I took another half dozen shots with my archery gear to make sure that I was ready for a confident shot at a deer if the opportunity presented itself.

Several of my hunting companions had recently harvested a deer and had to really work fast to dress out their deer due to the warm weather.

I had passed on hunting one evening this week, explaining to my wife that it was just too hot to be hunting. She explained to me that it might be too hot for deer hunting, but it was just right for cutting the grass!

The driveway and yard were full of fresh fallen acorns and the lawn mower was sounding more like a popcorn machine than a mower. The cooler weather started to arrive and I gave the boat one last clean up before heading for storage. The boat was full of acorns from all the oaks around the parking area as well and I just ended getting out the shop vac and giving them a quick pick-up.

With the boat squared away and some cooler weather, I decided that this was the right time for an evening hunt.

The decision now was the early muzzleloader season hunt or the archery hunt.

The chance at a buck or doe won out on this evening and so it would be archery. I headed out to one of my favorite hunting areas and inched my way along a well-traveled deer trail.

I love to still hunt and find it to be challenging and very interesting as you are able to see the activity of the local deer herd. Many new saplings and young trees were stripped of their bark from antler rubbing.

Deer droppings were on the trail as well. The difference between a mature buck and a yearling deer is significant once you learn to read the sign. Food preference and feeding areas soon stand out and deer activity patterns soon emerge.

I picked a likely stand near a stone pile not far off the well-worn trail and hoped that a deer might come up the trail in search of the abundant acorns that scattered themselves all over the ground area.

There was a slight breeze and every time a gust would come past, I received a shower of acorns. Every foot of the woodlands had an acorn covering it heavily. The deer were not the only woodland creatures interested in the acorn crop. Squirrels and chipmunks found the weather and the acorns to their liking as well.

I had settled in to a cover spot near the trail when I heard some leaves rustling. I wasn’t sure of the source of the sounds, but it was wide open to what it might be.

Once while hunting in this style, I happened upon a black bear who was taking advantage of the fruits of the forest before hibernation.

I was able to watch him undetected as he stripped service berries off a bush and gobbled them down.

When wildlife is feeding on favorite foods, they seldom pay attention to what is going on around them. However, this time the culprit was just a squirrel, my neighbor PK Thompson is a squirrel watcher and he reported seeing 11 squirrels in the same tree at one time.

If you don’t think that they can make a disturbance, you do not know much about squirrel behavior.

Maybe I should have been hunting squirrels because that is all I had a chance to observe. I was saving my squirrel hunt for a boy that attends my church. He would like to make it an adventure, but he has to clear it with his parents and I am not sure how that is going for him.

He is interested in hunting and they are not interested in hunting in the least. This would likely be a good time to introduce him to the craft if he has his parent’s approval for a mentored hunt.

My mind was brought back to focus as a squirrel put out the alarm that someone was in the forest. Squirrels putting out an alarm call is one of the most incessant noises in the woods.

They can alert you of movement around you or warn other wildlife of your presence.

Once the alarm went out, I knew that my chances of surprising a deer was a long shot at best.

Instead, I used the moment to think of different scenarios that I could face.

Things like finding shooting lanes, open areas, likely directions for deer appearing and having plenty of cover as needed. The squirrel moved along and things quieted down considerably.

The end of legal shooting hours was rapidly approaching and I had some other plans to attend to on this evening.

I made my way back home and thought of the next few days of hunting and some more areas that I wanted to check over. Such as the old apple tree that I found in an abandoned farm site, it can be a deer magnet as well as a grove of beech trees that need explored.

If I can’t locate the deer that I want, then I can sure find all the squirrels that I want!

Until we meet again keep a sharp eye and a keen ear on the wildlife.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle