Charlie Elk

pseudonym of a man

Archives for September 2012

Fall Turkeys and Kids

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We covered the 100 yards to where the turkey had disappeared. The quivering of Vic’s legs and tail indicated the turkey was near, the electricity of excitement crackled through the air between the kids and dog. I whispered to my grandson tell Vic to “Get em up Vic; TURKEY!” his young voice quivered as he gave the command.  Vic launched charging uphill, but I had seen the turkey go down towards the creek. The sudden chain cackling, putting and large wings beats certainly proved Vic knew more than me at that moment. He busted a big flock; turkeys ran by us, flew overhead and some landed in trees all around us; the kid’s eyes bulged with excitement as they gleefully giggled with delight.

Then it was quiet even the creek seemed to stop for a moment, the kid’s mouths were agape with no sounds and their wide eyes darting around to catch another glimpse of a turkey.

Breaking the silence in a trembling whisper my grandson says “what now grandpa?”

I told him to watch and listen this is what grandpa does when hunting-“kee, kee, yelp, yelp, yelp yelp”

Turkey talk exploded everywhere around us, we stayed, watched and listened for about half hour as the turkeys regrouped giving the kids a lesson in turkey flock reorganization.

My 9 year old grandson begged me to take him hunting with me this fall, he even promised to carry the turkey for me; of course I readily agreed to take them both.

There is no doubt fall turkeys, turkey dogs and kids go together. 

 

What Ate My Deer?

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While in a ground setup along the edge of a cornfield overlooking a bean field, waiting for the deer to show up Monday evening; something growled at me.  I don’t mean like a little doggie groan; I mean a seriously deep growl, coming from corn rows behind me, judging by the sound just a few rows back. 

I held my position while keeping a cautious eye out for the growler; probably needless to say no deer showed up that evening. 

The Tuesday morning I went back to look for some sign in the corn field to try and figure out what the heck it was; found nothing.

On Wednesday morning I shot this doe.  The shot did not feel right, so I decided to wait a couple of hours just in case.  No hurry I thought the temp was coolish so the meat would be okay.  However, a lot of the meat was not there.  The shot was good so I could have recovered this deer earlier and sure wish I would have.

What could have eaten this deer in a little less than 3 hours during the day?

What could possibly have eaten a half a deer in 3 hours? None of the bones had teeth marks, as you can see the top side of deer’s hide is gone, lots of meat was removed cleanly from the skeleton.  The top half of the hide along the backbone looked as if it has been cut off and I could not locate it anywhere in the area.

A lone coyote could not eat this much meat.  A group of them would have fought and left the vegetation ripped up, plus they would have made a lot of noise, I was about 200 yards away and heard nothing.  A bear or wolf would have left teeth marks on the bones; right?

A neighboring farmer claims his son has trail cam pics of a cougar.  I have not seen them but have no reason not to believe it.

I am wondering if the growl and this deer have any connection.

Do Deer Eat Aquatic Plants?

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The short answer is yes.

Deer feed on many things including aquatic plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are plants the deer were eating.

The seemed to be eating the broad-leaf plant pictured here. As I observed them feeding there were times when the does would submerge their noses and come up chewing a lot of plant material. Leaving the impression they may have been consuming all the plant material.

It is easier to list the things deer do not eat than to list the things they do eat.  On a couple of occasions I’ve witnessed deer eating dead fish. In one case a deer caught a stranded 6-8″ sucker chewing it from head to the tail much the same as they would chew an ear of corn.

 

 

These deer stayed and fed on water plants for a long time.