I have been going to "Deer Camp" in Maine annually or frequently
since the 1970's. Deer camp is such a special place. Our family
camp in Maine near the family homestead has been a part of my
life for 40 years or so. And the lake it sits on for all my 55
years. But the family camp becomes more magically when it turns
into "Deer Camp" each fall.
This year my son Adam was back at deer camp after a 3 or 4 year
hiatus due to work commitments. And Adam took a nice fat doe the
very first day. My son-in-law Derek has been an annual
participant for several years. Our crew of three has managed a
number of first-day deer most of the last 5 years. Last year
Derek and I both got one within hours of arriving. Adam had the
right moves and luck this year seeing a total of 7 deer. Derek
and I saw none in our 4 days at camp. But I saw so much more.
Deer camp is a time to focus on deer and all the things that
make a deer hunt. While deer are central to any conversation at
deer camp for me it is a time to really connect to the earth
itself. And this year conditions seemed perfect for me to become
just another limb in the forest. I spend quit a bit of time in a
tree stand. I like to become one with the forest. The longer you
sit suspended above the ground and hidden amongst the branches
the more you indeed become more of the forest. Life from the
tree stand was sparse this year, save for a big tom turkey
swaggering up the blue berry field 60 yards away in the full sun
of the day. Squirrels were even scarce this year. But acorns
were not as the ground was covered with them 100 yards from my
tree stand.
The deer did not move much during the days which were unusually
warm near 70 degrees each day. They already have donned their
thick winter coats and stayed cool quiet and bedded during the
day. So my perch in the tree along their normal travel to
feeding areas was for naught. They stood up and ate the
plentiful nuts then just laid back down.
I can't remember a year when the forest around me was so full of
leaves. Fall is running late and even a number of trees had
green leaves on them. My preferred tree stand is near a grove of
pole stage beech trees that give the deer plenty of ground cover
and serves to hide them when they move through. The beech leaves
were brilliantly colored in shades of yellow.
There was a wall of color hanging like a curtain on the trail
that leads toward my tree stand. It felt like I was literally
entering the forest through this curtain and practically needed
to swim through the sea of color to my stand. It was surreal at
times.When I walk through the forest I can't help but touch the
trees as I pass feeling the different textures and feelings of
trees.
I spent the better part of three days in my stand. I knew I
should get out and step on a deer, but time in a tree is well
spent. I completely leave work and other life at home when I am
at deer camp. I think deer, trees, shadows, sounds, colors and
soak in all that my perch has to offer. Just one cloud sweeping
past in front of the sun suddenly changes the whole texture of
the forest spilling out before me. And as the sun slips across
the sky the mood of the forest changes with each degree the
Earth spins eastward. It's totally amazing how the view changes
from one perspective from a tree during one day. There is a
hundred different views of all the same things I have stared at
for hours at a time. It is a time lapse of a day in the forest.
It just takes 8 or 9 hours for the scene to play out.
Sounds means so much more when you sit stationary in a tree for
a full day. Monday the ravens, which are usually quite chatty,
were pretty quiet. All that changed with the field dressing of
the deer Adam had taken. Tuesday the air was full of raven
voices. Even a bald eagle soared by at one point to snack on the
left overs the ravens had not cleaned up. A Great Horned Owl,
not audible even at close range, slipped through the trees not
10 feet above my head on Thursday morning. Eyes and ears strain
constantly to gather any changes in the forest all day long. To
miss a sound or a movement could mean missing a deer. Every
sense of the forest is gleaned from the forest if you are a deer
hunter. That's one of the things I like most about "deer camp".
Saturday 10-29-05 Suncook River remains in flood condition and
checking deer on the opening day of the NH muzzle loader season.
This weekend wraps up another long week for me working seven days in
a row. It's hunting season time in NH and I work lots of it. I was
out in the field all day Wednesday finishing up the NH pheasant
stocking for the year. This last stocking of the year is usually
just a few birds at selected sites; primarily state lands and
federal flood control areas. So of coarse with all the rains and
flooding conditions most of the flood control areas had water back
up on them. Plus because of the earlier flooding two weeks ago the
department held off on delivery of hundreds of birds. But this week
they had to go. I ended up loading up some of my sites with over a
hundred birds each. Hopkinton and Brentwood took the bulk of the 85
boxes (360 pheasants) I had to find a place for. I did get a chance
to take my new German shorthaired pup Koko out for her first
successful hunt later in the week. She pointed and retrieved a
couple of pheasants.
I
was one of three speakers at a habitat workshop co-sponsored by
Bear-Paw Regional Greenways and the Friends of the Suncook River. A
workshop I arranged. We presented the group of over 25 in attendance
the most up to date information on the Departments Natural Resource
Inventory mapping capabilities. I focused on how to use the maps in
the Suncook Watershed. We had lots of good comments from those in
attendance. These maps truly are the recipe for conservation success
in New Hampshire.
My
rain gauge showed two and a half inches of rain again this week.
Half of what was in it three weeks ago, but the ground is so
saturated that the Suncook River swelled to a high flood stage again
the next day. This is the third time in as many weeks that the river
has completely or nearly completely flooded the corn field down
back. Even though we have not had rain in several days the river is
still flooding the corn field. This has never happened like this for
so long a period in the 26 years I have lived here.
Today I manned my annual deer biological check station at Wildlife
Sports in Manchester. By days end I had lifted a ton and a half of
deer in and out of vehicles for a 30 deer total. The biggest was a
220 pound buck taken in New Boston by Jim Beetz of Litchfield. I'll
be back to the station all day Sunday as well.
Monday 10/24/05 The tide keeps coming in and muted colors hang on.
Another week of rain has kept the brooks and rivers swollen at a low to
medium flood stage. And we are less than a day from getting another
potential deluge from hurricane Wilma. We finally did have a hard frost.
In fact we had two in a row Wednesday and Thursday nights. However we
still are hanging on to more of a summer look with lush green fields,
lawns and even plenty of trees are hanging on to their green leaves.
Perhaps this will do the trees well for a growing season since the
spring was so cold and cloudy that the leaves were two weeks late in
coming on.
I did get out some over the weekend. The long period of the moose check
station had me hemmed in at the Fish and Game Region 3 office in Durham
for seven days straight. Even the evenings were full of other work
preparing for the upcoming trapping and hunting seasons that I didn't
even get out into the woods to hunt or walk for a single evening.
Although I only saw seven moose in Durham from Saturday to the next
Friday it is a long week. This last weekend my replacement saw four more
moose at Region 3. This brings the total to eleven for the 9-day season.
The average at the Region 3 station is 23 a year. I understand that the
overall success was about the same at around 70 percent as most of the
other stations had moose coming in all week. Usually the first three
days produces the bulk of the moose for the
season. Not so this year. A week of rain and fowl weather set the kill
back. But the moose hunters hung in there and made up for the slow
start. Not something I expected.
I Helped my friend Jean get his boat off his mooring in the back channel
at Portsmouth Harbor early Saturday morning. It's a pretty good sized
boat to get on to a trailer for winter storage at his house. It was nice
to get on
the ocean one last time even if it was just a short trip to the boat
landing. Hardly another craft moving despite a sunny mild morning. It
didn't even look much like fall down there. But what a transition has
happened with
the moorings bobbing without their craft attached and no constant sounds
of boat motors.
Not much happening on the wildlife front. Again setting in an office for
a week kind of limits the possibilities for observations save for the
trickle of dead moose. I had my crow friends for much of the week.
Although
something happened early in the week to change things. During the
opening weekend there were a half dozen or more crows around the
building that scoffed up the occasional offerings I provided out back.
But they all disappeared on Wednesday and only one was present on
Thursday and Friday. Another food source? Perhaps a predator, such as an
owl, moved in here? Something changed the crow behavior here overnight.
The rainy nights have
had pretty much barren roads as far as frogs go. They must be in
hibernation as they usually are by now. I was wondering with the lack of
a frost and plenty of insects still available if they might stay out to
stretch their
season. Not so. Old sol sent them to bed on time. They have a curfew set
by the amount of sunshine. And the sun has been pretty much obscured for
the last month except for a day here and there. Even the ducks seem to
have gone
and I have yet to see a high V-formation of migrating geese. Perhaps
they have gone but were above the clouds. But I should have heard them.
I usually hear the big migration through the night. There is still lots
of colored
trees although the long cloudy period has taken the beauty and hidden it
this fall.
Sunday 10/16/05 The roaring Suncook River.
The
Suncook River flows slowly and quietly past my house in Epsom day in
and day out for years on end it seems with few exceptions. Today is
one of them. The Suncook is roaring by my house this night. Back to
back very high rain events less than a week apart have swollen the
river until it has given it a voice roaring as it sweeps past in
it's muddy race to wards the sea. Perhaps three or four times it has
roared in the 26 years I have lived here. Today was the loudest it
has been and the river has created a lake of the meadow and corn
field in the flood plain below my house. i sit well above it and am
in no danger of its powerful grasp. Others in NH have not been as
fortunate this past week.
My
rain gauge has filled again in the last few days as has the river. A
week ago a huge storm dumped at least 6 inches of rain to swell the
river for the better part of the week. By Friday the river had
dropped considerably but the last two days of rain has it flooded to
the highest level I have ever seen it. Even the spring thaws and
rains have not swelled it to this degree. It is a powerful sound as
I slide open my back deck slider to listen to this pulse of nature.
When I went down to the rivers edge this morning to take a close-up
look and take a few pictures, plus check my raft tethered to a tree,
I noticed a flock of birds flittering from branch to branch in the
shrubs and trees along the banking. I couldn't identify them in the
early morning light, but it reminded me how this river is an
important migration corridor for wildlife as well.
Moose season got underway Saturday and as usual I am manning the
biological check station at my office in Durham. Only one moose for
the day. a nice 720 pound bull taken in Effingham by William Whitney
of Sandown. Apparently the fowl weather has put a real damper on the
moose hunt as I normally check 4 moose on the opening day. Today was
even worse, not a one came in. I should be at number 8.
I
am amazed at all the colored and still green leaves clinging to the
trees despite the deluges of rain in recent days. Usually by mid
October the leaves have mostly turned color and a rain like this
followed by the winds of today strip the trees mostly bare. It can
suddenly look more like November under these conditions. The mild
wet fall has slowed the trees from turning and saved the colors for
at least another week or two. This has been a real long fall.
Monday 10/10/05 Flooding Suncook River and lots of colored trees.
Despite the muted light of another overcast day the scene out my
home office window is of a dozen or more suns blazing yellow to
orange from the foreground to afar. The red maples are turning more
brilliant each day. Luckily they had just started to turn when the
deluge of rain from Tammy hit. So most of the leaves are still on
the trees. Though a few trees that turned a week ago are now laid
bare by the wind and pelting rain.
And
did it pelt! When I finally got around to checking my rain gauge
yesterday....it was full and overflowing. Five plus inches of rain
were in it and who knows how much had flowed over the filled vessel.
I have had a rain gauge out for well over a decade and never have
had it filled, much less overflowed. I just didn't think about
emptying it mid storm so that I could get an accurate reading. Not
only has it overflowed but the Suncook River out my window this
morning has turned the scene into more of a lake appearance. The
corn field that was cut just a week ago now is mostly underwater! It
is an odd combination of brilliantly colored trees and chocolate
roiling waters. I can't remember another like it in the 26 years I
have lived here. To the west side of NH some towns got a foot of
rain water flooding many areas. The Suncook River has overflowed its
bankings but only the flood plains seem to be affected. I'm not
aware of any homes threatened here.
Another busy week has passed with even a busier one coming up.
Actually I'll work the next 12 days in a row since moose season
starts next Saturday. Last Thursday and Friday I stocked pheasants
again. What a change in leaf color from the week before. I did have
a side trip to the UNH Diagnostic Lab to deliver a piece of moose
brain stem collected by the Fish and Game moose biologist. It will
be tested for the CWD disease. This moose had acted very sickly and
was stumbling. Just a week or so ago it was announced that CWD had
been found in moose out west. While CWD has not been found in the
several hundred deer checked in NH it makes sense to check odd
acting moose. Of coarse these are the same symptoms as moose brain
worm, EEE and West Nile.
I
managed to see another rare Blanding's turtle crossing the road not
far from my house Friday afternoon. It was a huge one. The biggest
one I have ever seen with a shell at least a foot long. This was the
second of the year on this stretch of road. I have seen numerous
Blanding's crossing this area over the last decade or more.This was
the 6th or 7th Blanding's I seen this summer. My best year ever for
them.
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