Looking for Morels

 

On one of the draws where I hunt for morel mushrooms on a typical year, during my previous visit I only looked at the head of it where I typically find the most morels and indeed found two. Pressed on time though, I hadn't hiked the full length of the draw and so on this visit, I decided to make that my first stop. It had only been four days since my previous trip and had been mostly overcast though a bit warmer and so I had hope of finding masses of mushrooms but alas, didn't see a single one. At the far end of the draw though, I came across somebody's deer stand. There are deer trails everywhere through this draw so I'm sure it is prime hunting grounds.

The entire time I was walking this draw with my head towards the ground, a hawk was above me doing the exact same thing and crying out every five seconds or so. I suspect that the hawk had a nest somewhere there and was telling me to watch myself and not get to close or he would come down and feast on my eyes and perhaps liver. I was able to catch a video of him above as he shot down wind and then turned upwind so he could follow my progress.

Per normal, I came across another murder scene. It wasn't far from the deer stand either so I'm guessing it might have died a more natural death or perhaps on a different day when the deer stand wasn't occupied.

After awhile I moved onto another farm where I often hunt but usually only find mostly early season gray morels at and had found a single one the previous trip. I found zero even though I spent a good while hiking a large draw I haven't hunted in before. On my way out, I was taking a short cut across a planted farm field and found the above antler. Luckily it had broken and not stuck into the tire. At one point, my parents had a large pile of antlers that had found their way into soft rubber tires. I picked it up and carried it out with me, even finding about half of the other antler a 100 yards away. In the past I have made ink pens out of the bone or razor handles. Small objects I can turn on a lathe. I haven't done either in many years but I'll add these to my collection just in case.

Tonight, we are in the bullseye for some sporting weather with 2 to 4 inches of rain in the forecast, likely coming down hard and fast. I would rather have the same rain spread out over 48 hours but I'm not Mother Nature and have no say in the matter. Already, flash flood alerts have been warned for our area. It we do get that rain, and perhaps some warm weather after, perhaps the second half of morel mushroom season will be better than the first half has been. Three mushrooms between three mushroom eaters is not enough to get fat on.