Hunting is of course not exclusively sitting in a stand or stalking an animal to harvest. There is so much more that goes along with that. Hunting is a great deal about natural preservation. 1 role of a hunter is to help maintain the balance of animals in an area so the wildlife and the nature around it remains healthy. Too many animals in an area that can’t provide enough food means that animals can suffer. As a hunter I think it is also important to value our resources. All of them. Recently we discovered in our hunting area an old ladder stand that a tree had fallen on. it appears to have been down for quite some time, probably years. Much of the stand is still in reasonable condition but laying in the woods with dead tree on it was not helping it any. So we took some wrenches out my husband and I took the fallen stand apart and carried the reusable pieces back up the hill. We are now in the process of reassembling the stand and replacing the pieces which could not be salvaged. When all is said and done, I expect we will have invested about 30 euro and several hours to make what looked like trash a functional stand again.
After that work was done we stopped for a picnic had a sandwich and some iced tea, and then headed out to our stands for an evening hunt.
With the really nice weather there was a lot of traffic in the woods from pedestrians and mountain bikers. Generally the animals seemed to be hunkering down. at one point a Roe deer doe came fleeing down the hill in the trees to the left of my stand. I just saw her run down.. and then stop. I couldn’t locate her for a while…then when I was ready to assume she moved off further from my stand she came around a bunch of large trees, and laid down right next to my stand. She is the same pregnant doe I have been seeing here. She never came out to the open but that’s ok. It’s always nice to see something.
If you don’t see her follow the tree up and when you see the black nose you will see her laying down
2 responses to “April 7 – Hunting Journal”
First, is that what roe means? She’s pregnant? 2nd, wow, she hides so well!
Roe deer is a species. Not well known in most of the United states. They are a fairly small animal with a shoulder height of only about 2 foot and a weight of only 35-75pounds. I’ve owned dogs bigger. But they are plentiful here and rather tasty. Their antlers are of course also quite a bit smaller.