I really only went to go switch batteries in a camera and it turned into the turning point of the summer! Of course it was pouring rain on me while I checked my cameras friday evening after a week of speaking at Bluewater. I didn't have the point and shoot camera to review them so I had to wait until I could get on the computer. Man was it a nice site to see. I popped in the memory card from the island woods that I just got some nice pictures of Black Nose and as I was scrolling through several pictures of a really weak three year old buck, BAM! There was PegLeg in all his 4 year old glory!
He came through around 2 in the morning on the morning of the 31st of July. He stopped back through after he was switching beds for the daytime. I got one more instance of him the morning before I checked the camera (August 3rd). Then to top it off, I went for a drive tonight to move cameras around and just happened to turn back up north although I wanted to keep driving east, but a car turned in front of me and I decided I didn't want to follow him. Boy am I glad I turned left! As soon as I rounded the corner I spotted a couple deer so I pulled over and glassed them with my new Nikon Monarchs. ANTLERS! I quietly tried to pull out and set up my spotting scope as these deer were just coming into the soybeans from the woods. I got it set up and locked on to the biggest one and sure enough - PegLeg again. He looked really impressive.
After trying to measure from trail cam pictures and now seeing him on the hoof, I think he'll gross in the mid 140s to maybe even 150". That'd be pretty sweet.
So that was the first memory card. There were also some other good pictures of Black Nose and two other weaker three year olds.
I put in the next card that had 1600 some pictures on it. I thought it had to be wind. Nope. There were two different yearling bucks that basically set up camp in front of the new Wildview. I did have it on a 3 shot burst mode, but even so, it was getting a little ridiculous. I was really hoping for a picture of the nice buck that disappeared on the 15th of June. Nothing.
The next card was on the other Wildview that I just moved back to the spot where my Cuddeback took on some water and that card had 76 images on it. Again, on a three picture burst mode, my hopes weren't very high. As I flew through the pictures, all of a sudden there was a nice rack. Picture after picture showed me a really nice buck that looked nothing like I had been imagining, but after closer inspection, there's no doubt that it's the buck that disappeared.
Thank you, Lord! Although it's one tiny piece in the puzzle, I still have no clue what direction he came from or where he has been this entire time. It's just so odd. So tonight I moved one of my Cuddeback Captures there now so that if he decides to stroll through again, I won't miss those higher quality images. He looks to be a clean 6x5 with good mass and character around his bases and brows.
The fourth card I checked was from the spot where I picked up Twigs' shed along with the Stud Yearling's antlers. That card had 154 images or so and there were two different two year old bucks that were in there plenty. One of them was no doubt the Stud Yearling from last year. He's now a tight massive little 10 pointer. The other buck is an 8 with an inside point of his left beam and he broke his brow tine off already this summer. So he's really an 8 again.
The camera in the Tweeten woods had dead batteries, so that was a fruitless week.
I now have a camera on the inside of the creek that should produce plenty of pictures. It's just a matter of what kind of deer are living over there. It sure would be a miracle to have Curly appear out of nowhere. I'm still waiting on Pencil to get his act together too. Hopefully August and these cooler temperatures will coax him out of the timber.
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