Last week was about the archery buck I harvested and that’s where we pick up with today’s story. I loaded the buck up and went to a corner of the woods where no hunting takes place to field dress the deer. I don’t mind field dressing and butchering a deer, especially my own. Since I had the whole day to accomplish the task, it was going to be a simple pleasure. When it was all said and done I had the buck pretty much boned out leaving behind only the bare carcass and innards.  

I was getting ready to head out when I spied my old-time trail camera in the back seat of my truck. I decided to set it up so that I could see how many different critters feed on the parts of the deer that I never use. I covered as much of the pile as I could with tree bark and whatnot knowing the crows would be the first to arrive. After the crows, I expected coyotes, fox, coons, etc.

The crows were indeed the first to the party but two things drove them off of the free meal: darkness and hawks. 

This red-tailed hawk came in several times. I’ve seen eagles and crows in the same picture when feeding on a carcass, but I’ve never seen hawks and crows share the same dinner table. 

Vistors that I was surprised to see were two that I probably should have expected to see. An eight-point buck came in two nights in a row. He wasn’t a curious teenager either, he was a 2.5-year-old buck and he was curious. 

The other critter that came in was a fisher, which I think is one of the coolest animals that roam our woods. They have no natural predators in our area, other than trappers. I have unsuccessfully trapped them for two years now which means they aren’t afraid of me in the least. 

Four nights in a row the fisher came in and was the only critter that came after dark the entire time. This made me curious, so I spent more time on Google and YouTube researching fishers. It seems that when they come across a great food cache like this they spread their scent everywhere letting all animals know that this food source belongs to the meanest critter in the woods. How mean are they? They eat porcupines for lunch, literally. 

Now at this point I was on the verge of an epiphany. While I enjoyed seeing the hawk and the buck visit it was the fisher that had my full attention. I have been a huge fan from the minute I drew a tag three years ago. I could write a small thesis on the subject. As I scrolled through the fisher pictures from the previous night, two things came to mind: I had a fisher tag and trapping season was open.

TBC…… 

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