Winter Wonderland

Put in another long day of TSI this past weekend.  Made a lot of progress again and the project is coming along nicely. We have a few more weekends where we'll be working hard to drop as many trees as possible, and then will move on to cleaning up the mess we've left in the area we'll be doing the duck hunting.  For the rest of the area, we'll leave the clutter on the ground as it provides great habitat and shelter for deer, turkey, and other small critters.  

The area we have been working in was thick with deer tracks and beds, and there were many areas we could see where the turkeys were scratching in the snow for any acorns that are still around.

I managed to sneak away for the chainsaw for an hour to do some scouting and check a trail camera while my dad and Jason continued to work, and took several pictures along the way.

A few pictures of some of the progress we've made....

My scouting mission....

Set this up on a trail crossing through some heavy cover

Found several rubs from this past season

Kicked up several does bedded here

Lots of traffic along the field edge

Remains of a young deer

Hitting the new mineral lick I started last fall

Plenty of food left for the critters still

Lots of traffic, bedding, and browse in our TSI area

Always good to see some sign within bow range of your stand

Had a reconyx set up over a standing bean field.  I can't say enough good about these cameras.  My only complaint is that it took TOO MANY pictures this time out.  The turkeys were hitting this portion of the field hard for several days after the heavy snow, and I didn't have the camera delay set up with that in mind.  Ended up getting 7,230 pictures over the course of a couple weeks...the card filled up just a couple days before I checked it.  Battery life still read 72% after taking that many pictures.  Got some great turkey shots and a couple nice bucks hanging around.  I have a feeling I'll find a shed or two in this field...can't wait!

Looks like there'll be plenty of turkeys around come spring season!  Here's a timelapse video of all the pictures combined, followed by a few select still shots.  I had the camera set to take a picture every 5 minutes for the first and last 2 hours of daylight...notice the turkeys roosting in the trees in the background.