Sunday (the 29th) was the last day of the Montana Big Game hunting season, and my family needed some food in the freeze.....so my mom (who had never shot anything save 4 pigs at the butchers) and I went out hunting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
FRIDAY: We traveled an hour maybe and hour and a half south of here to an area called "the Swan" where deer abound! Out here, I saw a few Gray Jays, and a few Bald Eagles along with 2 Ruffed Grouse (shortly only one - one got away). I know I am a birder, but holding a very elusive, very beautiful bird is an amazing experiance. Now, I yelled for my mom to stop the truck and I got out and to aim, and cleanly "harvested" one of the Ruffed Grouse. This was acually one of the cleanest kills I have made on a grouse. I haven't accidentally shot them in areas that make them suffer too much, but this time it didn't even twitch! Just fell over! I use a .177 caliber Crosman StromXT air-rifle. This is a very powerful, clean, and quiet gun great for small game.
So enough with that talk, here are my phone pictures of my grouse
Shortly after that exciting encounter, I spotted a male White-tailed Deer, and . . . . well . . . .
My first buck!!!! WOO HOO!! What a great experiance!! That concluded the amazing day!
SATURDAY: Actually not much to report on the bird, or hunting front. I actually woke up like around noon
SUNDAY: I got up early, before light, and drove to a friends house, and he took my out to an area we had gracious permission to hunt. This was a large tract of great, large old trees and cool meadows. As the sun slowly rose over this area, we sat and called to try to attrack some deer. In this great forest, I heard a lot fo birds! Many, many Evening Grosbeaks, and even a very vocal PINE GROSBEAK!! That could be a start to the influx of grosbeaks like we had last year.
Also, a large flock of White-winged Crossbills were feeding in all the spruce and fir trees. Very cool!! I heard what I thought were Common Redpolls also, but couldn't totally confirm that for sure.
While walking around, I got a doe Whitetail with my B-tag. More food. I would post a photo but it was taken after field-dressing the deer, very very bloody.
After lunch, my mom and I went to Kokanee Bend on the Flathead River just near our house south of Columbia Falls. This area is full of deer, and birds. Many Townsend's Solitares, and a flock of Bohemian Waxwings flew over. Woodpeckers! There were woodpeckers everywhere you turn! Mostly Downy and Hairy, but Northern Flickers and Pileated Woodpeckers were also numerous! Among them, we saw many flocks of Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees with a few Brown Creepers mixed in.
No more deer, but a good . . . . . great day!
Happy Thanksgiving by the way!
Josh
No comments:
Post a Comment