Wildlife, deer and the sound of a valk.

I agree with Molasses, something about the sound of a valk affects wildlife. I've hit at least 4 birds including one humming bird I found wedged under my headlight. I also had a bat slam into my windshield one predawn morning, it left a large greasy spot.

Deer usually run away or just stand and watch but I did have a big doe jump out in front of me and stop once. I got stopped 3 feet from her as she stood and stared at me. After I stopped she went on across the road.

Birds seem to jump into the air just before you reach them. A time or two when riding behind the son’s Duc they have flown straight into him or his bike as I watched and I knew it was the fault of the valk. Squirrels do the same, I've glued several of their little heads to the road as they committed suicide at the valk alter. Two possums have also interfaced with my boots and footpegs.

Deer are my favorite wild animal. I love to watch them from a ground blind, tree, or even the seat of the valk. I love to hear the sounds they make and I enjoy watching the way they interact with each other and the rest of the world. I especially enjoy it when they bob their heads and stomp their feet trying to make you move so they can tell what you are. They are actually a very smart creature. They have learned to watch the trees for predators (that's us). They are put on red alert during hunting season by a distant car door or the scent of a human who walked by hours before. The older and wiser deer probably see 20 hunters for every hunter who sees them and their senses out class ours 100 times over. If they hunted us few people would dare enter the woods. But for some reason they just can't learn to watch for cars.

I've harvested and feed my family over 30, perhaps over 40 deer during my lifetime. All of them were taken legally, never a minute early or late. Never out of season or with an illegal weapon. I've taken them with muzzleloaders, bows and several handguns. The study and pursuit of them is something I never tire of. Up until recently my ride bell was attached with leather I tanned from the first deer I harvested. He was a small 9 pointer taken with a Knight muzzleloader I built from a kit and glass-bedded like a custom high-power rifle. That gun would shoot one inch groups at 100 yards all day long with 97 grains of black powder and the right bullet/sabot. I took my first 17 deer with it with 18 shots. Then I passed it to my youngest son who took his first deer with it too.

Both my sons who hunt are better at it than me now and I'm cursed proud of that. They learned all that I could teach them and then added to it. Of course, without a bunch of mouths at home to feed, I let more deer walk past me than I take home now. But that's as it should be. Just knowing I could have taken them and didn't is as satisfying as putting them in the freezer and a lot less work. As I said I love deer, love to watch them, love to track them, love to hear them and love to eat them and wear their skins.