Seven or eight miles of heavy brush brought us to the last forty-five minutes of daylight, and a fork in the trail. A warm truck and cold beer waited down the right-hand path. Straight ahead lay more half-frozen river, drifted snow and one last crease of thorny cover. The reassuring bulk of roosters cradled against, Read More
Kindergarteners are loud. “Hey, Dad, hey! Look it, a prickly pear cactus!” They’re slow. “Can we take another candy break? Pleeeeease!” And they’re poorly suited to the brush. “Um, Dada… animals live in habitat, and that’s not habitat. That’s a pricker bush.” These aren’t qualities that’ll help you find game birds. But it’s not, Read More
It’s Black Friday, the national holiday of acquisition and consumption. I bet attendees of the original Thanksgiving set about finding and collecting assorted provisions after their feast too. It was called hunting back then. Team STS may find time for some old-school shopping this afternoon, but first we need to finish counting our blessings., Read More
“I sure hope we find some greasewood thickets today,” said Kirk. At least I think it was Kirk. It sounded like him, and came from the general direction of where he’d been swallowed by the brush. The dry sarcasm was a pretty good clue too. “Bound to be a few around here somewhere,” I, Read More
“Sit.” Math isn’t you strong suit huh? “Stay.” Need to check your watch? “I want to get a picture real quick.” We’re a bird shy of our limit. “No!” And we’ve still got an hour of shooting light left. “SIT!” Take all the pictures you want. I’m going to find more birds. “Alright. Alright., Read More
“I told you so.” “Yeah, but you’re just a puppy. I thought…” “I was sniffing a lot… hard.” “Right, I saw but…” “Chopping with my tail” “I…” “Chop, chop, chop. That’s what I did. I did that.” “Got it, but…” “And tight circles. I did those too. Lots of ‘em. I worked it over,, Read More
Direct eye contact is said to incite violence among dogs and bears. Apparently they read it as an affront. Showing a big cat your back, meanwhile, will elicit pursuit and attack. Flight is a prey behavior and must be treated as such. Ravens, pack rats and barracuda are drawn to shiny objects. Antelope have been known to, Read More
The best teams all have one, the guy who finds a different gear on game day. Sure, he goes hard in practice too, but when things get real, he’s just a different animal. We’re not talking about ‘apples and oranges’. You might as well compare pineapples and hand-grenades. He’s a gamer. It’s fundamental, not, Read More
“So there I am,” said Jeremy, leaning across my kitchen table for emphasis “right above them on this hillside, maybe sixty yards away. They’re thrashing around in the brush. I can hear their antlers banging and clashing together. The wind was perfect, just like it had been all day. Then… ” Between birds, big, Read More
The pack that hangs in my garage could be mistaken for a living thing. At first glance it’s just luggage stuffed with an assortment of other inanimate objects. A close observer though will notice that it’s constantly adapting to the demands of the season. Layers disappear and reappear with shifts in the weather., Read More