By the time you read this they may have all fluttered south, but during the last few days of October, the woodcock were here in great numbers.

My buddy and I moved 25 of the lovely little russet critters and six ruffed grouse in about 6 to 8 hours of hunting near our camp in northern Clinton county. In about 1 ½ hours on Saturday, the 31st, we flushed 14 woodcock and one grouse. My friend has been hunting for the better part of 60 years and had never seen that many birds in one day. By the way, we killed a total of three. Enough for one meal, that’s enough for us.

This is the most glorious time to be in the woods. It’s still warm enough to be comfortable enjoying a tailgate lunch, most of the leaves are off the trees so you can see what you’re shooting at (and missing), there’s that wonderful smell of decaying leaves, it’s cool enough to have a little evening fire in the fireplace (that’s actually a falsehood, little and fire are two words we never use in the same sentence), the season is still young and anticipation of future hunts is as delightful as the hunt you’re actually on at the moment, there’s no snow on the ground (I don’t like hunting in the snow anymore), and there are relatively few hunters sharing the woods with you (we saw one archery deer hunter heading for his stand, and he wished us well).

Whatever you’re hunting, or even if you’re only hunting some peace, solitude and reflection, remember that these precious days are fleeting so be sure to get out there as often as you can.

Weighing in on bear kill

The recent bear-killing incident in Union County seems to have caused quite a firestorm. I missed much of it because of being away, but there still seems to be a lot of spirited discussion going on.

Whenever I go somewhere where people are gathered, I’ll meet someone who reads my column, and they’re always willing to give me an opinion on some outdoor topic. Recently it’s mostly been about this bear kill. Of course, they all want to know what I think. Actually I think they want me to agree with them. I don’t know what to say except that I admire and respect both Tom Boop and Dirk Remensnyder. I don’t have enough first-hand knowledge of the situation to say who’s right and who’s wrong, or even know if it’s a simple matter of right and wrong. I don’t know if the bear should have been killed, or if there was a better way to solve this particular bear problem. I’ll only say that it was an unfortunate incident for everyone.

However, when you have a growing bear population which seems to be moving into populated areas, or a growing human population that’s moving into bear territory there are bound to be conflicts. I’m speaking in generalities now as I say, that we, as humans, are duty-bound to minimize those conflicts by not encouraging bears to frequent our properties. The bears don’t know that bird feeders are for birds, they don’t know that uncleaned barbecue grills and outdoor garbage cans are not feeding stations, they don’t know that people who feed them will eventually run out of goodies, they don’t know that cars are as deadly as guns, and they don’t know that losing their fear of man is very dangerous for them.

n E-mail comments to jdsteese@yahoo.com.By the time you read this they may have all fluttered south, but during the last few days of October, the woodcock were here in great numbers.

My buddy and I moved 25 of the lovely little russet critters and six ruffed grouse in about 6 to 8 hours of hunting near our camp in northern Clinton county. In about 1 ½ hours on Saturday, the 31st, we flushed 14 woodcock and one grouse. My friend has been hunting for the better part of 60 years and had never seen that many birds in one day. By the way, we killed a total of three. Enough for one meal, that’s enough for us.

This is the most glorious time to be in the woods. It’s still warm enough to be comfortable enjoying a tailgate lunch, most of the leaves are off the trees so you can see what you’re shooting at (and missing), there’s that wonderful smell of decaying leaves, it’s cool enough to have a little evening fire in the fireplace (that’s actually a falsehood, little and fire are two words we never use in the same sentence), the season is still young and anticipation of future hunts is as delightful as the hunt you’re actually on at the moment, there’s no snow on the ground (I don’t like hunting in the snow anymore), and there are relatively few hunters sharing the woods with you (we saw one archery deer hunter heading for his stand, and he wished us well).

Whatever you’re hunting, or even if you’re only hunting some peace, solitude and reflection, remember that these precious days are fleeting so be sure to get out there as often as you can.

Weighing in on bear kill

The recent bear-killing incident in Union County seems to have caused quite a firestorm. I missed much of it because of being away, but there still seems to be a lot of spirited discussion going on.

Whenever I go somewhere where people are gathered, I’ll meet someone who reads my column, and they’re always willing to give me an opinion on some outdoor topic. Recently it’s mostly been about this bear kill. Of course, they all want to know what I think. Actually I think they want me to agree with them. I don’t know what to say except that I admire and respect both Tom Boop and Dirk Remensnyder. I don’t have enough first-hand knowledge of the situation to say who’s right and who’s wrong, or even know if it’s a simple matter of right and wrong. I don’t know if the bear should have been killed, or if there was a better way to solve this particular bear problem. I’ll only say that it was an unfortunate incident for everyone.

However, when you have a growing bear population which seems to be moving into populated areas, or a growing human population that’s moving into bear territory there are bound to be conflicts. I’m speaking in generalities now as I say, that we, as humans, are duty-bound to minimize those conflicts by not encouraging bears to frequent our properties. The bears don’t know that bird feeders are for birds, they don’t know that uncleaned barbecue grills and outdoor garbage cans are not feeding stations, they don’t know that people who feed them will eventually run out of goodies, they don’t know that cars are as deadly as guns, and they don’t know that losing their fear of man is very dangerous for them.

-- E-mail comments to jdsteese@yahoo.com.