Maine Hunting Articles and Blog • Page 5 of 48 • And A Strong Cup of Coffee

Moose on the loose

By Erin M | May 30, 2018 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

Every spring when the cows kick their yearlings out of their comfort zone, there are news reports of them showing up in the wrong places. This spring, it was near the kid's school. Friends had posted pictures of the moose but it wasn't until I took the littlest kiddo to the doctor that I saw the moose. Knowing O would love to see this, I drove home and swapped kids. I prepped him just in case the moose had moved on, but we were in luck! Aside from the fact that it was next to the interstate, the moose looked healthy with no signs of ticks or illness. The Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife...

NEOWA Sportsman of the Year

By Erin M | May 22, 2018 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

I had the distinct honor of being named the 2018 Sportsman of the Year from the New England Outdoor Writer Association at their annual meeting. Staci and I went down to southern Mass. to attend the annual meeting and network with fellow outdoor writers. It was great to put faces to the list of familiar names there and I was voted in as one of their newest board members. Being presented the award by Ellie Horowitz Staci and I Mary Julius, Executive Secretary of NEOWA It was a long but fun day of talking with fellow writers and hearing their stories of the outdoors all across New...

More than just turkeys

By Erin M | May 16, 2018 | 0 Comments | 2 min read

For three days leading up to my turkey hunt, I woke up and looked at the clock to figure out how much earlier I would need to wake up to be at Staci's house on time. Aside from ticks, the worst part of turkey hunting is the early start time. The day of my hunt arrived and armed with my coffee, I drove to Staci's house to find some turkeys. Her husband, John, agreed to be our designated turkey caller. Deer ran through the woods off to our right and a partridge drummed continuously as we walked to our first spot. The world was waking up all around us but there were no turkeys to answer our calls, so we moved. I...

Thank you, George!

By Erin M | Mar 29, 2018 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

My friend George Smith publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with ALS early this year. When he told me in late last summer, I was shocked and saddened. I can't imagine the Maine outdoors without George in it.

Maine Black Bear

Love those bear cubs!

By Erin M | Feb 14, 2018 | 0 Comments | 4 min read

Yearlings run. That was the caution that Randy Cross told Staci (MyMainelyGirlAdventures) and me as we met with the Maine bear crew to prepare to head into the woods. This particular den that we were going to had a 16 year old sow, who had had four cubs with her last year when they checked her den. There was the potential for four yearlings plus Mama in the den. I was a little giddy with the idea of so many bears! It is easy to brag about the bear crew. Aside from their decades of experience working with Maine’s bear population, they are a study in how team should work. They know their strengths and...

Tagged out!

By Erin M | Jan 6, 2018 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

Dad assured us that deer move in the wind. He was confident that if we were in the woods, we would see something. He could be as confident as he needed to; he had tagged out and could stay warm. The wind was howling and with the Sky Condo breaking apart, I didn't waste much time getting into my tree seat in the woods. It had taken me a handful of years to be comfortable enough swaying in a tree during a windy sit, but I was ready. It was so cold that I had on my snowmobile boots with toe warmers, my ski gloves with hand warmers and a blanket over my legs to help keep the wind from hitting the backs of my legs. I...

Of course I don’t have a doe permit

By Erin M | Jan 3, 2018 | 0 Comments | 2 min read

This is how I started my second week of deer hunting. I have never been so quiet in the woods. I was painstakingly slow and keeping my eyes peeled for deer. The week before, I had jumped two deer under my stand and I was determined not to have that happen again. I walked out and around our normal route into my stand. I was at a snail's pace. I would walk, stop and look. I would look again and take a couple of steps before doing it all over again. I watched for any movement near my stand. The leaves had fallen off the trees from the wind storm the weekend prior so I had a better view of the area. ...

Finally! it’s the rut

By Erin M | Dec 5, 2017 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

All over social media, there were posts about the rut; has it started in your area? have you seen any chasing? how do you know? what's the moon phase? As much as I would have loved to have had some concrete answer to those questions, I had never seen proof that the rut was on. Until that second week in November. Hubs was out hunting on the 10th and I was in charge of the kids and making our way up to my parent's house to hunt on the 11th. It was windy and cold and I had opted to stay in and not hunt that evening, but wait until the next day. I was holding the baby and watching the leaves blow across the lawn when...

The end of the Sky Condo

By Erin M | Nov 21, 2017 | 0 Comments | 2 min read

As I climbed into the Sky Condo to start the 2017 hunting season, the top step broke off from the tree sending a chuck of wood to the ground and leaving the bulk of the rung hanging down to the next step. I lifted my gun off my shoulder and slid it onto the floor of the Sky Condo and them threw my backpack up. I got myself into the stand and looked down at the damage. We were going to have to replace a few rungs before the following week. And my silent entry into the woods was anything but. I sat there for a couple of hours and then headed for my stand in the woods to see if anything was walking through. I...

The competition is on!

By Erin M | Nov 6, 2017 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

If you do not follow me on Facebook, then you don't know that Dad totally schooled us in how to shoot a big buck. Did some scouting, brought his gun, right place, right time, incredible buck! (Mom's flip phone doesn't take great pictures) So, that leaves Hubs (who has a doe permit) and I (who does not) to attempt to get a shot at one of these big bucks! The competition is...

Maine Fishing Women Who Hunt

Maine’s youngest fisherwoman

By Erin M | Oct 18, 2017 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

How do you create outdoor kids? You have them grow up experiencing outdoor adventures like it is a normal part of life. Over the summer, as I was on maternity leave, I was determined not to let the nice weather slip away without getting some fun, outdoor adventures in. Staci from MyMainelyGirlAdventures took me to one of her favorite fishing spots. I loaded up the baby, my waders (which I fit back into!) and into the water we went. We didn't catch any fish, but we did have a few bites. I had the most action on my fly line that I have ever had! Could have been the flies we put on or, maybe, this baby will be...

Wildlife Conservation

An increase in trespassing

By Erin M | Sep 1, 2017 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

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...

Maine Black Bear

The most exciting hunt, you’re not going on

By Erin M | Aug 25, 2017 | 1 Comment | 3 min read

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?...

Are you my father?

By Erin M | Aug 11, 2017 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

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...

Scat and Tracks Wildlife Conservation

Why kids don’t know their animals

By Erin M | Jul 28, 2017 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

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...

Hunting in Maine Women Who Hunt

When your hunting pants don’t fit

By Erin M | May 23, 2017 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

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...

Maine Deer Sheds Whitetail Deer

We may never find a shed

By Erin M | Apr 29, 2017 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

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...

Hunting in Maine Whitetail Deer

Monitoring Maine’s deer

By Erin M | Feb 26, 2017 | 1 Comment | 4 min read

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...

Hunting in Maine Whitetail Deer Wildlife Conservation

Really! Stop feeding the deer

By Erin M | Feb 6, 2017 | 1 Comment | 4 min read

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...

Stop feeding deer in Maine

Eating Wild Game

Learning to eat wild game

By Erin M | Jan 25, 2017 | 3 Comments | 3 min read

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...

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