Wacky Weather: Things are Weird in the Woods

By Mike Faulk
This whole year has been an odd ball. The late April freeze did a number on the flowering plants and fruit trees. I lost a white pine and a cherry tree at Strum Island. The peach, pear, apple and persimmon trees made it but didn’t bear any fruit. Add a prolonged drought to the witch’s brew and we have one weird fall.

It reminded me of an article I read about the year in Tennessee just before the cataclysmic earthquakes of 1811 and 1812. The Mississippi and Ohio valleys had unusually heavy flooding in the summer months. The fall followed with tornadoes and unusually violent hurricanes. The greatest oddity was the mass exodus of thousands and thousands of squirrels from the north to the south with many drowning in the Ohio River.

While I saw no mass squirrel suicide, this weekend was weird in other ways.

Muzzleloader season normally means rutting activity by deer. Certainly none was observed this weekend. The only buck seen was a little four pointer traveling with a larger doe and her yearling. He showed no sign of a call from the wild.

By the second week of November the leaves are off the trees and the under/over growth has been flatted by a few frosts and the beginning of our wet season. Not so this year. In fact, it’s so peculiar to see so many green leaves still on the trees. The net effect is limited visibility.

Saturday I saw nine deer – a fair day by normal standards on Strum Island. In that we harvested a couple of deer during bow season, my attention was concentrated on bucks. Property with lots of does when coupled with the rut makes for a hot hunting hole. The mornings have certainly been typical with overnight low temperature near freezing. Alas, the boys weren’t to be seen.

Yesterday, I saw nothing. The wind made hearing movement impossible. With all the leaves waving and flickering, my eyes are over-stimulated as I write this.

A small opening within bow range with leaves enough for natural camouflage might just be the medicine to get past this goofy fall weather. I’m thinking a switch back to the bow using early October tactics might be more fruitful.

Now I read it may snow this week - within days of an October record high temperature. Weird.