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September 24, 2011
To the Editor:
It must be close to October because things are starting to change. I’m not talking about the obvious things like leaves and temperatures. I’m noticing changes in attitude. It’s almost hunting season and the biggest change in attitude is my own.
I pay a lot of attention to the deer all year long. I walk the woods and think about the health of the herd. Is there a good acorn crop? How did the fawns do this spring? I’m in awe at the animals that survived this last severe winter and I watched as they thrived this wet summer. Now I see the coats of the deer changing from the reddish brown of summer into the lush grey winter coat that will make them almost invisible in the winter woods. The velvet is off the buck’s antlers and they don’t tolerate my ogling the way they did in August.
So that makes me think about my own change in attitude. I know it’s happening because just like the deer, I am changing my habits and behavior in preparation of the upcoming season. My four mile commute somehow becomes fifteen miles and includes every wooded area between the Boulevard and Taylor Road. My “honey do” lists get more urgent because after October 15th my priorities mysteriously change and what seemed like an important project suddenly becomes an after-Christmas assignment. I try not to say silly things to my fellow hunters like “twenty more days ‘till opening day” because it’s insulting. Not only do we all know how many days until opening day, but by now we know what tree we will be hunting from.
I start looking at the woods differently, too. Normally I love to walk. In the fall I find myself trying to stay motionless for long periods of time and just watch how the animals behave. The woods can change so much from year to year. A place the deer frequented last year may be abandoned this year due to changes in weather, food sources, ice storms or development. I realize that I need to adapt to the changes because they won’t adapt for me.
The anticipation of opening day is hard to describe. It’s almost impossible to sleep the night before. The reward of opening day for me is the peace of the woods. All the hard work, preparation, politics and paperwork are all washed away by the peaceful sunrise of that first morning. It doesn’t even matter if I see a deer today. I am in the woods, I am part of the woods and all is well.
Jim McGee
Cornwall
Comments:
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Jim, thanks for this beautiful essay on woods and nature. We who don't hunt appreciate this view through your eyes. I once remember your saying that you could stay all day in the woods, waiting and watching, never see a deer, and still be happy -- appreciating nature and being part of nature. Few of us non-hunters would make that statement.
Hunting is such an important part of deer management, that all of us in Cornwall benefit from your work (so it's good for all of us that you enjoy it).
Thank you for hunting, and thank you for writing this.
posted by Emily Thomas on 09/27/11 at 8:50 AM
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