Yesterday I told you about J.R. Absher, the Newshound’s, story about the guy in Illinois that bagged a five-legged deer. Out of sheer courtesy, J.R. sent me over a couple of photos if I wanted to put them up for readers to see. Thanks J.R.

Tom Remington

If I hadn’t read it, I wouldn’t have believed it!

We have all seen highway safety signs up and down the roads of America – “Slow Curve”, “Caution”, “Fallen Rock Zone”, “No Passing”, along with many others. But do we all know what these signs mean? Here’s an example. If you are traveling down a street of roadway and you see a sign that reads, “Pedestrian Crossing”, do you know what it is telling you? Usually this sign is erected to let drivers know that a marked crossing for humans is ahead.

Now if you saw a sign that read, “Deer Crossing”, would you assume the same thing only pertaining to deer? According to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, people believe that a “Deer Crossing” sign designates a legal crossing for deer.

Becky Allmeroth, a traffic operations engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation, says the agency frequently receives calls from people asking: “Why do you put them up? Deer can’t read.”

Some people believe herds of deer move across the road at the crossing signs as if they were schoolchildren in a crosswalk. They don’t. The sign may not even mark a spot where any deer ever has crossed the road.

But the real laugh comes from this one woman whose legend has lived on.

The herd-crossing belief may have been at the bottom of a request a deer lover once made of Allmeroth. Allmeroth says a woman who is a public official, whom she will not identify, wanted the crossing sign moved to give the deer a safer place to cross. The request has become an urban legend among those who deal with traffic or deer.

WOW!!

Tom Remington

I work hard at what I do and every once in a while I have to have a rant. The next post is my rant for the quarter. Is asking for 4 a year too much? Yeah, maybe! For those who might not know, there is a difference between opinion and commentary and just plain ranting.

Tom Remington

*WARNING!!! I MIGHT SAY SOMETHING OFFENSIVE!!!* If you don’t want to be offended, don’t look…..but I know you can’t help yourself.

When I was a child, I really believed that if I covered my eyes so I couldn’t see anything, nobody could see me either. Now that I’m not a child anymore, I think I have finally figured it out. Not true for some though.

In Upton, Massachusetts, biologists working for the state collecting data which is critical to the management of a healthy deer population, set up a check-in station in the parking lot of the VFW hall. This area was about 100 yards away from a town playground, according to Danielle Williamson of the Milford Daily News. This offended one man so he complained to the Chief of Police, Thomas Stockwell. Stockwell then asked that the station be moved.

Officials, perplexed that someone would complain, ended up moving the station out behind the building but that didn’t stop those curious enough to go check out the happenings.

*Oh, oh, oh, be careful. You might not like what comes next.*

Hunting is very much a part of American heritage and I have news for those who might think that hunting is going to go away. It’s not. While I don’t propose forcing anyone to look at a dead animal who doesn’t choose to, I also don’t believe that covering up your eyes and pretending it isn’t there is the answer either.

100 yards is the length of a football field and for anyone to take offense would have to be doing the “heavy looking on” as the old saying goes. There are many things that we all can find “offensive” but tolerance, respect and understanding can go a long ways – or does that only pertain to others concerning things you don’t like?

*It gets worse!*

I personally find it offensive when fat people wear tight fitting clothing but I don’t run to the police to make them stop. I find it offensive to see two men holding hands and kissing in public but I don’t run to the police and make them stop. I find liberals offensive to listen to but I tolerate them.

If you don’t like what you see by craning your neck to observe, stop looking. Or maybe a better thing to do is let your child’s own curiousity ask questions if they see fit and you as a responsible parent can use the opportunity to educate them as to what living in America is ALL about. But if you don’t agree, you probably think that playing tag on the playground is a dangerous game and is unfair and may cause a child to grow up with inferiority complexes because they were tagged more often than the other kids.

*You really don’t want to read the rest. It’s bad.*

If that description fits you, I would suggest burying your head in the sand somewhere and just pretending that Ted Kennedy is a Massachusetts conservative, that John Kerry is president and Al Gore really won the election in 2000. Life couldn’t be any better for you. Oh, yeah! And you can go down to Wal-Mart and buy a plastic gun to protect yourself and your family, because in Massachusetts, guns aren’t allowed. Oh, no, wait! Wal-Mart won’t work either because they run an unfair business, underpricing other companies and hiring disadvantaged people and forcing them to work for substandard wages and benefits.

I’m glad I don’t live that way.

Tom Remington

And now you can cry in the comments section about what an evil person I am because I think people should be free to live. Oh, nasty, nasty statement to make to a control freak.

In 1912, guilt was the motivating factor in the establishment of the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I say guilt because humans moved into elk wintering grounds and built a town, established ranches and forced the elk to look for a place to survive the long harsh western winters. In essence, we stole their feed grounds from them.

Feeling bad that elk were starving to death, man decided to help feed them through the winters. And so was born the National Elk Refuge, which today continues to feed the wintering elk – as many as 7,500 each season. The question is, do two wrongs make a right? Stealing the elks winter grounds sounds shocking but similar occurrences go on today all across America. Feeding wild animals to compensate for that also goes on.

With the ever present threat of disease, wildlife biologists are scrambling to find ways to prevent the spread of such diseases as chronic wasting disease and brucellosis, both found in elk. Studies show that one of the fastest ways to spread the disease is when animals are in close proximity and when they feed. The disease is spread from one animal to another through the saliva. In the wild it is theorized that if an infected deer, moose or elk where to browse on vegetation leaving behind an amount of saliva on the plant, a following animal that ate the same plant containing the saliva, could contract the disease. It should be pointed out as well that recent studies are now indicating that chronic wasting disease can also be spread through the blood.

Elk are different than deer and moose. Elk herd more than the other. Moose almost never herd together but chronic wasting disease has been found in the big animal. Deer yard up in the winter months. States that are battling overpopulations of deer are often fighting CWD.

So if we know that disease is more easily spread this way, why do we promote it by sponsoring and operating feed grounds? Thousands of elk congregate in the Jackson Hole area in winter and feed on natural vegetation as well as supplemental feeding by the refuge. Efforts have been undertaken to increase the natural growth of vegetation necessary to feed the elk but supplemental feeding still goes on. This creates a situation where the elk are feeding closely together and eating from the same feeding bins, a sure fire way to spread the diseases.

Science proves to be a secondary means of determining the best way to manage wildlife. Politics rule now. Pressure from hunting groups and wildlife seekers, which translates into income for local and state economies, dictates that elk feeding will continue. But there is a bit of true hypocrisy when it comes to the management of elk.

Back in September, I wrote a story about Wyoming Game and Fish’s dispute over a report written by the Ecological Society of America. The report claimed that the techniques being used by Game and Fish in managing the elk at the refuge weren’t working and said things needed to change. The Game and Fish countered that the report was more of an opinion piece than fact.

Here are some of the highlights of that story.

Terry Kreeger, supervisor of the veterinary services branch of Wyoming Game and Fish, called the article “strictly an opinion piece” and said that most of the document consists of well-known facts interspersed with speculation.

“There’s an agenda here,” Kreeger said. “It should not be considered a scientific document.”

This is what I wrote and quoted Kreeger as saying about the management of the elk refuge.

Kreeger said that he agrees with the report that feed grounds do aid in the spread of disease but points out that the political ramifications are such that the state is left with few options. He says by keeping the elk gathered at feed grounds this prevents the elk from mingling with cattle in nearby ranches further threatening the spread of brucellosis. He also points out that pressure from hunting groups to provide more and better elk hunting plays a big role in management.

“Yes, feed grounds do maintain higher levels of brucellosis,” said Kreeger. “The long term solution is to phase out the feed grounds. That’s not being argued.”

Kreeger said that the article doesn’t take into account the political necessities of brucellosis management such as protecting livestock and hunting interests.

The real kicker is the statement Kreeger makes about the lack of options available to the wildlife department.

“People would like to make disease the only issue that drives this discussion,” he said. “Where are these animals going to live? It’s relatively naive to think that this will be a natural world where these animals will find enough habitat.”

Kreeger said that, with increased development, the elk’s survival might eventually depend on humans. “The whole Greater Yellowstone Area might end up being one big zoo,” he said. “Feed grounds might not be the devil that these people would like to make them out to be.”

In my commentary following the statements made by Kreeger in response to the published report, this is what I had to say.

My point is this. Are any of these scientists actually looking at the long term results of their management beyond 5, 7, 10 or 12 years? Are we to continue to allow politics to force our tactics of wildlife management? Certainly we need to protect our livestock industries as they are vital to our economy but are we attempting to management a much too large population of elk because of political pressure from hunting groups and wildlife lookers? It appears to be the case. And what is going to be the real effects several years down the road?

What is ironic is hunters often condemn the practice of using game ranches as legitimate hunting opportunities and at the same time condone the practice of feed stations and the management plans in place to provide better hunting opportunities through zoo-like landscapes. The only difference are the fences. It is only a matter of time before the pressures will result in the erection of fences to keep the elk in one place and the livestock in another.

We have created this situation and it becomes clear, escpecially from the comments of Terry Kreeger, that politics rule game management decisions. As long as this practice remains the norm, our problems will only grow and hunting will continue to erode to the point that only the affluent who can afford the exotic game ranches will be able to hunt.

There is little that I would change from that commentary of September 13th but I would add a few things as the result of events that have occurred since then.

Wyoming is one state that has banned farming of elk and the dreaded so-called “high-fence” hunting. The National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole is a giant elk farm and also doubles as a “high-fence” hunting ground for those lucky enough to draw a permit to hunt one. The farming is obvious in that it feeds and maintains a herd of elk by means other than natural. The elk systematically retreat to the high country in the spring and summer months where the grass is greener and return in the fall. Many people view this as a natural event.

The town of Jackson Hole has erected fences to keep the elk out of farmlands and away from the town itself. I have read countless stories of hunters using natural “fences” to corral the elk and make their hunt more resemble shooting than hunting, which is what many hunters refer to shooting game behind fenced-in ranches.

During the time of year when the elk are congregating in the wintering areas, is when permits are issued to hunters seeking to bag an elk. This generally occurs from late October into early December. The Game and Fish Department manages its herd by issuing permits for the purpose of herd reduction. Money is collected through fees charged to hunters who buy licenses to participate. Certainly there aren’t a lot of differences between what the state says they have a right to do and what the state says private citizens DON’T have a right to do.

Over in Idaho, groups are banding together to outlaw elk farming and “high-fence” hunting. The state is being pressured by Wyoming to do this as they say the threat of disease is such that if diseased elk were to escape, it would devastate the elk herds. I’ll remind you once again what an official with the Wyoming Game and Fish had to say about the state sponsored elk farming.

“People would like to make disease the only issue that drives this discussion,” he said. “Where are these animals going to live? It’s relatively naive to think that this will be a natural world where these animals will find enough habitat.”

Kreeger said that, with increased development, the elk’s survival might eventually depend on humans. “The whole Greater Yellowstone Area might end up being one big zoo,” he said. “Feed grounds might not be the devil that these people would like to make them out to be.”

If his statements are true and reflect the philosophy of the Game and Fish, there is no justification to outlaw elk farming by private citizens. Kreeger also emphasized in his rebuttal that keeping the elk gathered up at the feed grounds, kept them away from the cattle and would be less likely to spread disease. Fences, real or imagined seem to be a good resource for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and for hunters but not for private citizens wishing to farm elk.

Hunters and hunting groups might want to consider the words of Jesus in the Bible when citizens wanted to stone a person because they thought the person had sinned a great sin. He responded with, “He who is without sin, let them cast the first stone.”

I am opposed to the banning of hunting ranches across the board. I think it is irresponsible to punish the masses in order to solve a few problems concerning “high-fence” hunting grounds. We as hunters often talk of ethics as though it were a well defined thing. It’s not. Ethics is the perception of the individual in what they believe is right and wrong. Of course we have laws that take care of the obvious but individual choices are just that, individual.

Unless you hunt in a wide open parairie with no trees, roads, rivers or obstacles, you hunt in a “fenced-in” area. We all use natural obstacles to increase our chances of bagging game – all legal. We use roads, ravines, ridges, rivers, lakes, fences, etc. to lessen the escape routes of the game we are pursuing. Is this now non-ethical hunting?

All across America today, towns and cities are hiring or soliciting hunters to come into small areas of town-owned land and cull the deer herds. Is this unethical hunting? States allow deer hunting with dogs and/or “driving” deer. Is this unethical hunting? There is a very large and growing organization in America that educates and promotes the use of food plots in maintaining healthier deer. Is the utilization of such techniques (very much an unnatural thing to do) unethical hunting?

Is chaining an animal up to a stake in the ground and shooting it, unethical hunting? Is having 6 deer enclosed in an area of 50 acres and allowing the hunting of those deer unethical? Is 500 acres too small? How about 5,000, 50,000 or 500,000? Ethics is a sticky situation and banning all ranch or fenced-in hunting is ridiculous. Better management would be the sensible way to go. Does a state have more of a right to farm elk (they call it management) than you or I? Is what the state of Wyoming is doing in putting the agricultural industry at risk of disease somehow acceptible yet rancher Jones poses a bigger threat?

The hunting industry is a powerful lobby. As an advocate for the protection of hunting as a right and a heritage, I want to do what is best for hunting but I prefer to look at the long term results of actions being taken now. Many of these decisions being made are done so because of politics and money. If we are to truly preserve our sport, it needs to be done with the idea that it will be here in 10, 20, 30 or 300 years.

Allowing the government to control your rights as an individual to conduct business is flat out dangerous, especially when the government is doing itself what it is claiming you can’t. Why should the states monopolize an industry, such as agriculture, and reap the benefits of the economics of such a venture and you or I can’t?

Some of the states looking to ban elk farming and ‘high-fence” hunting have seen the likes of hunting groups and the Humane Society of the United States, teaming up for the same cause. If you are a hunter or a farmer, you have to use this as a wake-up call. For hunters to band together with an organization that has spent countless resources in efforts to ban all forms of hunting, I am amazed that they are giving credence to an extremely far left organization.

There is no rational reason to ban elk farming and no sane excuse to rid the states of game ranches. Controls to ensure the protection of the agricultural industry are necessary and a clearer understanding of the ethics of game ranches is a far better solution than the radical nature of banning these practices.

“He who is without sin, let them cast the first stone”.

*Previous Posts*

Fanning The Flames
Idaho’s Escaped Elk Test Negative – Elk Ranchers Face Banning Advocates
Idaho Governor Calls Off Elk Depredation Hunt…..Sort Of
In Response To Malnourished Elk
Rex Rammell’s Letter To The Editor
Has Government Gone Too Far? More Escaped Elk Shot
What Do Malnurished Elk Look Like?
Idaho Elk Breeders Association Opens New Website
Bull Elk Shot Inside Rex Rammell’s Ranch
Wyoming Governor Asks Idaho Governor To Ban Game Farms
Escaped Idaho Elk Shot In Wyoming
Rex Rammell Arrested
Governor Jim Risch Defends His Decision To Shoot Escaped Elk
Idaho Gubernatorial Candidates Have A Say About Elk Farming
Rammell For Governor, Ranch Sold, Elk Still Being Hunted
Wyoming Governor Freudenthal Says Interior Department Not Doing Enough About Escaped ElkIdaho’s Escaped Elk Now Getting National Attention
Idaho Elk Farmer Says All His Elk Accounted For
Idaho Governor Expands Hunt For Escaped Elk
More Elk Killed In Idaho – Some By Hunters
Idaho Elk Farmer Plans To Sue The State
Scientists Will Test Killed Idaho Elk For Disease And Genetic Make-up
A Helicopter, A Plane And 25 Agents Can’t Find 160 Domestic Elk
Escaped Idaho Elk Being Slaughtered. Wyoming Ordered To Kill Elk Also
Domestic Elk Crash The Gate – Escape!

Tom Remington

The email story that has been traveling at cyber speed around the Internet and one of which I posted the photos, showing a bear trapped under the wheel of a combine, is a hoax according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. WJBC AM Radio has a short item.

If you’ve seen an email that shows a large black bear trapped under a combine in a cornfield, the state Department of Natural Resources says it’s a hoax. In some versions, the email claims that the incident happened in rural Illinois. Others say it was in Wisconsin. The email references DNR, but the agency says that incident of a bear being trapped did not happen in Illinois.

So, it didn’t happen in Illinois. Does that mean it might have happened in Wisconsin? According to some of my readers, it happened in Wisconsin.

The location is Farmington, Wisconsin near the border of Wisconsin-Minnesota (about 40 miles to the Twin Cities in MN)

This bear was near Osceola (Farmington), WI, at the Troy DeRosier farm in NW Wisconsin. The man holding the bear’s head in one of the photos is Troy.

The photos were from the Troy Derosier farm in Farmington WI. A story about it was written by my wife for The Country Today newspaper. www.thecountrytoday.com

If you would like to read the story that appeared in The Country Today, click here.

Tom Remington

The New Jersey Supreme Court would not rule in emergency fashion to overturn Lisa Jackson’s cancellation of the scheduled bear hunt for December 4th. This does not mean the courts won’t hear the case. They just did not find reason enough to warrant an emergency ruling – go figure!

Looks like Governor Corzine has his little puppets all lined up in tidy little rows.

Tom Remington

J.R. Absher, blogger for ESPN Outdoors and the News Hound, has the story about a first-time deer tagger finding an extra leg to stand on.

Tom Remington

I know nothing about this product or the company that manufactures and markets it. I received this press release from the marketing department. At first I wasn’t sure how, if at all, to use the release, then I decided to print it here and let my readers add comment if they are familiar with the product and offer any feedback pro or con about it.

If you have a comment about the product and/or are familiar with it or the company, please let the rest of us know. Thanks.

Hunting Enthusiasts Set Site on All Terrain Camping Trailer
Campa USA, manufacturer of the Campa All Terrain Trailer (ATT), is seeing steady interest for its highly mobile, self contained system from hunters and other related outdoor adventurers.

North Ridgeville, OH — For many hunters, the fall and winter seasons are the most exciting times of year. Increased frontal activity and big game hunt opportunities are just a few factors that attract these individuals to some of the most remote regions of the country. However, vehicle and equipment mobility in hard-to-reach areas remains a challenge for many. As a result, an Ohio-based manufacturer of self contained, all-terrain trailer systems is seeing continued interest from the hunting and outdoor markets.

The Campa All Terrain Trailer (ATT), manufactured by Campa USA, is a lightweight trailer designed to go anywhere a vehicle can. Made of stainless steel, it can be equipped with special options such as a hot water shower system, solar paneling, water filtration, and an electric refrigerator/freezer. Additionally, the product’s unique tent configuration offers the ability to sleep up to 10 people comfortably.

“We’re seeing a steady flow of interest from hunters,” said Chris Cole, president and founder of Campa USA.

“The ability to be self contained in remote areas is an attractive feature for them. Hunting is a sport that requires a great deal of patience and waiting. These units are designed to make someone as comfortable as possible in those situations without sacrificing the overall outdoor experience,” he added.

Because of its potential, Cole and his company plan to give greater attention the hunting market, which according to the National Sporting Goods Foundation, is estimated to be at $1.25 billion.

“This particular vertical market makes a lot of sense for us because the product is a great fit. And pardon the pun, but every time hunters see our trailer, they’re just blown away,” added Cole.

Another attractive feature for hunting enthusiasts is Campa’s Rooftop-style tents. Portions of the tent, which are elevated above the trailer, have proved ideal for scouting and can even serve as a tree stand substitute.

In addition to the ATT, Campa USA offers its Disaster Reconnaissance System (DRS) to emergency management, military and disaster relief officials. Cole contends that both trailer brands provide applications across a broad spectrum of industries.

“Because of the modular design of our units, we serve a wide variety of markets. We see customers really get creative with how the systems are used,” noted Cole.

Founded in 2004, Campa USA has experienced recent growth and is actively seeking dealers and partners nationwide to help promote and distribute its trailers.

For more information, please visit www.campausa.com .

Tom Remington

Weather is something that can frustrate not only a deer hunter but wildlife biologists as well. Plans can change as we all know when factoring in the weather. Biologists use the best science available in determining how many permits of what type in order to manage wildlife populations like whitetail deer. The only way they can attempt to make sense out of factoring in what role the weather will play is by doing what meteorologists do – use long term averages.

Hunters, for the most part, plan their hunting around work schedules, including vacations. In Maine, I think it safe to say that most hunters will schedule their time off to hunt during the time they think the peak of the deer rut will take place – usual the third or fourth week of November.

All’s well until the weather turns. The season in Maine started out slow because of a lot of rain and wind. This seemed to be the trend throughout the term of the season until the last few days when finally it began to dry out and the winds die down. This got hunters out in the woods and the number of deer harvested during the last week shot up considerably, according to the Hunting and Outdoor Report from Mark Latti of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Reports from all the regions across Maine seemed to agree that harvest numbers rose the last week but not to the levels where officials speculated they would be before the season began, especially coming off a very mild winter last year. Allen Starr, regional biologist covering the Penobscot region, thinks the harvest numbers are high though.

As of Sunday morning, the Milo registration station was up 30% from the number of deer registered during the previous year. Likewise, the Lagrange station had a high number of deer registered, especially this last week. A meat cutter that I checked on Sunday had plenty of deer to process and while I was there, which was a little over an hour, five additional deer came in for processing. It’s too early to tell if this trend occurred statewide, but the previous mild winter, good hunting conditions this last week, and good hunter effort all contributed to an increased harvest in this part of the region.

Bob Cordes, another regional biologist who covers the western Maine area, doesn’t think numbers will reflect anything but below average totals.

The weather hasn’t changed much at all during this firearms season. It has remained unseasonably warm with no tracking snow throughout the region. From all reports, it appears that the deer harvest this is will be slightly lower than average throughout Region D. The weather forecast for the muzzleloading season doesn’t look much different.

The lack of tracking snow, even in the northern counties, will keep harvest numbers in check. Arlen Lovewell, who covers the Aroostook Region says that hunters should take advantage of the lack of snow and go hare hunting. He reports the snowshoe hare is all white now and shows up well without snow.

If snow is late arriving in northern Maine, hares will be very susceptible to predation, but this also makes for great hunting as they are easy for hunters to spot. Usually the best areas are softwood thickets or old fields planted with softwood trees. If you’re done deer hunting and still want to get out, hunting hare on bare ground can make for a pleasant outing, particularly once you’ve located pockets or thickets with high hare densities.

Perhaps the most interesting information in the Outdoor/Hunting Report, comes from the Downeast Region compiled by James Hall regional wildlife biologist. He recalls some gun history dating back to the time around World War II and the difficulties hunters had finding ammunition.

I remember a conversation I had with a hunter about the period of peak deer harvests in Washington County during World War II and shortly thereafter. The average hunter today, if faced with a shortage of anything, it is usually time not equipment. There are many sources of ammunition today, the corner hardware store is replaced by big chain stores as well as internet sales. This is just the opposite of what hunters were facing sixty-five years ago. People and stores didn’t stock pile reserves of ammo, just ordered and purchased on as needed basis. The war effort had reduced the production of sporting ammunition and local stores were sold out. Everyone was scrounging what they could find for odds and ends of ammo including old black powder loads.

The classic Maine deer rifle was a lever action, the three leading manufacturers at that time were Winchester, Savage and Marlin. Colt had their “Lightning” series of slide action rifles but by the turn of the Century, they were discontinued. Remington never pursued the lever market instead, put their resources into the slide action, (Gamemaster) and the semi-auto (Woodsmaster). The age of the bottle necked cartridge and smokeless powder had come. Remington seizing on this and the popular cartridges of the day, made their guns in the same caliber as the levers except their actions required a rimless shell. So a 30-30 WCF and a .30 Remington were the same except for the case rim.

The supply of 30-30 ammo was quickly bought up. And since there were fewer Remingtons around, there were often a few boxes of .30 Remington ammo available. Hunters soon found that they could shoot the Remington ammo in their Winchesters but it was strictly a single-shot proposition. A hunter would have to carry a finish nail with him, After firing, he would jack the action open, force the nail in the extractor slot, and fish the case out. A slow process but a single shot was better than nothing. Similarly, it often happened with the old paper shotgun shells. If the wax was worn off, and on a rainy day, the paper would swell. When fired, the extractor would tear through the rim and fail to eject the empty case. The nail trick would work, but if it was really stuck, you would have to take the gun apart so you could get at the shell head better and pry with a knife. If breaking the gun down wasn’t an option, then you had to whittle a small hardwood whip to use as a ramrod to force down the barrel to eject the shell. It goes without saying, there isn’t much for ramrod material on tidal ledges. If this ever happened to you, next time you’d bring along a spare gun and leave it in the boat. Needless to say, by Murphy’s law, this is always when the ducks would toll or a deer would be standing their watching you.

Tom Remington