Wildlife | Larry A. Smail's Blog

Archive for the ‘Wildlife’ Category

Reefer’s Cove

Posted in Historical, Wildlife on October 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A couple of weeks ago I went to a place of memories for me. It is Reefer’s Cove, a tributary for Keystone Lake. The water was low due to the lack of rain and heat of this past summer. I arrived early with a fog and sub-freezing temperatures. I saw frost in various low areas.

The area has a special memory for me for I harvested my very first buck up a steep side hollow when I was a young fellow. The hillside was very steep, and I shot the deer along the bottom. MY dad and I struggled to climb the hill to the car.

Another memory I have is in very late May of 1999, I took my father here to fish. Several weeks later he would be gone. Life is like that, I guess.

As you can see, I managed a lot of deer photos. I think I saw fifteen deer this particular morning. I saw the top of a bear head behind the bank’s contoured slope.

Must have been a cemetery under water at one time.

I come onto a number of tombstone bases with a few broken head stones. I would like to know the history of this find.

Read Full Post »

2025 Early Muzzleloading Season

Posted in Early Flintlock, Wildlife on October 20, 2025| 2 Comments »

I crossed Cherry Run in the dark hours heading for a flat where I had planned to hunt. The morning was just great with nice temperatures. In the early minutes after dawn, I could hear something moving about across the hollow from my position. As I listened, I was surprised when five turkeys suddenly appeared well within shotgun range had I been hunting turkeys. The birds went around behind me and climbed high over the top. I managed several photos but nothing very exciting.

The first deer I saw was a buck. the little six-point came right to me as I snapped a host of photos. The buck circled around me and dropped down over right where I saw him at first. Range finder showed the buck at twenty-six yards. This buck made a circle completely around me.

A short time later another buck appeared. I began taking photos of him as well. He saw me and would snort and move off and I would call him back. I called this buck back five times before he had had enough of my stench. The deer was as close as twenty-two yards.

I heard something behind me and turned to see a doe at sixty-two yards away. I limited my shots to forty yards or under due to my sighting issues. Another bigger buck appeared and chased her up the hollow. i use my range finder when I can to get the yardages.

My next excitement happened towards noon. I saw a Black Bear coming my way. For a brief moment I debated what was legal. I thought the season came in muzzleloading bear during the last three days of week. I am glad I remembered for that was indeed accurate, The Blackie came close to me. I couldn’t get a focus on him due to brush and his movements. The bear stopped behind me a sniff before moving down over the hill I guess the weight was somewhere between 130 and 150 pounds. I used my range finder, and the bear was 24.9 yards away at one spot. Needless to say, my hunt was over I couldn’t concentrate on deer, and I didn’t care as I headed out at one o’clock.

Read Full Post »

Deer

Posted in Wildlife on September 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Deer are everywhere during my jaunts. With all the dry vegetation they are spending more time eating acorns. Many have their winter coats already.

Read Full Post »

A Few Photos From Recent Walks

Posted in Misc. Nature, Wildlife on September 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Read Full Post »

A Selection of Spring Photos

Posted in Misc. Nature, Wildflowers, Wildlife on May 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I had three meals of Morels this spring.

Read Full Post »

Odd and End Pics

Posted in Misc. Nature, Wildlife on April 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

It is a long story. I had bad service with my phone, and I was disgusted. I decided to cancel but the customer service was terrible, and I could not obtain a “real” person to explain the issue and to cancel. I had elected to have my monthly bill removed via card. Anyway, my only recourse was to cancel the card and have another one issued to me. Moving forward with this long story, I needed more purchase on my blog site for I was at 12.9 GB. out of 13 GB. So, until I obtained a new card, I was hesitant to place lots of photos for the site. Other problems came to be for the credit card company personnel overlooked adding the new card until a phone call was made.

Hoping you enjoy a few pics from the last month or so.

Bald Eagle nest

Read Full Post »

The Pine Warbler…An Unusual Visitor!

Posted in Wildlife on February 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

At various times over the last couple of months I had been seeing this bird around my feeders. I recognized the bird immediately as a warbler. Warblers can be very difficult to identify because of various differences between males and females and seasonal feathering changes.

I finally managed to get a good clear photo, and the warbler is known as the Pine Warbler for they like pines. This is a male.

The interesting part of this bird is the fact they migrate and are not supposed to be in Pennsylvania over winter! I can’t help wondering why this little guy stayed here.

Read Full Post »

2024 Deer Season

Posted in Misc. Hunting, Wildlife on December 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Recently I alluded to not being able to hunt. I didn’t want to say much at the time because I had a concern of people knowing I wouldn’t be living at my home. I moved into my mother’s home in early October while my sister was dealing with a surgery and staying elsewhere to heal. It must be remembered of my mother’s bad stroke in June.

I didn’t hunt the early muzzleloader season. I managed to go out once in the fall turkey season with success. I failed to hunt the bear season. However, it felt good enough to leave the home to go out for deer on the first day of the 2024 deer season. My mother encouraged the hunt saying she would be fine. I planned a half day hunt.

That first morning I would see plenty of deer including five bucks. I almost shot one legal buck but decided against the action. I guess I wasn’t in the hunting mode for once the deer was identified as a legal buck, the crosshairs were in place and the safety was off. I passed on several antlerless shots too.

I would see a flock of turkeys and hear a pair of Great-horned Owl’s courting. Later I would second guess my decisions. I heard a Screech Owl, too. At one time, I heard running deer. It was a doe being chased by a four-point buck. The two came right to me.

December 2, I was out to hunt again with a different hunting mode in place. I would harvest an antlerless deer. I saw a number of deer that morning, too.

I returned home on December 4 upon my sister’s return. The deer was butchered and ground into burger by December 5th.

Read Full Post »

Big Un

Posted in Wildlife on November 20, 2024| 4 Comments »

I spotted this nice buck in his bed today. He was about thirty yards from me, possibly less.

Read Full Post »

Recent Photos

Posted in My Family, Wildlife on October 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Over the last several weeks my priority has been watching over my mother. It is a struggle working several schedules in place and still watch over her. She comes with me to many music events, that I am committed to play guitar which helps. And she really enjoys such events. Considering the bad stroke in June and her age of a month shy of ninety-five years of age, she really is doing rather well, but she still needs to be watched for her med needs and such things. Needless to say, I missed the early muzzleloading season but that is alright. However, I managed to do short strolls around the house and have been seeing many deer. I hope to get out a little in the fall turkey season.