Hey folks. wasn’t going to share this, but have had a small voice inside saying I must so here goes….

Forgive the grammar issues. I just wanted to share this quickly with interested parties.

Hunting season is here! Bow hunting a lot right now because I’m stuck on a mountain outside Boulder (and grateful for it!!) Not many reasons to be distracted so I’m using my tag. Well, first day I’m sitting in some brush camo’ed up and quieted down, and checking in with my senses regularly, really. Just around sun up I hear a dog start barking and I figure someone let fido out to pee and he heard something moving, so he alarmed. What moves at the thin time in the forest, but wild things? Still it’s a subtle message even though it should not be. I question myself. It comes across as a “maybe.” Anyway, It’s on a neighbor’s land and no hunting there, but it’s got my “alert” up. For quite awhile I wait, but no show. It gets later. The sun gets higher and I move.
Later that morning having coffee with my other neighbor she tells me she saw “something brown” moving through the forest where I’d thought the animal had been. “Not sure if it was deer or coyote…”
No shot for me on that private land, but something was there. That was good. Take away for me? Pay attention to animals alarming out here.

That evening I get there late in the day and settle in for the sunset. All of a sudden crows start flying in from the east, making a LOT of noise. Now, crows do tend to fly in to sleep together, sometimes in huge numbers, but they were particularly noisy.  So, I figured maybe there is something up there. Think I’ll go see! I stalk up the side of the hill quietly and just as I get to a flat spot I peek over the top of a boulder. There in front of me is a bobcat so big and tawny I had to wait for the tail to come into view so I could make sure it wasn’t a young lion. I was going to stay down, but wanted a better look and decided to pop my head up and look square at the cat. He stopped , circled around a little pine tree stared back for few seconds then continued on his nightly hunt. I wasn’t hunting him and he knew it. We just acknowledged each other and went on.

That was fun, but all the activity certainly changed the concentric rings of energy in that place. Sunset was upon us and there was no time left to let things settle. So, I scouted the area to find a place for the morning. I went out into the field that was had a lot of currant bushes and a few scattered trees and lay down to rest by a dead punky log. Suddenly I noticed kitty pee. Cats will mark areas with their sent for varied reasons. I had learned from Sue Morse of Keeping Track, they like things that absorb and hold their sent like punky stuff. I looked around and thought this might be good place to sit tomorrow morning. It was a quiet but compelling thought. I was concerned about the openness, but felt their might be enough brush to cover me.

Next morning I was out there again. I got out of my truck in the dark and headed for the cat log, but my mind was full of chatter. I was nursing my irritations and resentments that morning. The screen to my intuition was full of snow and incomplete signals and I didn’t even give it much attention. My intellect told me the log was too open. I kept fighting with myself over whether to go there and finally chose a place with more cover. My brain overwhelmed my heart. About an hour and one half into my sit I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I pulled my bow with the intention of holding for awhile hoping the deer would turn my way. They didn’t. They moved away and down field. Though I could have hit one, my shot was too far to kill with certainty. To many hunters leave arrow heads in wounded deer, because their excitement overwhelms them. Instead I tired to follow them and was able to keep up for awhile till they finally moved uphill and spotted me. I tracked them for a long time, but had to give up. They moved off the property I was hunting on.

I circled back and found their early morning tracks. What do you think I thought when I noticed that the five deer had walked slowly right by the cat log? My five potential shots were all within 30 to 40 feet.

Tracking is a multi-sensory experience. If you tracked the elements of my experience then you will see that I was not paying attention to the small voice inside that knew exactly what I should do. I am hunting with a traditional bow and need to get very close to animals to be successful. My intuition gives me the edge. I was pretty mad with myself and hoped I’d get another chance.
That small voice also told me I should write about this here. I don’t now why, but I am listening this time I hope it helps. I know I need to stop questioning these things.

I’ll keep you up to date on my hunt.
Thanks for reading.
Mary