In the Northern Maine woods, down a long dirt road surrounded by a beaver bog and thick, dense forests there was a small cabin without electricity, a phone or any sort of cell service. In that cabin, five outdoors women sat with their guns ready to kill Maine black bears. The swollen stream flowed past us at bear camp. The rain would start and stop during my time at camp and we would hold out breathe to find out if we would go out and hunt again or if we would be rained out and the bears that we came to hunt will continue to roam the woods and fields. Five of us were at bear camp and while we lead very different lives, our love of the outdoors and desire to hunt black bear have brought us together for these few days. ...
When Staci and I headed to our last spot to fish, we flushed two birds from the trees. Initially, I could not tell if they were hawks, turkeys or what... it wasn't until they landed on a tree across the stream from us that we could see them! Young Great Horned Owls! We are assuming that they are this year's chicks since they look big but do not have the classic tuffs on the top of their heads. Any bird experts out there who can confirm?
My parents have had a snowshoe hare around the house for a few months. Typically, we see one and within a week it is gone (via interaction with a vehicle) but recently, there were two and then three. All of the adults and kids were outside playing and those hare would race across the back lawn, run along the edge of the garden and at one point, one of them ran along the edge of the house. They were cute at first but they are getting a little too comfortable around humans. Maybe they will head somewhere else this fall... or maybe their lack of caution will result in more car altercations and less human ones. Life with wild critters is never...
Here is how we got to this point. The two men did not seem to see is and Tim and I tried not to give ourselves away but we were on the edge of the field. Tim tried calling the land owner because the property was posted and he was supposed to be the only one hunting. No answer. We stood there and listened as the two men began calling and waiting for a response. They were much closer to those two birds who had just been calling back with us. One gobble and those guys would be headed into the woods. Luckily, those stubborn birds kept quiet. But the idea of hunters in the area made us question our decision to move on from a spot that we knew had active birds. Tim placing decoys in the field So we...
As you know, Dad and I saw way more deer than turkey when we attempted to turkey hunt for the third spring season in a row. It is still a little surreal to think about because our first turkey season ended two weeks before I had O. My schedule was so busy that I had to cancel a turkey hunt with David Hodgkins of Blackfalcon Custom Calls and reworked my schedule to get a half day hunt in with Tim Cote of Cote and Son's Guide Service. I met Tim at 4am and we headed to a spot where he had been the night before. He knew that there were toms around and he knew which spots they would be in. It was a perfect set up. Come on turkeys! We sat just over a little knoll with a couple of chairs and bushes helping to keep us...
Dad and I were making our normal trip to check the trail cameras. We pulled out of the driveway and drove 1/2 mile up the road. I was looking for the snowshoe hares since they have a tendency of playing in traffic when Dad slowed the car down, moose! Maine moose heading across the field I got my camera out as Dad brought the car to a stop. "I bet he is headed over to the mountain." The moose was headed in the direction of the land where we had seen the moose tracks the day before. Maine Moose In order to get a few more pictures, Dad pulled the car into a roadway along the edge of the field and slowly stopped. The moose stared at us for a few seconds and kept walking. He never changed his pace or his direction....
I was thrilled to see these pictures on the camera. I dont think I have ever seen a fawn this little in the pictures. We had three of them, but he was in a hurry so this is the least blurry one. I can not wait to see if there are more pictures when we pull the card next time. Doe and new fawn run across the field And even though we saw the rafter of turkeys, it is nice to see the hen with such a healthy group of babies. Hen with 10 poults It will be great to see them grow over the next few months. Hopefully they can do that without any interference from this. Otherwise, Dad and I will have to take care of...
Slowly but surely, I am going to learn how to fly fish! There is a blog coming (along with a couple turkey blogs) but until I can sit down and publish them... enjoy the view from the river. We arrived about an hour after they released the water. A little...
When some blogs just talked about opening day of fishing season, Robin Follette and I LIVED it! I drove four hours north the day before to hang out with Robin and go on a few adventures (those posts are coming, but here is a sneak peek). The biggest was to stand in the Stream in Grand Lake Stream on opening day and try our hand at fly fishing. We didn't really care about catching a fish but we were excited to see the groups of people that would be there and the excitement surrounding the beginning of fishing season. We met up with Brian Donaghy of Epic Adventures to help us with gear and guidance. When we pulled into the parkinglot, we saw Brian and only 4 or 5 other vehicles. This was not the crowded fishing...
