Trail cameras are addicting. You buy one, get some pictures then decide that you should have another one at a certain intersection and the next thing you know, you are like us and have almost 10 out in the woods, trying to pattern your deer. That excitement of pulling those memory cards quickly vanishes when you see things that don’t belong on your property. In the past couple of months, we have had lots of activity on the trail cameras; a car driving around in the newly planted clover and a man walking through a highly traveled deer intersection. Both men had to make an effort to get where they were; this was not just an 'oops, I took a wrong turn.' We had posted signs up already and clearly that was not enough...
I blame my friend Steve. I cautiously agreed to go with him and learn how to hunt them so that I could have some first-hand experience when I write. I would have never guessed that in agreeing to go with him, I would now look at August in a whole new way; it’s bear season! There are roughly 10,000 of us who buy our bear permits every year. Compared to the 180,000+ deer hunters and we basically have the woods to ourselves to hunt bear. Guess what non-bear hunters? You are missing out on one of the most exciting hunts you could possibly go on! And that should change. Why would you want to hunt bears? Easiest reason is management and keeping the population in check with the biological and social...
I am not sure if the target in the backyard has made the deer around here more relaxed or not, but for this fawn, it wasn't sure what to make of this thing that looks like a deer but doesn't move. If this target can fool these deer, I am wondering if we could use it as a decoy during hunting season... that is something that I will need to research! Either way, the doe and the fawn both look incredibly healthy! Always a good sign for the deer...
A few weeks ago, my kiddo was handed a piece of paper from his teacher. I was standing next to him as she told him that when he and his family go for walks in the woods, we could look for some of these animal tracks. My first thought was that it was odd to see "cow" listed there since you don't typically find cows in the woods. As I skimmed down through the sheet, I was mortified. When I got home, I made an "x" next to all of the animals/tracks that do NOT live in Maine. To me, this is just laziness. There is no moose or white tailed deer listed on here. No black bear or turkey. Even if you had no idea about the outdoors and the animals who live in your home state, you still know that the four animals that I...
This past fall, my routine became almost comical. I would leave my backpack on the ground, climb into my treestand, get settled and unbutton my wool pants. Four years ago, I wore base layers with monkey-thumbs to hide the Queeze-Away bands that I wore around my wrists. I never got sick, but those early morning breakfasts and treks to the Sky Condo were a little more challenging when I was trying to hide a pregnancy. Dad makes sure that I am always secure and comfortable when I am sitting 10-16 feet up in my treestands but if he knew I was pregnant, I was not sure how far off the ground he would allow me to be. So, I kept my first pregnancy a secret during the entire season. I hunted, hiked and pulled the same 10 hour...
At this point, Staci and I just say that we are doing shed hunting but in reality, we just walk through the woods and see what we can find. Our latest trip was quite the adventure. I took Staci to T3 and showed her where Dad had shot his doe. The trick was getting there without getting hurt. There was enough crust on the snow to be able to walk on it in the morning. We debated bringing our snowshoes, but ruled that we could handle the crust with the occasional inch break through. The amount of deer tracks right from the start were nice to see. They had been checking the old apple trees and following a lot of the same trails that they had been taking during hunting season. We started off at the...
You could ask any deer hunter how the herd is in their area and get a different answer every time. We all want the best habitat, doe to buck ratio and a very limited number of predators in our area. What I didn’t know, is that like moose here in Maine, we have deer that are collared and monitored in order to help biologists understand the true health of the deer herd. I sat down with Maine’s deer biologist Kyle Ravana to ask him about the collaring program and what he (and IFW) hope to learn from it. Where are the deer that are being collared? And why those WMDs? Right now, we have deer collared in WMD 17 and 6 and want to expand into either WMD 8 or 1. 17 is good because there is usually a good mix of snow...
It's that time of year when deer are yarded up and surviving the harsh winter weather. I've been fortunate enough to see lots of healthy looking deer while walking through the woods. In talking with friends about the deer herd in their area, they have mentioned that they want to start feeding the deer to help them make it through the winter. I quickly respond with NO! Don't feed the deer! It is fun to see deer come out of the woods and munch on grain or corn, but what a lot of people don't realize is that feeding deer these foods during the winter months could have dire consequences and could actually kill the deer that they are trying to help. Here are the primary reason why you should not feed deer during the winter: Biological...
I wrote the following for the Northwoods Sporting Journal. What are your thoughts on eating wild game and teaching kids about where their food really comes from? On the Monday after rifle season began, my three year old’s preschool asked him what he had done over the weekend. Straight faced, he looked at her and said, “Daddy shot a deer and I ate the heart” and walked off to play with his friends. She looked at me in disbelief and all I could do was smile and nod. The excitement of getting a deer was at its peak for him when we drove into the driveway with my husband’s deer. That same three year old rubbed his hands down the back of the deer, held onto its antlers and when we hung it in the barn, he stuck his head almost inside the...
