Pics taken from the house

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The "Live From the Stand" thread got me posting (and jacking) with some pics I took from my kitchen and living room windows. I started looking through some of the hundreds of sometimes cool, and sometimes heart breaking photos I've taken from the house.
These were mostly shot with a camcorder and then turned into screen shots, but some were taken with older equipment and the poor quality shows. But there is sometimes interesting stories behind some of those crappy pics, so I wanted to add them to the thread.
This may take me a day or 2 to finish posting all of them. Feel free to add some of your own...I'm sure that I'm not the only one that is blessed to be surrounded by wildlife.


This is probably the best buck I've had here. Solid 11 point that I saw probably 75 times. Those are what's left of my sunflower plot that year.


I felt sure he was close to a 150 buck when I watched him in velvet.


They really look smaller after they shed their velvet, don't they?


Heartbreaker... He was shot in rifle season a mile from my home by someone I didn't know. I never got a chance to inspect the rack.

 

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These pics were taken with older equipment so the quality is poor, but I had an interesting history with this guy...




3 weeks earlier, I had this buck walk past me at 12 yards in my tree stand at daybreak. I would have normally been on stand 10 minutes earlier, but I was late that day. I had just hauled up my bow and was not able to get an arrow nocked in time. He stopped in 2 of my shooting lanes. Had I been there 30 seconds sooner I would have had a shot.
These pics were taken on the 1st and 2nd day of our Pa rifle season. I could have easily (and legally) stuck a gun out the door and killed him, but that would have been cheating. I actually had the .270 leaning by the door...not for shooting deer though, it was for coyotes.


This dude was a stud when he was puffed-up and posturing...


He commanded respect from the other bucks...

More pics of him in the next post...

 

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This is still the 1st day of rifle season. I watched him for 3 hours that day in the brassica plot.


This is the 2nd day of gun season. He was in the plot for over an hour. I could have shot him from the window again, but that isn't how I want to fill my tag.
I was estimating his gross score to be 140" (he was an 11 point).


Another heartbreaker. A neighbor shot him on the 3rd day of the gun season. He was lucky to get a shot. He jumped him on the way to the stand and just before the buck would have been out of sight he stopped to look back...BANG!
He grossed 140 1/8". Pretty good estimate I made in the prior sightings.

 

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This was a pretty buck. I have no idea what happened to him. He just disappeared.


This was a buck I called Rip...he had a torn ear that can't be seen in this pic. This was the 2nd year I watched him. His rack was almost the same size as the previous year.


Yet another heartbreaker. I found his remains in the following April. No Idea how he died.
I passed up a shot at the other buck in bow season because his rack was broken.

 

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Here's another nice one we had hanging around...


Out trying' to get a girlfriend...


He's looking' to kick some butt...


In my leech field...

 

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This poor buck led a rough life. He survived a wound and an ugly compound fracture...


A neighbor shot him a few weeks after this photo on the 1st day of gun season. The guy made a horrible shot...which broke both front legs and somehow, this buck still managed to go over 300 yards. I won't go into more detail of the deers final hour...it isn't pleasant to think about.
I helped the hunter trail him into my sanctuary where I made the finishing shot.


I have no idea how he broke this foot. Car accident? Groundhog hole? These animals live a hard life...

 

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Here's a buck that survived EHD. He lost a rear foot due to it but made it into the 2nd year that I watched him.He really put on some inches over the previous rack, but I don't have pics of him from the prior year. He disappeared, too.

He must of felt good enough to fight and break an antler...


Here's a good look at his foot...


After the season and still looking alive. I saw him a few times more during shedding season but never saw him again in the following spring. Where did he go?

 

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Here's another buck that had some bad luck.
He was shot by a neighbor with an arrow in October the year this photo was taken...loin hit and not fatal. I saw him several times afterward and he was doing fine.
But then he had another injury. He was most likely hit by a car or possibly shot in the left shoulder.
His left leg was locked in position the way you see it in these photos. This poor thing had the hardest time walking because he would have to get his right leg up and over the left one that was in the way. I should have shot him to put him out of his misery, but the Pa Game Comm wouldn't allow it. I would have to call a warden to come out and do it...How does a person "schedule" an appointment and time it for that to happen.
This poor guy was losing weight quickly. I'm sure he didn't survive the winter.

 

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We have a lot of turkeys, too. 2 winters ago my winter-time flock was 103 birds. I got a chance to count them in a single file as they came out of the woods.


This is when I used to feed them. I went through literally 18,000 to 20,000 pounds of corn per year.


It's not unusual for them to come on the porch...



They were at the bird feeder the other day and I loudly yelped with my voice so they could hear me through the glass. 2 came on the porch and 2 more flew up onto my porch roof. Wish I would have had the video camera going for that.

 

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And you think beggars lice are annoying on your fleece!


She looked so miserable!

 

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I have several deer with a mane. The does in these 2 pics have been hanging around my home for a long time.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Dang you seem to be the sanctuary for all the beat up deer! Lots of nice bucks though. I ususally get 1 or 2 deer in every year that have a mane. People come to pick up their deer and they wonder what the heck it is!

 

[Bill]

Some sad stuff does happen to them. I had a great up and comer 10 come by yesterday. Someone shot him with a rifle right below his shoulder and broke his front leg. I had him at 10 yards last week and let him walk.
Probably should have put him down but I didn't.

 

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I found this bucks left antler one year...


The following year he developed this rack. You can barely see the freckle below his eye in both pics. My buddy arrowed him and we couldn't find him. BTW, the 1st 3 hours that we searched I picked 58 ticks off of me...in 37 degree temps! I had no idea ticks were active in those temperatures.
I found this buck in my sanctuary to April while looking for sheds. My buddy had the antlers mounted on a nice cape.

 

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Nice buck being kept out of the beans with my new E fence. Thought it was cool to catch the dove flying by.


Won't see these guys until next spring!


Is this the most hideous turkey you've ever seen?


They love those Trophy Pears!

 

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I nicknamed this little spike "Whiteshoe". I found those tiny sheds in my plot. Anyone can find the big sheds...finding a pair of 3 inch spikes is a challenge!


He went from a spike to a respectable 8 point the following year. He had a lot of promise and since he was so easy to identify, some of us decided to not shoot him for at least another year. A neighbor passed him up because I asked to let him walk...


But someone else wasn't with the program. You can see a crossbow bolt hanging behind his right rear leg. He carried that bolt for months. I saw him without it and hoped he would be okay. He disappeared, too. Nice switchgrass in the background.

 

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I'm surprised more bucks don't have eye injuries.


Your mom said "Somebody was gonna put an eye out"!

 

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This is how someone gets poked in the eye. The guy on the left has quite a set on him.



Mange. This was another deer the game comm wouldn't let me shoot.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That's impressive. How many acres is your property? You have a ton of deer there, but it sounds like a lot of them get wounded by neighbors.

 

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Last post...

These are a couple of OLD pics from 1985 when I bought the property. I was walking past the corn crib when a Kestrel swooped down toward me. I thought he was attacking me at first, but then I realized he was trying to land on me. He must have been an escaped falconer's bird. He was super cool. He hung around for a couple weeks and someone out the road showed-up with a cage. The bird flew down to him but as soon as the guy tried to shove it in the cage the bird got away from him...it was the last time he was seen.
Thanks for looking at my picture show.
How about adding some of your own to this thread?


The field in the background is now a thick tangled mess that the deer love. It's now one of my sanctuaries.