^ Thanks, sns!
Haven’t been back to the valley, womp, womp. Either the time or the weather, one of those seems to spoil it for me (mostly the former). But I have most certainly been up the field a few more times and daily for the last 4 or 5 days. I left my set up in the original post above and moved around the hay field, hiding behind an occasional bale that still remains and whatnot. The reason was that most of the elk I saw there this season (not much at all and mostly by them lonely selves or in pairs and triplets) in the evenings was coming from the other points. Then, the farmer went over the entire field with a harrow and that pushed me to abandon the position completely. Mule deer seems to have moved on from the field as well. One or two stubborn or lazy ones still hang around, digging the ground, but most have moved to the hay field and other neighbouring fields. No more chairs for me, lol.
I think I mentioned before (maybe not?), but the now harrowed field had barley growing this year. Remember I mentioned the geese flying around? They were flying to a few quarters over. I don’t really know what crop was there (likely wheat). Well, for the last while there have been thousands of them coming from down the valley flying to the same place. Incidentally, I also know exactly where they spend most of their day as well (quite a hike). Could have been a solid bird season.
Not sure if one can see from the uploaded photos, but they come in these flocks of hundreds:
That chunk of trees is my original set up from the back, by the way, so I would be sitting on the far side of it.
Those who hunt honkers are well aware of the noise they bring when they come in these numbers. And it is continuous. And of course it starts right about the time I get there (or before), a short break, and then they start flying back.
A few days after the guy harrowed the field I initially targeted, hundreds of those geese made it their feeding station, which eliminated the short break in between, lol.
Frankly, I can’t wait for them to leave south, lol. I know, weird, right? Well, I even bought the bird licenses and even brought my shotgun with me a couple of times. But I just can’t make myself start shooting and ruin the little chance I have of elk showing up. Well, maybe not
that little, but I don’t know how the rest of the season is going to play out. I also don’t care that much for Canada goose meat either, so, while it is tons of fun (probably the “funnest” hunting after ducks, really), it seems like a bad idea. If it was specks, I would probably be limiting out daily, just shooting those passing by, having chosen the right position by the tree line or a few others.
I also spent some time watching a few chickens pop up here and there, mostly by the tree line:
Like I said, could have been a great bird season, lol.
I am not sure if I mentioned in this thread or some other, I can’t make myself seat in a tree stand for any extended period of time and by extended I mean more than a few minutes. Just wasn't meant to be, I guess. Well, the ground blinds are not that much different if there is nothing going on (I can stay on the ground much longer though). In these fields, however, there is almost always something going on. Usually, it is mule deer that provide the entertainment (I guess that was obvious from my previous posts). The last few days, I spent time watching bucks feeding, playing, sparring, and a not so young guy trying to mount some does and then a young buck, lol. All of the victims of unwanted attention had to run from that dude until he settled himself down.
Anyway, today… Today, I went up to the field again, as I did yesterday and day before, etc. What has lately been the usual happened today as well: gazillion of geese (actually, felt like there is less today), mule deer, and grouse. Made a new buddy today. This young buck:
Not sure if our “relationship” will last as long as the one with the older buck in one of my posts above, but today has been fun. I approached this guy and stood about 5 meters away from him. He then cut the distance by about 3 meters, which actually made me a bit uncomfortable. He was sparring with one of the older bucks just moments earlier. He also walked me to my vehicle, lol. I mean literally, he walked behind me while I was walking to the vehicle, like one of those cats that you meet and pet when walking with kids in the neighbourhood and it keeps following you for a couple/few blocks after. Really weird, never happened to me before. Mule deer are surely weird creatures. I got uncomfortably close to them in the bush before too, but none had ever followed me, field or bush.
Anyway… That was fun. What wasn’t, however, is this:
When I got to the vehicle, I looked at the “now goose” field and saw a bunch of elk coming up! I counted 8 and more coming. Can’t see on the pic, but one of those is a young bull, which is actually weird because bulls aren’t usually among the first to be up, in my experience. Of course it was now about quarter of an hour past hunting time
and one of those days that makes you wonder why hunting had to stop because there is still so much light out. Yesterday was the same light wise (except no elk, lol). Oh well, it is what it is. I packed myself up and left in a hurry just so I would be out of their way and let them be.
I will resume tomorrow in the am and see what goes. Planning to get deep down the valley too. We will see what happens.
Surely, one can say (and be absolutely correct) I missed most exciting elk hunting time this year. What are you gonna do though. I now have a dilemma: no elk as of yet, but I also have a moose tag starting Monday in 520 that I know not much about. Should I try and find a moose or give my best to putting an elk down in the WMU I am most familiar with (as far as elk goes)? Hmmm… I guess we will see how this weekend goes and go from there. Another option is dedicate a week or two to moose or/and elk and then screw the meat (the main goal) and move on to bush whitetail, which is my favourite chase of the hunting season (and I didn’t get to do that last year).
Happy Halloween to you all!