Empty-handed, but never disappointed

I'd been sitting under an old white oak for two hours. Watching. Listening. The deer were using a different trail this day. So my mind and senses wandered.
I heard the chickadees who had been watching me as intently as I watched them. Off to my right a twig snapped. The ghostly image of a gray fox disappeared over the terraced hillside. I still savor the glimpse of this common, but seldom seen predator. And to my left, a gray squirrel added another acorn to its winter stash.
I rarely fire a shot. But I never leave the woods disappointed. I always take home a story or a memory that makes time in the woods well spent.
The lessons that hunters learn while afield are limited only by their curiosity. Especially on slow days, nature's side shows make a day in the woods worthwhile. It certainly beats a day at work.
First subjects
Birds are the first subjects likely to attract a bored or curious hunter's attention. It may be the bold approach of a downy woodpecker. It's clearly wary of the motionless human intruder. Eventually the woodpecker hitches its way up tree trunks in search of invertebrate egg cases, larvae and dormant adults. No crack or crevice of furrowed bark escapes its attention.
Minutes later a white-breasted nuthatch may inspect the same trunks -- from a different perspective, but with equal success. Working its way headfirst down the trunk, the nuthatch spies tidbits missed in the woodpecker's more conventional vertical search.
At the limits of your binoculars' vision, a lone blue jay spots a barred owl perched in an old hickory tree. Almost completely hidden by a clump of dried leaves that refuses to fall, the owl prepares for its daily dose of harassment. The jay's alarm calls rally a mixed flock of blue jays, crows, cardinals, titmice, and other song birds. The mob badgers the owl for several minutes until it finally flees to a quieter neck of the woods. With the deadly threat gone, members of the ruthless mob return to their normal routines.
Speaking of owls, check the ground beneath any tree from which an owl flushes. If the owl regularly dines in those branches, you'll find a pile of weathered gray pellets below. These regurgitated packets of indigestible fur, feathers and bone reveal exactly what the owl has been eating. Pick the pellets apart carefully, and you'll find skulls of deer mice, voles and song birds.
When moving from one hunting spot to another, turn your attention to plants. Watch for witch hazel, a small tree and the last plant to flower in the eastern woods. Witch hazel blooms only after most other trees have dropped their leaves. Its small yellow flowers brighten an otherwise drab forest understory. Use a hand lens to examine its twisted ribbonlike petals.
Powerful explosion
And notice the capsules that have only recently burst open and expelled the two seeds produced by one of last year's flowers. So powerful is the explosion of the capsule that the seeds can be dispersed up to 40 feet from the parent plant.
Though fairly inconspicuous except when in bloom, witch hazel has been well known to humans for centuries. Native Americans made tea from its dried leaves, early settlers used forked branches as dousing rods to locate springs, and even today you can buy witch hazel extract in drugstores to treat everything from insect bites and burns to hemorrhoids and varicose veins.
One final burst of fall color to watch for is the fruit of the bittersweet vine. If you can find it before turkeys, grouse and other fruit-eating birds do, it's easy to recognize. When ripe, the hard, orange outer shell splits open to expose bright red fleshy seeds.
A hunter is more than just a seasonal predator. She is a lifelong student of nature's intricately woven web of life. And he knows how to go home empty-handed, but never disappointed.
XSend questions and comments to Dr. Scott Shalaway, R.D. 5, Cameron, W.Va. 26033 or via e-mail to sshalaway @aol.com