Another Quiet Day in the Woods.

I spent Monday sitting in the tree stand again and, if anything, it was quieter than on Saturday. No deer, natch, and even fewer avian visitors.

There were skeins of geese flying south in the morning and late afternoon. Pushed, no doubt, by the fairly strong winds from the north and the hard frosts of the northern climes. (It stayed below freezing all night at the Bolt Hole. Another reason I'm heading up this weekend. The water system is still on and I need to heat the cabin or drain it.)

I had a hen turkey walk up to within 15 yards of where I was sitting. She spooked when she saw me and flew into a tree just 30 yards from where I sat. After inspecting me carefully for 15 minutes, she flew down just a little further away than the spot from which she took off and continued to walk up the hill.

Blue Jays, Red-tailed Hawk, Raven, Crows, Nuthatches, Chickadees, Downy Woodpecker...the usual suspects.

I went to bed last night feeling a little out of sorts and decided to sleep in rather than go back to the tree. I still feel like there's a banked fire behind my eyes and my lower back aches from being confined to a 24"x18" platform 15' up for 12 hours. Besides not seeing any deer movements the last few days, the heavy frost warning meant we would see temps below 30 degrees and with muzzle loader and rifle seasons starting in the Adirondacks on this and next Saturday respectively, I don't need to get really sick. At least up there, I'm likely to be walking (still hunting) instead of sitting for prolonged periods of time.