Morel Monday

Never in my 27.5 years on this earth have I found a morel mushroom. That is, until this last week. I was walking down a trail I had blazed to get to and from a stand way back in the sticks. As I was walking I looked down and right there in front of me was a huge morel mushroom. Sore thumb sort of deal. I gave it away to a friend who really enjoys fungi of all types. So, I have yet to sample the taste of morels. The real purpose of my trip was to check some cameras and ultimately move one camera up to the Little Hill where I've had another camera that's kinda wiggin' out on me. So I got them switched and checked the other cameras before the wicked lightning storm hit. There were a few pictures of bucks, but nothing too old. Another two weeks will tell a much better story. I really hope to see that The Clown is still alive and well. There are so many bucks that would be great to get pictures of, but only time will tell. I will need to replace batteries in a week or two.

12 Grouse 'a' Laying

About two weeks ago I was out and I was startled by a grouse that had been near me for like five minutes without moving. Finally, because I was on the phone, I spoke up loud enough and out from a little branch less than 15 feet from me was this grouse! The first thing I thought was NEST. So I walked over to it and sure enough, there were eggs in it. I took a picture with my phone, but I never uploaded it. So yesterday I headed back out there to get a picture of the nest with the grouse on it. I got that and then when she left the nest she made a sound I'd never heard a grouse make so I put the camera on HD video and tried to get the most steady footage I could. I tried to get a better count of the eggs and although it's hard to see in the video, there are 12 eggs in there. That's pretty good. I hope they make it. There was a porcupine only 20 feet from the next. Apparently they don't care much for eggs. I know skunk, fox, and fisher do. Other than that, I took a little drive around the countryside to see what crops would be where and to try and get some good pictures of nature. I got some pictures of a woodtick about to pounce, I got some of the army worms working there way out, and some of every different kind of duck. I also saw a big boar bear but couldn't get a picture. You might have to turn your volume up to hear the grouse:

Never Say Die, I Guess

So a friend and I went down the border to a spot way out in the swamp to check the Trophy Rock and the Cuddeback over it. Well, after a long walk, we finally arrived at the stump and of course the camera was spun 90 degrees on the tree. These bears are getting on my nerves. There were 70 or so pictures, which I thought was pretty low for a whole month. But having the camera 90 degrees on the tree really limits the amount of pictures you're going to get. The stump was tore up a little from the bears. The Trophy Rock was gone. Luckily we brought some molasses and some Deer Cocaine. Not far from the stump I glanced back down the trail and a little curve caught my eye. Sure enough it was an old antler. A decent little two year old. That makes 13.

The pictures have been considerably slower than last year at this time, but I know that'll change soon with the green up coming as it is now after the last little bit of rain. The farmers are trying to get out and seed their soybeans and it'll be very interesting to see what develops as far as crop locations and strategies for 2010. I've got one spot that I'm pretty positive will be put into beans and there's an awesome location to put a camera come July. I may be spending my early season over there. We'll the cameras and my spotting scope will be dictating where we spend our time in the early archery season. There should be no shortage of healthy bucks around the county with the easy winters we've been having. I'm hoping for a reasonably dry summer so there's a chance to turn over the shack field this fall. I'd like to mark trees after rifle season or muzzleloader season that need to be cleared on the north end of the shack field. I have managed to get a picture of a little timber wolf, but that's never really a good thing.

Sheddin' Comes To An End

It's always sad to have to give up when you know darn well there are still plenty of antlers, big ones in fact, just laying out in the woods. How close did I come to finding some of the hitlist antlers? 100 yards? 50? 10? Sometimes you have be heading directly for an antler to finally see it. How many antlers did I miss this year? Hopefully none. This spring was a pretty good one for finding antlers. I managed to pick up 12 antlers this year. Mom and Dad picked up another 9 I believe. 10 of mine were from The Hill and 6 of Mom & Dad's were from The Hill. There were only 3 antlers off the 2010 hitlist that were picked up and positively identified. 2 are in question. In hindsight, there were only a few mistakes I made when looking for them:

1) I need to keep in mind that when the swamp freezes up, deer will spend time out there.

2) Rivers and creeks are not boundaries when they're froze over.

3) You've got to beat the snow storms - not all sheds have fallen, but the ones that have will be buried.

4) Getting permission pays off.

We had an incredibly dry March and April. March was the driest on record and in April we didn't get any precipitation until the 28th! May so far has been a little wet, but it's supposed to snap out of it and get warm again. Most people's crops, with the exception of tender soybeans, were seeded in April and have a great head start. It appears that we will have soybeans to the east of us this summer, which will make things very interesting as far as the Trophy Rocks go. Location is everything. Pictures are beginning to pick up and I'm looking forward to a fantastic summer.

Spring Wrap Up

Dad and I went out in the rain on Thursday morning. We got permission from a guy who owns a couple hundred, if not a couple thousand, acres out south of Warroad. We hiked around a large grove that was surrounded by standing sunflowers all winter. No luck. As it started to rain harder and harder, the parched ground was happy show off the greenery that waited ever so patiently below. The wetter it got, the greener it got. The greener it got, the smaller my hopes were for the shed season of 2010. We did come across some pretty interesting things on our last little walk along the creek. We found this pile of carcasses that had at least 6 or 7 buck heads still attached. All yearlings. Can you say QDM? If I'm honest, it makes me pretty disappointed. Then we found three of the biggest "puff-ball mushrooms" I have ever seen! Not even close to the ones I had seen previous. I thought they maybe got to be baseball size. These suckers were bigger than pumpkins!I have to say it was a good season overall, but I am a little vexed in the cases of a few specific bucks. They were regulars to a certain area, but their antlers just couldn't seem to be found. I hope to get back on to them this summer and fall as they demolish the mineral licks. After I dropped dad off, I jetted up to The Hill to switch the cards on the cameras and take one camera down to bring back to Santa's workshop (Cuddeback's factory). I meant to pick up the strap for Steph's camera case, but when I got down to the spot it should've been laying, it totally slipped my mind. Next time.

On my way to pull that one camera down, I noticed what I thought was a piece of bone. With 95% chewed up, this little spike antler was a fitting "nail" in the preverbal "coffin".

I ended the season with 12. Nothing over 50". Nothing over 2 years old, as far as fresh antlers go. Oh well. Now to let the pictures roll in.