The Tri-County Journal
& Chattahoochee Chronicle
PO Box 850, 71 Webb Lane
Buena Vista, GA 31803
229-649-6397
tjournal@alltel.net
While a kid I saw a woodpecker’s hole in a dead tree and decided to check it out. I climbed up and stuck my hand in the hole to see if eggs were in it. Wrong decision! I felt pain like hot needles. An angry sparrow hawk came out, talons driven into my palm. The hawk let go and I slid or half fell to the ground. Lesson: don’t stick one’s hand into a hollow tree.
We farm folks often ate wild game. I learned that rabbits climb trees – but from the inside! Rabbits will sometimes crawl up a hollow tree. Their tracks in fresh snow can disclose this hideaway. Once on a squirrel hunt I found a hollow tree with honey bees as well as squirrels in residence. A forest condo!
In Colorado I saw a porcupine up a pine tree, dining on the bark. A porcupine might stay up one tree for several days. This creature cannot throw its quills but many a rash dog has come home with quills sticking in its nose. I met a porcupine on a snowy trail but wisely gave it the go ahead. Indians used dyed quills to decorate fine items of wear.
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columns by Bob Justus.
On a hunt in Colorado after a deep snow, I paused in an open glade dotted with little pine sprouts. Hearing a sound up ahead, I backed off a fresh deer trail a few feet and raised my rifle. Out of the thick pines came several mule deer does. Each doe in turn gazed at me and calmly walked on. Maybe I looked like a stump!
Friends and I hunted snipe in Luzon Island rice paddies. Once we saw a walking catfish climb out of one paddy and waddle across the dyke road to enter the next water-filled paddy. I heard these walking catfish are in Florida and may soon walk across America. Once we almost walked into a battle line between
At least one flying squirrel can swim under water. On a visit with a couple they walked with me down to a nearby stream. The man reached with one hand to brace himself against a tree. A flying squirrel lying flat against the bark near his hand glided into the creek, then swam underwater to the opposite shore and hid under a pile of driftwood.
I saw a flying snake one day while hunting in Persimmon Valley, Rabun Co., Ga. While walking along I saw a black snake turn loose from a high oak limb and glide down on a stiff wind, coiling its body like a spring, to land lightly in a bed of leaves. In McDuffie Co., Ga., one windy day, while up a tree, I saw a tree frog sail by my face and glide to a low bush on the ground.
Fred Barrington and I were ringneck pheasant hunting on a ranch east of Denver. As we stood talking to the owner a gun went off. From that direction a cock pheasant flew in to land behind the barn. The friendly owner, who let us hunt free, laughed and said, “That smart old ringneck joins my chickens every time a gun goes off nearby.”
On a deer hunt in a locale called Silly Cook in Habersham Co., Ga., I was in a tree overlooking a draw filled with an ivy thicket. Through a break in the ivies I saw a fine buck creeping on knees and belly! Just ahead of him the ivy thicket gave way and I thought, “Old boy! I’ll get you now.” However, the Old Boy turned right and escaped into a thicket across the draw.
Recently my friend Richard Windham and I hunted deer in central Georgia. The sun had sunk to the horizon when I saw a large raccoon walk down a fallen log by my stand. Shortly a smaller one strolled by on the same log. A little later I heard objects dropping nearby and looked around to see a persimmon tree.
I saw at the top of the tree the large raccoon dangling like a squirrel, feeding on ripe persimmons. Below him the smaller raccoon was doing the same. Later I heard a commotion and saw what appeared to be two creatures struggling at the very tip of the tree. Then I saw that the two raccoons were in fact following nature’s course. I failed to get a deer but this scene made the outing worthwhile. Expect the unexpected in the wild.