Our Actions and Reactions - Part VII

By A. Sayward Lamb

Last November I went deer hunting with a friend, Leon Baker. We stayed at Leon’s camp located at Chain of Ponds, but did most of our hunting only a few miles south of the Canadian border. Hunting conditions were about perfect, because the weather wasn’t cold and we had about six inches of snow on the ground. The area we hunted was mountainous and mostly open hardwood.

Logging operations had been carried on at several locations in past years, but as far as we knew, only one operation was being actively logged and we made sure we stayed away from that area.

One morning Leon and I decided to separate and hunt in different areas. Leon hunted on the easterly side of a logging road while I headed out on the westerly side. There was a nice tracking snow, so it was easy to see the deer tracks where they had been traveling.

I had an uphill climb through some fairly open hardwoods, which had been selectively cut over a few years previously. I still-hunted along the deer trail for about a quarter mile, when I came upon another well-used trail that ran diagonally across the trail I had been following. I noticed some fairly fresh deer tracks, indicating that this would be a nice place to sit and watch the trail.

I didn’t want to sit in the snow, so I had brought along a folding seat with a canvas top. The place I decided to sit was in a group of three hardwood trees that were close enough together to break up my outline and yet provided me with plenty of openness that wouldn’t hinder my vision as I watched the trail, which followed down the mountainside.

Having that seat made it easy for me to sit comfortably, and having temperatures up near the freezing mark also helped, as far as keeping warm was concerned. I was dressed with long johns, wool pants and jacket, with insulated boots and warm gloves. I had planned on sitting around and letting the deer come to me.

I had been sitting quietly for less than an hour when I noticed movement to my left, up on the mountainside. What I saw was a nice doe walking diagonally down the deer trail. She sure made a pretty sight and showed up very clearly with the snow as a background.

I didn’t have an “any deer permit”, so all I could do was sit quietly, hoping that with rutting season on, she might be followed by a buck. When that doe got within about forty feet of me, she suddenly came to a quick stop. She extended her neck fully, with her nose sniffing the air, as she studied the location where I was sitting. There was no noticeable wind, so I don’t believe she could smell me.

With that neck extended and her ears standing straight up, I knew she wasn’t sure just what she was watching, other than it wasn’t supposed to be there! There wasn’t a single branch, limb or piece of brush obstructing her view in those open hardwoods.

Soon she stomped her front foot on the ground and then began to blow. She repeated this a couple of times and then decided it was time to be “moving on”. She turned slightly to her left and ran about a hundred feet, before she stopped and blew a couple of times again.

As she headed away from me, I saw her stop again before she ran downhill and bounded out of sight. About that time I was thinking, “If I only had brought my camera with me!”

My reaction was one of joy! Seeing her performance so close at hand made my day! By the way, I sat on that folding stool for another hour, but no buck ever came along. This surprised me but I realized that if there had been a buck following, it certainly would have heard her blow, and pound the ground with her hoof as a warning of impending danger.