Of Wild Flushes and Wild Meals

Woodcocks on the way...

Yesterday Del and I went out bird hunting again. It was a fresh and moist morning and the fall colors were glowing in a particularly beautiful way. I love the burnt reds and coppers.

In the early part of the hunt we had a lot of walking, which should please Dr. March as he insists that I exercise daily, some false points and many wild flushes, mostly woodcock, but also one young and illegal whitetail buck with short spikes over its head. The buck was illegal because we had shotguns for the birds we were after and it is now bow season for deer, and because of the new antler restriction regulations based on Quality Deer Management principles that protect bucks until they have at least three points in one side.

After coming back to the car we drove around to another area and let out both Gina and Zap, and we went out in another long walk. Finally when we were no more than one hundred yards from the car the dogs started pointing woodcock one after another. We would have had a limit between the two of us if Del's auto-loading shotgun had not misfired twice and if we had found one of the birds I shot.

I think that Del knew all along where the birds were, but he is under orders of Dr. March to make me exercise and walk every inch of the Michigan north woods, or at least every inch of Grand Traverse, Benzie and Leelanau counties, before we can collect a couple three birds for dinner.

For a change we did not go out for lunch in respect of our respective diets.

For dinner I prepared the woodcock (beccaccine) skinned (poultry skin is bad for triglycerides) and cut in half, lightly browned over just a bid of lard, and then cooked with shallots and cipollini on a white wine and rosemary sauce. As contorni I had grilled eggplants (melanzana) white beans (fagionlini) salad. The wonderful dinner was washed down by a glass of I Tre Vescovi, and excellent Barbera d'Asti.

There may be more pleasurable things in life, but few can surpass good friends, hunting and a wild game dinner.

to become a meal!

Kevin's Amusement Park

View from one of the many tree stands

Last weekend I met my friend and business associate Kevin McKervey who had invited me for a weekend of bow hunting for whitetail deer in his "up north" property just south of Cadillac, Michigan.

I arrived at his "cabin" around 3:00 PM on Friday and Kevin introduced me to his lovely wife Patty and friend Mark (the second Mark would only arrive on Saturday), and after a great venison roast he took me on an ATV ride to reconnoiter the 37 acres and eight food plots, and multiple ground blinds and tree stands.

It is amazing how much can be learned by a simple ride, a bit of observation and a lot of conversation. I had never attentively hunted before a property intensively managed for deer, and i can only say that it requires a labor of love for the whitetail and the sport from Kevin and Patty.

After a three hour drive (each way), they spend almost every single weekend of summer and early fall spraying weeds, tilling, disking, planting and fertilizing food plots, cutting down trees and trimming branches to open shooting lanes, and they share the potential fruits of their labor, money and time with good friends.

We hunted Friday afternoon and while seating on my stand I observed squirrels, rabbits, blue jays, robins and chickadees galore. Just before dusk the distant honking of Canada geese provided the music to put the sun to sleep. With darkness came a beautiful half moon and Kevin calling me to help to track a doe he shot about an hour ago.

Arriving at his stand I met Brenda, a neighbor and friend that was also helping tracking the doe and who first spotted the blood trail. After half an hour or so we (or Brenda) located the doe, and Patty came with the tractor to haul the animal back to Kevin's barn where he has a fantastic butchering set-up. Dinner was pizza and libations.

Next morning we were back at the same stands, I heard the flight of Canadas going the opposite way from last night, but none of us saw any deer. Kevin cooked breakfast with eggs, potatoes and absolutely great venison brats. During afternoon we watched another Spartan's victory at the Big 10 college football and the weather starting to change with a constant wind from southwest.

By 4:30 PM we were out to our respective stands or blinds, and due to the wind everything was very, very quiet. Towards dusk the wind die out a bit and squirrels moved to their nests, rabbits came to graze at the food plot, birds flew around, but the geese did not bring their music to welcome the gathering storm.

The coming rain synchronized our return to the "cabin" (really, not a cabin at all, but a very comfortable home), and very soon I had hot cools in the grill and where fresh deer liver and venison back straps were grilled and enjoyed with healthy salads and good almost fresh french bread.

At the end of a typical hunting season Kevin, Patty and friends may on average harvest four to six deers, but their hard work creates not only a fantastic amusement park, but health habitat that is a piece of paradise for multiple species of the great northern woods of Michigan.

A Nice Fall Morning

Zap & Gina with woodcock

It is no secret to anyone that knows me that I endure most of the year to really live and enjoy fall, as fall means hunting season is open, and that translates into spending time outdoors with friends.

I was able to take sometime out this morning to go bird hunting with friends Del and Dan. We met at Del's around 9:00 AM, which is one of the beautiful things about "upland bird hunting" as we don't need to wake up well before the stars dim out as we need to do when deer and duck hunting.

We enjoyed some small talk while getting ready and loading Del's German short-hair pointers, Zap and Gina, in his Honda Element, which is really a nice little hunting car, and then drove in a generally Southwest direction to get to the same plot of state land where Del and I hunted almost a year ago.

When we got there we parked where we intended to end the hunt and walked the dogs on leash to the covert a half a mile or so to the beginning of the covert where we released the eager Zap and Gina, loaded our guns and started walking through the ferns, already burned, but bravely resisting the passing of the season.

The first part of our walk was quiet, for the lack of a more sedated word, but just so suddenly Zap and Gina started to go on point, sometimes at the same time but a hundred yards apart. Over the next two hours or so we may have had twenty or twenty five woodcock flushes, and maybe we got legitimate shots at half of them.

Dal was shooting  a very nice Benelli Ultralight 28 gauge semi-automatic shotgun that he own at the Ruffed Grouse Society banquet last month, while Dan was using a side-by-side 20 gauge SKB and I had my Browning BSS, also a twenty. Del had one misfire and another time he forgot to chamber a shell, and even if I say so, I enjoyed an inspired day, and got my share of the action and of woodcock.

By the end of our morning stroll when it was already quite warm, if not hot, we had bagged six birds, while we could not find two other. We also had a single wild flush from a grouse, but neither Del, Dan or I could even had a good look at it.

We finished our morning with excellent burgers at Jodi's Tangled Antler, a great hunter friendly and antler decorated northern Michigan bar. After that, back to work...

Algoma 2013 - Day 6: More Action

Beaver dam overtaking road

Yesterday both Bob and Wayne, Bruce's son, had the the opportunity to take a shot at black bears, but they passed either because the bear was not big enough or because it did not present a good broadside shot.

Wayne and Bruce left this morning and Randy and his wife Sally arrived around lunch time. Randy was here in the beginning of the season but could not get a bear at the time, so he is back for a second try.

After lunch Bob went back to his bait site at the Shanty Creek Road, Randy went with Jeff out to "Bait 5" at the Loop Lake Road, Joseph went rock hunting and I stayed at the lodge nursing my knee. By mid afternoon both Jeff and Joseph were back and dragged me to go fishing.

When we arrived at the boat lunch we saw the camp of Canadian native hunters after moose, and because of the intermittent rain we took a small pontoon boat with a top instead of Jeff's jet boat. Soon the three of us were fishing on the tea-like waters of the Montreal River. I caught a small pike on a spinner and after trying different lures and baits we all set on jigs with night-crawlers and eventually caught a nice string of walleyes.

At around 6:30 PM we heard a shot coming from the direction of "Bait 5", so we raised anchor and got back to the boat lunch where we met Randy by the time we had put our fishing gear back in Jeff's truck. Randy had shot a bear, and like me yesterday was coming to get help to track and retrieve it.

By the time we got back to Halfway lodge it was dinner time, and we decided to eat the great bear stew that Steve prepared with one of my bear's loins and decided to wait for Bob to get back so he could take part on the night adventure.

Eventually we left on party of six people, Randy and Sally, Jeff, Joseph, Bob and I, to track a wounded and potentially dangerous animal at night only armed with bear spray, a Canadian law prohibits the use of firearms after sunset, even when trailing wounded bears.

The four ATV convoy took some time to negotiate the bad logging roads and trails to get to "Bait 5" and once we were there we soon found a good blood trail and we found the dead bear with a beautiful white chevron in its chest within fifty yards of the bait barrel.

Bob and I will go home in the morning, but we are already talking about coming back.

Algoma 2013 - Day 5: BEAR!

Two predators forever connected

Yesterday everyone hunted bear for a very long time and today because we were all tired  decided to change tactics and only start bear hunting later in the afternoon, and this gave me time to go grousing. Joseph and I took my truck and went looking for logging roads that hosted suitable grouse cover. I was very distressed that my trusted pointer Bob refused to come along and decided to go baiting with Jeff instead.

We stopped at multiple logging roads and walked along looking for coverts and birds, but did not have success until we came to the "ZERO" Bait. We stopped the truck and started along the two-track. When we arrived at the bait and tree stand we found the partial skeletons of two moose. I imagine its a cow and its yearling due to the difference in size.

We continued to move along until the end of the two-track where I heard grouse calling. I entered the bushed and initially I thought that I had been fooled by a raven, but soon after I found myself in the middle of a small flock of spruce grouse. I made sure that I would locate and retrieve each bird I shot before pursuing another so I would not risk losing a bird, and after some intense minutes I had three more grouse.

When we came back to the lodge Jeff told us that three of the four baits we were hunting had been hit, and after a brief conference I decided to continue to hunt the same site (Bait 17.5) as I did the previous days, and I am on my way shortly after lunch.

The temperature is around 68F and it is very humid which makes for rather warm and uncomfortable hunting weather and I feel overdressed in my flannel shirt and wool sweeter (the same Woolrich sweeter I bought at Orvis in Traverse City in January 2003). With the warm weather come the the mosquitoes and I believed killed more than a limited those pesky flying insects.

The temperature does not seem to affect the red squirrel's energy and they chase each other around, chirp and climb the bait barrel to lick the molasses that has been poured on top of it to help attract bruins. A couple of red headed woodpecker come visiting and I think that if no bear come at least I can tell that I met Woody Woodpecker.

I kill a couple more mosquitoes and then absolutely noiseless a black bear comes up the hill and turns the trail at the tree that holds a well aged piece of beaver and looks straight into my eyes. At fourteen paces it looks like an enormous monster bear to me, and immediately after spotting me it turns into its tracks to escape back into the almost impenetrable jungle he just emerged from, but at the same time I raise my 375 Holland & Holland and shoot the bear like I shoot grouse, relying on reflexes a lot more than precise aiming to hit a fast fleeing target.

The first thought that comes to my mind is that I missed the bear, but when I come out of my improvised ground blind I soon find blood and bone fragments and I knew that The bear was seriously wounded.

I am not a good enough tracker to pursue an wounded bear alone in the thick northern woods and even if I found it, it was more than likely that I would be unable to retrieve it by myself, so I went back to my truck and drove back to the lodge where I found Jeff as he was about to go fishing with Joseph and Bruce.

When we got back I gave my bottle of bear spray to Joseph and loaded my 20 gauge Browning side-by-side with slugs. I hopped for my shot to have been fatal, but if we had a wounded bear in the woods I can shoot a light shotgun a lot faster than I can shoot a heavy bolt-action rifle, and slugs at point blank are as effective as any rifle load.

Jeff, Joseph and I started tracking and Bruce stayed at the bait to give us directions. We found a lot of blood and more bone fragments, and inside the Northern jungle the temperature rose from warm to really hot, maybe because of the claustrophobic environment and all the excitement and adrenalin rush of tracking a potentially dangerous animal under such challenging conditions.

Although the cover was very challenging we had no problem with the blood trail, and we found the very dead male bear under a tree 82 yards from the bait as the crow flies. We also found that the 300 grain bullet completely destroyed the bear's left shoulder exploding like a grenade.  The bullet behavior is clearly not what is expected from a dangerous game bullet, but the injury it inflicted killed the bear, even if no vitals were hit.

Steve now joined us and brought a sled to help us retrieve the bear, and that is when the bear revenge started. It took us over an hour to bring the 180 pounds bear out of tangled woods, and back to the truck. The last challenge was the crossing of a beaver dam. While we walked the top of the dam, we floated the bear in the sled.

After some more of the usual work that comes after shooting a big game animal we had a "wild game dinner" of grouse, walleye and northern pike, and fried bear liver with onions. The excellent dinner was washed down by a bottle Rodney Strong Pinot Noir and  another of Jacob's Creek Barossa Valley Shiraz. A fitting tribute to he bear.

Algoma 2013 - Day 4: Close Encounters of the Moose Kind

Photo by Robin Ireton

Just for a change today (I really mean yesterday, since I was too tired to write last night) we did not go grousing. Instead Bob, my new trusted "pointer", left earlier for his bait stand on his ATV and shortly afterwards Jeff and I followed to bait all four sites. Our plan was to make the run and bait mine last and I would stay to see if the bears would come earlier, like happened the previous day.

We started by Bait 16, the "Pit", and Bob's trail camera revealed that two different bears had visited it sometime after dark, a large one and the other quite small. That is the site I took the decision not to hunt. That was also the only hit bait of the four we visited. Cè la vie!

Jeff stopped to bait Bob's site at Shanty Road and Bob asked me to tell me he had seen  five grouse. Maybe he will become a bird hunter one day! When we came to the last and furthest away bait at the other pit, also on Shanty Road, I went ahead to check the bait and three grouse flushed not ten feet from me, but the 375 Holland & Holland is rather inadequate for shooting grouse on the wing!

We came back to my bait (we now call it 17.5) at around 12:30 and it had not been hit, so I decided to take my place while Jeff refreshed the bait with a large nice piece of beaver.

And I sat, and I sat, and I sat...

In order to avoid falling sleep and possibly finding a bear licking my face like my lab Tupã likes to do I got my i-Phone (No! There is no cell phone or Internet coverage here, thank you) and finished reading Aldo Leopold's Round River, a less famous work than Sandy Country Almanac, but not less important in my view, as it show a bit more about Leopold the hunter. After that I also ready some of the hilarious Galen Winter's stories on The Journals of Major Peabody.

By 8:00 PM it was getting too dark to shoot and started raining again, so I left my very comfortable chair and walked back to my truck a half mile away.

Shortly after getting the main road while i was coming around a bend in the road my headlights showed a very large dark body supported by four very long legs. It took me a few seconds to remember that they don't have horses around here and that the animal was a cow moose. I continued driving slowly as the she-moose trotted in front, but before I could snatch a picture she left the road on a pond or beaver dam and within seconds had crossed it and entered the north woods.

This may not have been such a close and personal encounter as Bob had, but it surges make you want to drive carefully. I need to drive my truck home and not leave a reck here in Ontario.

We had T-bone steaks for dinner washed down by a bottle of good French red, Chateau Haute-Tulieres. After dinner a hot sauna helped us couple with the long day and prepare us for a good night of sleep. Bing quite tired I had to write about today, tomorrow!    

Algoma 2013 - Day 3: All the grouse, but still no bear

Jeff and I at the Halfway pump

After breakfast Bob and I went after grouse following a road close to the lodge. Less than a mile away we came across a flock and I was able to shoot two ruffed grouse, including a beautiful left to right crosser.

Shortly afterwards we went out with Jeff baiting, and all but one of the sites (the one I hunted yesterday) were hit. On the way to the Shanty Creek baits we located another flock of spruce grouse and I completed a limit in no time, including a beautiful couple and a juvenile bird.

I forgot to mention yesterday that while waiting for bear I heard at least two different grouse drumming, and the sound they make reminds me of the suffering starting up of an old one cylinder diesel motor that powered the electrical generator before we had grid power in our farm Buriti do Retiro, in southern Goiás state, Brazil.

We came back to the lodge around 2:30 PM, had lunch and Bob fixed his ATV.

I got to my bait at 3:30 and the bait barrel was nocked down, but the lid as still in place and the bait had not been touched. I may have moved that bear as I came to the bait.

I was a lot more comfortable today. The temperature did not drop as much as yesterday and I dressed a lot warmer.

Towards sunset I started to hear moose calling deep in the swamps.

Shortly after I returned to the lodge, Wayne, a hunter from Grand Rapids, arrived and said that he missed a bear as soon as he came to his bait in mid-afternoon. Bob did not see anything, except for a couple grouse. Maybe he should become a bird hunter!