To some, the term “hunting” implies a vision of the hunter being totally consumed in his or her quest of the prey. In reality, though, what occurs during any hunt is a cornucopia of lateral interests and activities of which the actual pursuit of game is but a very small part.
Take, for example, the average squirrel hunt I often partake of in autumn. On the walk to the woods I’m forever gawking at the distant hills that are ablaze in autumn foliage. Then I may be distracted by a passing flock of Canada geese or a small group of Monarch butterflies, gathering and preparing to migrate. Looking downward, I may spot a small white cluster of meadow mushrooms or puffballs, and the lingering memory of tasty fried fungi stirs me to make sure I take time to harvest some on my way back from the hunt.
Once in the squirrel woods, I try to concentrate on the task at hand, which is to add a couple bushytails to tomorrow night’s dinner menu. An acrobatic nuthatch that’s adeptly scurrying up and down a tree trunk, in search nearly invisible insects hiding beneath the bark, interrupts my concentration. I then marvel at how the tiny bird seems to defy gravity and wonder if the blood rushes to its head when it’s clinging upside down to the tree. A rustle in the nearby fallen leaves catches and refocuses my attention. Then the tiny grey head of a shrew appears from under the edge of a leaf, like a tank commander peering out from the top hatch of his vehicle. The shrew, on a hunt of its own, reminds me that most of what occurs on this planet has to do with hunting, in one form or another.
Ask an avid grouse or other upland bird hunter what the main attraction of the activity is, and, chances are, they’ll say it’s watching the bird dog(s) work and the enjoyment they derive from the sights, sounds and scents that make up the autumn outdoors. Same goes for waterfowl or rabbit hunters as well as bowhunters that are after a deer. Autumn, even more so than spring, normally has a distinctive and highly pleasant personality, and one that involves all of our senses. It seems to be somewhat of a “kissing up” on the part of nature before the bleakness and cold of the winter season sets in. And regardless of whether you hunt, fish, hike, bird watch, or whatever, the appeal of the autumn outdoor experience is undeniable. Of course all this depends on the quality of the autumn season we get.
While our most common vision of autumn consists of clear blue skies, brilliant foliage and comfortably cool daytime temperatures and crisp nights, the past couple of years has seen nature deal us a bad hand for what should be our most beautiful season. Abundant clouds, rain and brisk winds reduced the season to but a handful of typical autumn day conditions. Last year was a good example, as the peak of the area’s foliage colors barely last two days before heavy rain and wind whisked them away, leaving the area landscape appear more like late November than October. I recall spending a few early October mornings in a duck blind in St. Lawrence County last fall, surrounded by barren bushes and trees, and thinking, “At least our foliage will still be there when I get home.” It wasn’t.
The El Nino in the Pacific this year has the majority of the long-term weather prognosticators believing that the western half of the nation will experience a mild winter season, but they don’t agree on what we Easterners will get. As such, they’re currently saying our winter could be worse or better than normal, and the ferocity in which winter approaches has much to do with the type fall we’ll have. Too warm and rainy, and we get almost zero of the typical autumn conditions. Too cold too early, and the leaves drop before the peak foliage colors can occur. As my dad used to say, regarding odd weather: “We get what we get – like it or not.”
The abnormally wet spring and summer we experienced this year was a two-edged sword – it was highly beneficial to watersheds and general foliage growth, but was detrimental to many species of wildlife. Ground-nesting birds such as grouse and wild turkey ran the risk of newly hatched poults becoming wet and chilled and then dying. The dampness also made it easier for predators such as skunk, opossum, fox and coyote to locate nests, especially via the latter two’s sensitive olfactory abilities. Newborn fawns were also easier for coyotes to hone in on and kill to feed their growing pups back in the whelping dens. In some ways, this year could be called “the year of the wild hunters,” thanks to the weather conditions. As I write this, we have yet to have our area’s first frost, which normally occurs around the third week in September. Due to the abnormally wet and warm spring, foliage and vegetation prospered early and is now beginning to reach the end of its annual growing cycle which, with or without a frost, results in leaves, weeds and some sedges expiring for this year. A deep breath of outdoor air reveals a distinctively autumn smell right now, an odor somewhat like fresh cider. But those strings of cool, blue sky days have yet to materialize.
So regardless of your outdoor quest, keep your fingers crossed. Maybe nature’s cruel joke of slamming us with a record flood this summer will see her “kissing up” by giving us a gorgeous autumn. If not, well “we get what we get.”

Testing Shows No Sign of Bird Flu in U.S.
The DEC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have sampled 544 birds in the state for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and, to date, all birds sampled have tested negative for the always fatal flu that has threatened bird populations in the Far East and elsewhere. The sampling focused on waterfowl, including Canada geese, mallards, and mute swans; but also included other waterfowl as well as many species of gulls and shorebirds. The flu strain still has not been detected in the more than 20,000 birds sampled across North America this year. For hunters who may still be concerned, DEC recommends wearing gloves when cleaning your gamebirds and washing your hands with soap and water afterwards. Cooking meat to at least 165 F will also kill any virus that may be present.

Doves Are Nation’s Number One Gamebird
Nationwide, four out of five states have liberal dove hunting seasons and 1.4 million dove hunters harvest approximately 23 million doves per year from an annually renewable nationwide population of 400 million doves. Doves are the nation’s Number One game bird. New York is one of the few states with a large dove population to fully protect doves and not allow them to be hunted.