May 17 we were working on an archery stand where my friend had just dropped a tree. As the tree fell, he looked down to see this fawn within 10 feet of him. We took a couple pics and promptly left. The fawn was still there the next morning, then by the afternoon it was gone. Hopefully, it will grown up to become a trophy buck.
Every time we thought spring finally arrived, winter would return……. again and again. Everybody is behind on their spring chores and planting since the snow left very late and the fields are wet. Several of the neighbors have had tractors stuck in the fields.
Mean while we were able to burn a few old, dilapidated deer stands we inherited years ago. We downed trees for habitat improvement. The opening of fishing season met us with a half foot of snow, remnants of the 14″ of the heaviest snow ever, two days earlier. The heavy snowfall left the water too high for fishing, however, the following weekend found the water fishable. The Trout Lilies bloomed, and we harvested our first Ramp of the season and promptly made Ramp Soup. The Baltimore Orioles showed right on time, even though snow squalls prevailed much of the day, and that’s the same day I spotted the first buck of the year. The drumming Grouse clip does NOT have audio. By the way, the Grouse drummed 40 times in a two hour span.
It was an active year in the spring pond. Swans, Sand Hill Cranes, Bluebills, Ringbills, Redheads, Canada Geese, Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers, Pintails, Bufflehead, Blue Wing Teal, Widgeon, Woodies, and Mallards all visited, along with a variety of shore birds.
.jpg "Baltimore Oriole at Turtle Creek Outfitters")
Turtle Creek Outfitters is located at the northern edge of the driftless area. This is an area along western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois that didn’t get covered by the glaciers. To get a better idea of what the driftless area is like, watch this trailer, Mysteries of the Driftless.
The following photos and driveway at sunrise show parts of our driftless area at Turtle Creek.
.jpg "Sunrise along snowy driveway at Turtle Creek Outfitters.")
Check out our compilation video with peeks at the 2012 EXperience Here.
I met Mike back at the truck, after his afternoon archery sit on Sept. 29. He didn’t get a deer, but conveys one of the many memorable stories hunters experience while observing nature. This story is about deer, but many stories are about owls, or coyotes, turkeys, mink, otter, beaver, Eagles or one of the many other birds or animals that inhabit this wide-ranging landscape.
Click here to listen to his story.
