July 15, 2010
Today as I left town it was 80 degrees at 5:00 pm. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and I had a hunch the deer would be out early as soon as a cool coastal breeze started to blow. I changed into my Camo and was in the field at 5:50 pm.
At 6:00pm I was approaching a spot I had seen deer before when I spied some move ment ahead of me around the corner of the hill along the two track I was walking along. Soon a Doe and Fawn materialized and trotted across the two track and into the draw on the left.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a suspicious shape and sucked back. A quick glance verified it was a buck. On my left feeding across the ravine on the other side of a thick group of trees, with the setting sun behind him, and a swirling wind trying to quarter to my right. If I didn’t do something he was going to see or scent me.
So I found a cow trail through the ravine that took me behind the curve of the hill and slightly up wind of the three point buck that was feeding and becoming more restless and agitated. I couldn’t go further around the hill without spooking the doe and fawn ahead of me so had to crawl through the dried leaves and down branches as quietly as I could to try to get upwind and above the buck who was feeding away from me.
The setting sun was behind the buck so I inched my way into a position, trying to stay in the shade to not alert the buck as I belly crawled through the wild oats.
In doing this I took about 2 hours before the sun dipped below the horizon and I felt I could peek over the crest of the hill to try to relocate the buck. All I saw when I did though was a very surprised doe at 43 yards who stiff legged over the hill to the East. Then as the air cooled I felt the wind switch and I knew that if the buck was still in the last place I saw him, knew what deodorant I was wearing and what I’d had for lunch. The jig was up.
Two yearling fawns must have caught my scent on the swirling winds because they bounded by at 10 yards from further up the canyon. I caught movement in the brush, but the wind direction had changed and I was in no position to move on the deer in the chemise. I exited the way I came into the pocket as the Coastal fog spilled over the hills.
Today’s deer count 3 fawns, 2 does, 1 shooter buck.
