Today I started my day of hunting, by driving a patch of woods. About halfway through the woods, when I stopped for a few seconds to listen, three does jumped out of the edge of the woods and ran up a field. Now I know of where some does might be hiding for the start of doe season tomorrow!
Then tonight, because I was busy I did not make it back out into the woods until 4:30 PM. The spot I wanted to watch tonight was on the edge of a woods line boarding a field. So, after setting up so that I could see a bit of the field and woods at the same time I waited. However, the wait was not long, for not longer than five minutes later I heard the crunch of frozen leaves. Which was followed moments later by a buck.
It was the same deer that I had seen on the second day of the season! Which, also meant I could not shoot it, because of the antler restrictions since it is 6-point. Then as it walked along it started staring at me, so I went into total freeze mode. Soon, I realized why when I started to hear the crunching of frozen leaves again, but this time from behind me. As the deer walked behind me I decided that the non-shooter buck in front of me, would not spook if I moved my head slightly so I could see the other deer slightly, which might be a shooter. Well, I was right about the 6-point spooking, but the deer behind me did not follow my preditction. It took off running leaving me with a 1/8 of a second look at its head that left me with the impression that it was antlerless, however, I may have missed the antlers in that short of a glance. Now buck in front of me, decided the other deer had good sense in vacating the area, so, it to raised its tail and took off running.
Since I still had a little while until quitting time, I decided to stay on despite the spooked deer. Soon it was getting dark enough to the point that I was starting to think of heading home. But then I again heard the rustling of leaves behind me, this time though the sound was that of a lighter animal. Again I turned my head slightly and again the animal spooked. It sure would be nice to have eyes on the back of your head! The small animal turned out to be a fox, which streaked off into the woods about 50 yards away from some of my traps. For a few fleeting moments I waited for the sound a snap from one of my traps, but it did not come.
After a couple more minutes I went home, it had been a good day of hunting, despite the fact that I did not get anything!