Whatever Takes Us Away

The 2008-2009 deer hunting season has begun! Day one was rather uneventful, I saw nothing that resembled a Whitetail Deer in the six to seven hours I was in the woods. I did manage to scare something off while attempting to get to my tree stand at about 6:15 am on day one. Day two was a bit different and that is what this post will be about.

Things started a bit slow, I was up and settled into my tree stand by 6:35 am; I waited patiently for any movement. There is a small field next to my parents’ property and I was just inside the wood line on a well traveled deer path. The sun rose at 7:29 and at 7:30 I noticed something small with a longer tail and thought it must be a fox. However, I noticed just after that another tail and the body of a coyote. Two coyotes entered the woods at about 45 yards; one headed slightly away from me and the other slightly towards my position. I drew back, and tried to guess the yardage as I got the animal sighted in. Just as I was about to loose an arrow it noticed me and ran away. Having seen these coyotes I figured I would see no deer in this position, but the morning was still very young and there was still hope.

Many squirrels, various birds and a raccoon gave me something to look at to pass the time. An hour after I’d seen the coyotes I noticed on the far side of the field two deer, slowly grazing towards me! I was surprised to see them coming from the same area the coyotes had approached from, but happy to see deer. After a few minutes they wandered off to my right into the woods, and I had begun to lose hope once again. I started to think about changing locations, but decided to stay put and stick it out. To my glee they returned only minutes later and there were now three of them! A mother and two fawns.

They made their way towards me once again and they got right up next to the wood line. After a few minutes one of the fawns entered the woods, jumping over a low spot in the fence. I had placed a small corn feeder along the deer path and the fawn headed straight for it. The other fawn entered as well and went right to the feeder as well. The mother was a little hesitant about jumping the fence, but after a few minutes she too entered the woods. I was standing at this point and waited for the mother to give me a good broadside shot, but her leeriness lead her to exit the woods. The fawns did not follow her, but continued to feed on the corn. About five minutes later the mother entered back into the woods but was fixing her eyes in my direction. She turned her head and I quickly drew back, she spotted me and lept back over the fence out into the field where I could not shoot.

The mother walked away and headed to the north, which was fine because a friend was sitting in a different place about 500 yards from me. He had a chance. So, I sat back down and decided to just watch the two fawns, still chomping at the corn. The mother had left the area about 8:50 and I had been watching all of this for just over 20 minutes at this point.
The two fawns ate and ate and ate some more. They had each spent about 30 – 40 minutes eating the corn. One had more of a black tail, the other more brown. The one with the black tail walked away, but I lost sight of it and focused more on the lighter colored fawn which was still eating. After a few more minutes it too walked away, but laid down only a few yards away from the feeder. Once it had laid down I noticed the other fawn which had also been laying about 25 yards from me. It stood up, raised it’s tail and did something I thought I would never see, hear or experience. The fawn with the black tail raised it’s tail and blew one of the loudest flatulations I had ever heard. The deer had farted! It laid itself right back down where it was.

All told I watch these deer for just over two hours, watching them lick themselves, get up only to move a few feet or yards, come back to the feeder, but they never noticed me or got scared by my presence. It took me more than five minutes to get them to leave before I got out of the stand to return to the house. I talked to them, clapped my hands, and even got to finish most of my coffee with a smoke before finally chasing them off. I recounted the events with my friend and my family that was there. We chuckled a bit and I showed a picture I had taken with my phone, the kids enjoyed the picture and the story of the deer that farted in the woods.
No, I didn’t shoot anything opening weekend, but it was interesting nonetheless.