The Day I Found Myself – A Wood Duck Hunt

The Day I Found Myself – A Wood Duck Hunt

The day I found myself, the wood duck came full-speed. From upriver and darting among cypress and willows — spilling air from his wings. Things had not been going particularly well, one single and specific vehicle of distress difficult to identify. Perhaps it was...
Desert Dreams

Desert Dreams

It was a dream come true working with desert bighorns for research, and soon my dream of taking a bighorn ram would be realized. Less than 75 yards away the desert bighorn ram was indeed going down! As he faltered, I took off running. The ram staggered and fell. I...
Every Man Goes Out Alone

Every Man Goes Out Alone

It is not a thing life prepares one for, no matter how much meat has been secured in this fashion following a successful elk or deer hunt. The name fits. Clyde. I picture a “Clyde” and see leathery features beneath a black, grease-crusted Stetson, floppy...
Roosevelt’s Last Hunt

Roosevelt’s Last Hunt

“The man should have youth and strength who seeks adventure in the wide, waste spaces of the earth, in the marshes, and among the vast mountain masses, in the northern forests, amid the streaming jungles of the tropics, or on the deserts of sand or of snow. He...
Deep South Bugs and Bucks: When Itches Collide

Deep South Bugs and Bucks: When Itches Collide

Lowcountry of South Carolina. Two-thirds of my county is underwater at high tide. If it bites, it lives here.   Deer flies, horse flies, dog flies, chiggers, sand-gnats, three flavors of ticks, assassin beetles, 56 separate species of mosquitoes, any number of...
New Year’s Eve was a Dark and Doggy Night

New Year’s Eve was a Dark and Doggy Night

I did not intend to be stuck deep in the woods on a moonless night, one so dark you could feel the blackness wrap around you. But two of my beagles saw to it that New Year’s Eve 2018 was a memorable one, although less than celebratory. Anyone who has owned...