My calves strained as I hiked up the steep, forested hillside, following a familiar route that has no trail and rarely feels the pressure of human soles. Except mine. For this weekend’s hike I decided to stay close to home and visit a patch of forest that I know very, very well. I have traversed this hillside dozens, nay, hundreds of times, following my whim instead of any formal trails. My senses perk up as I move slowly through the underbrush, looking and listening and sometimes even feeling for animal sign, trying to read the land and determine where I might place my motion-sensor cameras to capture interesting videos of the local wildlife.
My cameras have been in storage for a year, while we were away in London. My goal today was to re-deploy my remaining five cameras in some familiar places and some new places. As I neared the top of the hill, which I generously refer to as “the summit”, I was recalling the time when I saw a deer perched atop the hill and backlit by the blue sky. As I rounded the bend to that same viewpoint, today, I saw a deer leaping away from that spot, its white tail flashing as it disappeared into the trees. I now feel like I am home.
As I deployed a camera at the hilltop, I heard dogs barking from down below. No doubt the deer had come close to the house down there, and stirred the dogs interest. Ten minutes later as I walked toward my next destination, a vernal pool where my cameras have always generated delightful videos, I sensed that the dogs had shifted further north. Had they gotten loose, and were running free through the forest, chasing that poor deer? I hope not.
I placed two cameras near the vernal pool, now just a muddy bog. (The past month has been very dry.) Despite the lack of water, the mud was covered with many ambiguous tracks; this pool is still attracting a lot of critters! I placed two cameras. Then, as I stood there quietly peering at the muddy tracks and pondering where I might go next, I heard a rustling sound approaching from the hill behind me. Soon, two young bucks came into view, pausing in a sunny patch of ferns. They listened carefully, triangulating the distant sound of dogs barking – then continued into the woods, never noticing me.
Not long after, as I moved away from the pool and explored the game trail from whence they came, I heard a wheezy snort and saw the bucks leap away. Apparently they’d just noticed me. If you’ve never heard the alarm call of a white-tailed deer, it’s quite startling, especially when it is so close!
I look forward to posting new wildlife videos. Maybe we’ll see a fisher or raccoon scamper down this fallen tree! Come back next month. Meanwhile, you can find all wildlife-camera videos at the wildlife camera tag.
Today’s hike – my 47th consecutive weekend hike – was not very long, only 1.5 miles, 1.5 hours, and 458 feet of vertical gain. But even this short hike brought me deeper in contact with nature than most of my other hikes on well-marked, heavily-traveled trails.
David Kotz 