After a good rain in the early spring months, you can usually find some great animal tracks. Here, a yearling and cow moose ran down the edge of the road. This is the yearlings track, its the same size as my hand!
The above average temps and lack of snow this winter had resulted in the fishing season kicking off two weeks ahead of schedule so Robinand I scoped out the stream the day before we were set to go fishing to see how high the water was and how many fellow fishermen were there. We went back to her house where Taylor joined us and got our fly rods ready with leaders and new flies. The next morning, the three of us ate a delicious breakfast (duck eggs and bear sausage!) and headed to the stream. Our second year being in the stream on April 1. I looked like I knew what I was doing which was a vast improvement from last year. It was also 30 degrees warmer that it had been so the extra layers were not needed. We had an...
You can learn a lot by what animals leave behind. In this case, a bear was able to get a nice chunk of venison. The size and the amount of hair (you can see the white and tan hairs closest to my foot) tells you that this bear took more than just a nibble at the deer. Bear are one of the biggest predators of deer; especially deer fawns in the spring. Clearly there is one less deer in this area then there was before winter started!
Each year, a pair of Mallard ducks land in the pond. Most of the time, they leave after a week or so but this year, they seem to be staying around. We are hoping for some ducklings later on this spring. Female Mallard sits on a potential nest while the male looks on Male and female Mallard Male Mallard...
I just have a feeling that this year will be my year and I will be bagging one of these birds. We moved our blind to a new spot this year and I am hopeful that it will put us closer to the birds than we have seen. Dad, Hubby and I set it up and put a trail camera out to see if there are any birds around since last spring we saw everything but a turkey. A week later, we went back to tweak a few things and check the camera. On our drive in, two hens ran away from us and into the woods. That was a good sign! We parked and pulled everything out of the car and over to the blind and some newly transplanted trees. I headed for the camera and SD card. I went through roughly 75 pictures of the trees before I came to the...
You can find some pretty cool things while walking in the woods and along back roads. I am going to try to share more of these finds with you, more often. First up, these awesome antlers! They were on the side of a hunting cabin at the very end of a dirt road.
As I was frantically trying to get myself and O ready for the day and out the door, I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of these birds at my feeder, just 10 yards away (I know this because of my set up shooting my bow.) There was 12 of them, just picking at the bird seed that was on the ground. A few times, my movement would spook one of them and they could take a step or two back and then go back to pecking. I didn't see any beards and I have not seen this flock since, but I spent an extra 15 minutes taking photos and watching them. In my dream world, I could get up, make coffee, grab my bow and go sit on the porch waiting for them to come back. But, if my pattern holds, my turkey tag will remain unfilled and I...
When you kill a bear in Maine, you are legally required to submit a tooth to IF&W so that the bear can be aged and logged into the records. Each tooth is cut, like a tree, and the rings are counted. Biologists can learn about the health of the bear and it's age. Assuming that the tooth gets to where it needs to be. Typically, it takes a year for the data to be published. The link to the information is usually posted all over social media and eager hunters share how old their bear was. I couldn't wait to find out how old this guy was. The popular vote was about 8 years old. When the data was posted, I searched. I looked up my name. I looked up my guide's name. I looked up the tagging station and the...
That is our mentality as we drag that target outside each weekend and measure out distance in the snow. For three years, I have been after this huge buckand he has stayed nocturnal. After this past rifle season ended and Dad stayed in the woods with his muzzle loader, he saw the deer pattern back to their pre-rifle ways. They were back to traveling the paths that we assumed they used and they were coming out earlier and earlier. Dad didn't shoot a deer but he saw the small buck that we had around and a few does. For the first time, it was blatantly obvious that rifle hunters were moving these deer around. While we had been toying with it, it was clear that we needed to get into archery to try and get the upper hand on those...
