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I hunted!
Didn't see a legged thing, about as expected.
First time I ever got around to hunting. Haven't gotten my hunting license yet, but I don't need one in my own yard. And I just need to be at least 300 feet from the closest house.
Part of my interest is predators that might eat chickens which I think I'm about to order. And all of those predators are currently in season (which still matters in my own yard).
There was definitely a predator of some kind. But most of the prints weren't fresh enough to tell more than pattern of tracks, including general size of the animal.
So I figured possibly fox, or maybe just house cat. I also saw tracks for rabbits (which I've actually seen), and something mouse like. Cute.
I wandered back into my woods around the South side of my property, and discovered that the growth is far less dense on that side. And North along my stream a bit. Getting my bearings and seeing what tracks there were to see. Lots of tracks in the snow, but none fresh.
I noticed activity tended to concentrate some under low hanging evergreens, so I picked a spot near some, and spent most of my time reclining against a tree there. Paying particular attention to the upwind direction.
I heard a dog barking way off in the distance, trees creaking against each other, a couple small birds, and I think nothing else but wind.
I continue to suspect I may have some advantage in spotting animals because of my visual search related brain damage. The part that's broken, which filters out visual background noise, isn't going to help anybody when animals are motionless. And I can see movement just fine. Methods I use to compensate for my visual search difficulty are what I think might help. "Is this item in my drawer a can opener? Nope. How about this one?" "Does this square foot contain an animal?"
When I decided to head in, I took a closer look at the tracks I had been staring at. I noticed drag marks. Then it became very clear where one animal pounced on another, and began dragging it off. And those tracks were fresher. The prints looked way too big to be a house cat. That was kind of exciting. I followed it to the North side of my yard, which was a little more difficult because it looked like it had doubled back on that path a few times.
After looking at the pocket guide to N.H. animal tracks, I'm fairly certain that the predator was a coyote (always in season) or fox (in season), and the tiny tracks were a white-footed mouse.
I am undecided on hearing protection while hunting, although I have noticed that the people who claim it doesn't cause significant damage don't seem to have done it for long. I didn't wear any today, partially because I expected chances of seeing something to shoot were so low.
I left my woods on the North side, with the incredibly dense small trees. Almost took my Ka-bar out to get the vines off of me. (I fully intended to field dress anything I might kill where it fell.)
My toes and butt (leaning against a tree) were coldest. Easy enough to fix. Ears and face probably come next. I had my hair out, which did a great job of keeping my head warm.
Update: I was hunting with my Bulgaria Arsenal SLR-95, which is one of the better semi-auto copies of the AK-47, with only 5 rounds in the magazine due to NH hunting law.
First time I ever got around to hunting. Haven't gotten my hunting license yet, but I don't need one in my own yard. And I just need to be at least 300 feet from the closest house.
Part of my interest is predators that might eat chickens which I think I'm about to order. And all of those predators are currently in season (which still matters in my own yard).
There was definitely a predator of some kind. But most of the prints weren't fresh enough to tell more than pattern of tracks, including general size of the animal.
So I figured possibly fox, or maybe just house cat. I also saw tracks for rabbits (which I've actually seen), and something mouse like. Cute.
I wandered back into my woods around the South side of my property, and discovered that the growth is far less dense on that side. And North along my stream a bit. Getting my bearings and seeing what tracks there were to see. Lots of tracks in the snow, but none fresh.
I noticed activity tended to concentrate some under low hanging evergreens, so I picked a spot near some, and spent most of my time reclining against a tree there. Paying particular attention to the upwind direction.
I heard a dog barking way off in the distance, trees creaking against each other, a couple small birds, and I think nothing else but wind.
I continue to suspect I may have some advantage in spotting animals because of my visual search related brain damage. The part that's broken, which filters out visual background noise, isn't going to help anybody when animals are motionless. And I can see movement just fine. Methods I use to compensate for my visual search difficulty are what I think might help. "Is this item in my drawer a can opener? Nope. How about this one?" "Does this square foot contain an animal?"
When I decided to head in, I took a closer look at the tracks I had been staring at. I noticed drag marks. Then it became very clear where one animal pounced on another, and began dragging it off. And those tracks were fresher. The prints looked way too big to be a house cat. That was kind of exciting. I followed it to the North side of my yard, which was a little more difficult because it looked like it had doubled back on that path a few times.
After looking at the pocket guide to N.H. animal tracks, I'm fairly certain that the predator was a coyote (always in season) or fox (in season), and the tiny tracks were a white-footed mouse.
I am undecided on hearing protection while hunting, although I have noticed that the people who claim it doesn't cause significant damage don't seem to have done it for long. I didn't wear any today, partially because I expected chances of seeing something to shoot were so low.
I left my woods on the North side, with the incredibly dense small trees. Almost took my Ka-bar out to get the vines off of me. (I fully intended to field dress anything I might kill where it fell.)
My toes and butt (leaning against a tree) were coldest. Easy enough to fix. Ears and face probably come next. I had my hair out, which did a great job of keeping my head warm.
Update: I was hunting with my Bulgaria Arsenal SLR-95, which is one of the better semi-auto copies of the AK-47, with only 5 rounds in the magazine due to NH hunting law.
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