg. Once he got there, around 8:30, we planned the days drives. We started with the first pit near 10. I posted near the entrance road and the only reason I mention this (because we didn't see any deer) is because I found out a few hours later that Tony walked in on 3 bears underneath stand 10!! Glad they waited a while to tell me. We continued pushing the left side of the property. We moved over to push the river and make our way up the right side. I posted up on the hilltop where I was turkey hunting in the Spring, near the river bottom. Tony sat at stand 9 and Greg pushed the river bottom. As I sat on the hillside, I heard a loud rustling in the leaves right on the other side of some brush from where I was sitting. A minute later I heard Tony shoot. I waited for Greg to catch up and we went to meet Tony. He had taken a spike that I had apparently spooked away from me. That was the only deer all day. We pushed the rest of the property but never found another. I did a short sit at night near the #9 stand.

He's just not listening anymore...

I don't know what happened or when it happened but Bacci has just decided that he didn't need to listen to me anymore. This is the second week in a row that Bacci just runs and runs and doesn't listen to me. When I went quail hunting with Danny he listened like a champion, but not anymore. I went to Flatbrook with Greg yesterday. We started on the left edge of the field this time to try and avoid the crowd. It was a good choice because we weren't being pushed and as luck would have it, Bacci went on point immediately on entering the field. He held until we were able to get set and then a hen exploded from the field. Greg and I both shot simultaneously which, at it's close distance, was not the best thing to do...I guess that's a stir-fry bird. We continued into the field. I realized that I had forgotten my whistle in the truck. So we continued on to the end of the field and doubled back to the hill. That's where Bacci proceeded to run wild. He flushed two birds on the hill in his craziness. We worked around the hillside and towards the parking area so I could get my whistle. We worked the hillside and then went to the mountain...again working the hillside and again Bacci ran crazy. He flushed another bird. At this point I wasn't having fun. We went across the street and worked that for a bit...back to the truck and had a drink. It has been two hours now and things have pretty much calmed down. Greg and I went back out to work the river and Bacci decided to be a good listener. He worked close and I started enjoying it again. We worked the river and then hopped to the other side to work the swamp. Working our way to the edge of the swamp Bacci went on point...he held while Greg made his way to him. As Greg got closer the bird flushed. It was a hen and there were trees in between me and her and trees in between Greg and her. We both managed to get a few shots off but with little hope of hitting her. I saw where she came down so we tried to follow her and hunt her again. We made our way to the edge of the swamp and then into the field. We worked the field and couldn't find her. As we were about to go back into the swamp, Bacci went on point. We got close and the bird tried to fly and couldn't. Bacci pounced on her. Apparently we had hit her and broke her wing. A great ending to a somewhat crappy beginning.