Autumn is a great season... cool temps, fall foliage, wood smoke in the air and deer in the woods. It is great to be experiencing it in New England again.... certainly one of the best places in the world to enjoy it. Work has been going fine, though with fall foliage comes fall clean-up and I have already had just about enough of raking and blowing! Thankfully, as I have for the past 10 years or so (minus the NZ stint), I have been going out hunting quite a bit now that deer season has opened.
It has not been a great year for deer (there have only been 2 hanging in the barn so far) but I've had quite a few cool woodland/ wildlife experiences. One of note, I was sitting in my stand being harrased by an angry red squirrel (they love alerting the woods to the presence of a hunter or other danger by chattering up a storm) when out of no where, a sharp shinned hawk flew by and grabbed it right in front of me. COOL!!!
The best one so far this season, however, involved two Sawwet owls. It was about a half hour before dusk and I saw the 2 owls fly in and land on a branch of a tree about 5 yards away from me. They both saw me as well and began bobbing and circling their heads trying to get a better look at me. I decided to return the gesture by bobbing and circling my head at them as well. This got both owls very curious and after a good long stare off, they both flew into the same tree that I was sitting in. One of them landed so close to my left shoulder (there was a branch directly behind be) that I could have easily reached out and touched it. Both owls stayed and checked me out, within no more than 5 feet of me) for over 20 minutes... they even started talking to each other! I have to say... even if I'm not packing the freezer with meat, getting to be that much a part of nature is super cool and well worth the price of admission.
That's news- luv to the world!