With the heat wave and drought punishing Southern Indiana it may be hard to think about deer season. But, if you look close there are signs of autumns approach. For starters, the summer solstice has come and gone and the evening sun will be disappearing sooner and sooner. Several weeks ago I noticed some of the lower leaves of the buckeye trees losing their color. In my region these trees are always the first to leaf out in the springtime and the first to lose their leaves, too. Of course now with this heat they are just wilting away and dying. Yesterday, I saw squirrel cuttings underneath a walnut tree, though the nuts are not yet ripe. Tuesday night will be the buck moon. October is slowly rolling in.
I don't know how this drought is going to affect the deer. Several years ago when this happened an EHD outbreak decimated some of the areas I hunt (including the area where these pictures were taken,) and those places have not even recovered -- let's hope the disease doesn't hit them this year, too.
The late spring frost hit my area three times this year and the white oak mast and persimmon crop were hit hard. To make this even worse it seems this heat is cooking some of the nuts on the trees. Yesterday I walked under a pignut hickory tree. Scattered on the ground below it were dried, brown, heat schorched nuts.
These pictures were taken at an area I call Battleship Rock. Every year I scout this piece of Hoosier National during the pre-season and post-season, though I have never gone in with a bow or gun. Some years there is big buck sign, some years there isn't. The flat is woodland edge habitat. There is a good stand of matures oaks on the level, but when the hill begins to climb a dense pine thicket takes over. A well used deer trail runs the edge between the pines and oaks. Every year there are scattered scrapes and rubs along its' length.
The shelf these deer are walking drops off into a steep ravine that even a noisy machine can't climb. For me the place fullfills all the requirements for most places I hunt on public land: it's a tough climb in and in the event of a sucessful hunt -- it's a tough drag out. As a matter of fact this may be one of those places that can really test the bonds of a hunting camp.Who knows, maybe I will never hunt this place, the years are beginning to add up, and this spot might be a young mans hunt.
But, just in case I feel a little froggy this autumn, the steep ravine offers a well concealed approach and there are plenty of tall, straight trees along the shelf for my old, trusty, loggy bayou climber.
