On the move this morning!

[New York Hillbilly]

I was out for a couple of hours this morning but wow was it busy. It was cold, still, crunchy, and very pretty as the sunrise greeted me in my tree today. First here comes a medium sized doe and her little fawn from behind me, and I let them quietly walk by. Momma taking a few steps at a time, stopping and looking around checking the area for danger, and baby trailing close behind moving only when her momma moves and clearly totally relying on the doe at this time.

Next from across the hill in front of me, out of the hemlocks and through the tree tops left by loggers two years ago, comes two bucks walking together. They looked like brothers, with the first one on total hyper alert mode. The lead buck was smaller in body size but was a basket six point. The one following him was bigger bodied, with a rack very similar to the first buck but he only was a four point. Like the fawn with the doe, the four point was clearly just following the movement of the smaller lead six point. He looked kind of clueless and only moved when the lead buck moved and stopped when the lead buck stopped. They turned on the hill and walked down, then broadside to me at about 25 yards, with both of them having the crosshairs on their kill zone as they slipped into the brushy bedding area.

Next, I watched a small doe picking around in a blowdown for a long time. I thought she was going to bed there, but she finally hopped out and walked in front of me and into the same bedding area as the other deer this morning. Finally, a big doe and her two nice sized fawns came across the hill on the same path the bucks had been on and also passed by me and into the bedding area. I decided to call it quits for the morning even though I would have liked to have stayed. With my vacation time quickly slipping by and winter almost here I figured I better get some more of the "honey do list" out of the way. It was a great morning in the woods and I just thought would share.

Oh..and another neat thing today was I saw the same black mink I have been seeing this season, and for the first time this season also saw the fisher I have seen the past couple of seasons on my hill. I was happy to see he is still around. He is a great big, fuzzy fellow. What a great morning!

[Deerthug]

Great story! It's not always about the kill . . .

[joe12]

With the full moon last night, I would not have thought there would be much deer movement this morning. Shows what I know.

[tughillhunter]

it seems to me that there is more movement in the woods following full moon than fields. but, who knows. i know i dont.