I tried something a little different for this observation. This time I setup in a blind and waited for the animals to come to me for a change.
I used something called an Ameristep One-man Chair Blind. This thing is essentially a standard cloth-covered folding camp chair equipped with a hood to cover the occupant. It is very portable. A series of zippered windows allow you to see what is going on the outside.
This time out I setup in a dried pond bed roughly an hour before dark. The pond bed was criss-crossed with a variety of animal tracks and I had high hopes for this experiment.
Well, I had to wait all of seven minutes for the first deer to show up. One after another a herd of six does passed in front of me—sometimes as close as 15-20 yards/meters away.
The deer were skittish. They knew something was out of place. But, the blind generally aroused their curiosity rather than their flight response.
Eventually, caution won out and the sounds of my camera clicking and beeping encouraged the deer to head for the woods!
A successful experiment if you ask me!
