Wednesday, November 3, 2004

Two close encounters of the wild kind Spend enough time in the woods, and you'll have some interesting encounters with wildlife.  Some of these can be downright hair-raising. A well-known fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is an avid bowhunter who hunts in far Northern Wisconsin.  In recent years, there have been a few reports of bears climbing trees and harassing bowhunters, so this hunter carries pepper spray to fend off a bear, in the unlikely event one should climb his tree.  A few years back, he had occasion to use the pepper spray, and it almost cost him his scalp. When bowhunting in cold weather, this hunter always wears a trooper hat made of rabbit fur.  I'll let him tell the story... "I was in my tree stand in Ashland County on a morning hunt, when I heard a great horned owl hooting.  As I listened, I could hear it coming closer.  Just as it was getting light enough to see, I saw the owl gliding silently through the woods toward me and land in my tree, right over my head.  I turned to look up at it, and it looked down at me as if to say, 'Man, is that a big rabbit!'  So I got my pepper spray out because the owl was really giving me the eye.  I just got the spray unlocked when the owl dove at the back of my neck with its talons stretched out.  So I sprayed it, and the pepper spray came back in my face! "Now, I'm 20 feet in the air standing on this little platform, with no safety belt on, and I'm trying to rub the pepper spray out of my eyes with one hand and I'm waving my bow with the other, as the owl is flapping right over my head.  I finally discouraged it and it took off. "The whole attack lasted only about 10 seconds, but that thing really wanted me!" Why didn't he just toss the hat out of the tree, since that was what triggered the attack, I asked him.  "That's my favorite hat!" he exclaimed.  I guess he figured the owl might take off with it. The following year, this same hunter was stalked by a wolf.  Again, in his own words: "I was walking in alone to check a stand, not carrying any weapon, and I could hear this thing walking next to me.  I would walk and it would walk.  When I stopped, it would stop.  I finally got where I could see under the balsams, and here was this wolf about 20 yards away, swinging his head back and forth, and looking at me. "I yelled at him, and he started circling around me.  I was more concerned there might be more wolves with him because we have a couple huge packs up in the area where I hunt." The wolf left off stalking him, however, as he never saw it again. Anything like that every happen to you?  Send me the details and I'll post it. Later... 9:02:28 PM    comment []

Fishing is still hot up north In case you're looking to do some late-fall fishing (maybe you've earned and shot your archery buck already?), everything's biting in northern Wisconsin.  For a complete report on fishing activity for this week, log onto Naomi Shapiro's Fishing Report. Later... 3:01:14 PM    comment []