Hawkeye,Treestand,Bobo,Bailey,Ed & Al
Bailey and family be from Quebec, Canada.
The woodlot consists of apple orchards and wild apple trees, hay fields, crop fields and cutovers. There are many open hardwood spots and abutting dense fir thickets. Brooks run throughout the property and there are numerous irrigation ponds, home to geese and ducks as well as muskrat. Some of the ponds are stocked with rainbow and speckled trout.
The wildlife is plentiful, snowshoe hare, ruffed grouse and spruce partridge and ringneck pheasants are making a comeback due raising and releasing by our neighbors. The big game consists of whitetail deer, black bear and the odd moose ventures into the woodlot from time to time. We have a great time throughout the year trying to outwit the wily coyote and the timid fox and the ever sharp groundhog.
Come spring it is time for splittin' and stowin' firewood for the upcoming fall hunting season. New life is springing up all around us. It is also time to prepare for the spring bear hunt, to me the ultimate hunting experience. Choosing bait station and stand sites is both time consuming and hard work. This is done in the interiors of the woodlot as the bear seldom leaves the woods for the open areas.
Since taking up the bow, most of my hunting is done from my three treestands, but from time to time I will still hunt to see what is happening in other areas of the woodlot. I have found that stand hunting allows me a greater appreciation of nature in all it's aspects and also gives me some great video and still photo oppertunities.
Heading into the woods at dawn is eerily quiet, but once settled the harmonious sounds of nature come alive. The red squirrel is scolding me, the invader but settles down rather quickly. The brook, the life of the woodlot has a voice all it's own as it rumbles oer and around rocks, twisting and turning throughout the woodlot. Black capped chickadees flit about speedily and oft times alite on my nocked arrow. Dead leaves from last falls hardwoods become the natural fertilizer as new growth springs forth from the forest floor and the trees are once again abud.
This be Dan with his bear, first one he seen in the wild.
A happy couple indeed.
You had seen the sign, the claw raked trees, bark ripped and gouged some eight feet high and matted hair is caught on branches. Ah the woodlot unlike city parks is noiseless and uncrowded except for the hunters and the hunted.
With the spring bear hunt coming to an end, it is time now to begin locating stand sites for the fall whitetail hunt. Setting up a supplementary food source to hold the does and await the bucks. For the buck will not feed at this time one must have their stands placed to intercept as the bucks will not enter the supplementary food source until the rut is over and the season is long over when that occurs. The supplementary food source just may be the means to survival for a fat depleted buck if the winter snows come heavy and early as they did in 97. The buck is in poor shape at ruts end and must find food quickly if indeed it is to survive to breed again.
This be Susie Q from South Carolina visitin' with Bobo at the Coop in October of 99, she was hunting bears across the river with her hubby Dan..Will see them again in 2000..
The wooded areas of the woodlot are a constant shifting of veritcals, where, having a good eye and an alert mind one can pick out the horizontal line of a back or belly. Then without warning a blow or snort and thin legs and raised tails the verical world explodes, whitetail are running and leaping in all directions. Was it me, did I get busted or is it a bear.
As evening approaches the crickets start and the bullfrogs from the ponds are singing. It is now the time of the predators to prowl. Deep in the woodlot one can hear the yips and howls of the coyotes, and the shriek of the red fox, blood curdling to say the least. The shadows deepen as night draws near, then, noiselessly a black bear emerges from the thicket and is at the bait station. First he eyes towards the treestand, now is the time when the hunter becomes the hunted, still and quiet frozen in time one must sit until the bear is satisfied it is safe to try the smorgasbord in front of him.
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