What's For Lunch

When I was a much younger version of what I am today, I used to like to hunt.  That is the pursuance and taking of game animals.  On many occasions when I returned from an excursion, and was asked what my success had been, I might say, “Well, I didn’t actually get anything, but I saw a lot of tracks of one thing or another.”  My daddy always smiled as he told me that tracks make poor soup.

Well, that was easy for him to say.  He wasn’t out there slogging through the deep snow carting an old single-shot .22 caliber rifle trying to bag a rabbit that was running at about 90 miles an hour.  Yet, he was correct in that what I had bagged could leave a fellow awful hungry.

Today though was one of those days.  I rode my ATV back through the meadows and woods to see what I could see, and like those days of yore, I saw nothing but tracks.  Because my daddy said so, I know they don’t make good soup, but it’s the best I could do.  At any rate I spotted a set of hoof prints made by a large whitetail deer.  It was heavy enough that each print splayed at the front leaving an exceptionally wide print.  I suspect it was a large doe, heavy with young, but maybe not.

I also spotted, in near proximity, a set of dog-like tracks that I suspect were more than likely a coyote as they are prevalent in the area, and with little doubt would love a taste of venison after a lean winter spell.

The large turkey flock I spotted a month or more ago I believe has broken up as I spotted turkey tracks in many places, but none seemed to be of large flocks.  A few here, and a few there, and a total probably of many, but not all together.  I suppose they are preparing for their summer groupings of young toms (called Jakes), older toms, and the hens singling out for nesting.

As if that were not enough veiled excitement for one day, I also saw a perfect set of small cat-like tracks of some sort.  It is possible they were made by a common house cat, but also they may have been by some other small animal.  As I stated a few days ago, I am not good enough to recognize many different types or species of animal tracks. Skunks come out of their winter dens for breeding about this time of the year, so it may have been one of those.