With the deer hunting season winding down, some northern zone hunters are heading downstate to hunt the southern zone, the regular firearms season opening yesterday.

However, one thing seems certain: The pundits expounding the lunar theory for when the rut peaks may be wrong this fall. As of Thursday, not only are buck numbers down, but some that are being brought in are only showing beginning stages of the rut — the characteristic swollen neck. The lunar theory folks had the peak between Nov. 3 and 14.

Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist Ed Reed in Ray Brook observes, "The number of bucks we've seen in the deer cutter meat lockers is down from last year. The rut seems to be just starting."

Reed adds that the warmer weather and lack of tracking snow have also contributed to the low amount of bucks coming in. From my own observations, I have seen only a couple of scrapes, and they were created later than expected. Reed expects the buck take to increase as we move toward December.

For the real lunar theory die-hards, there is another full moon Dec. 2 (December has two full moons this year), so there's still hope, as the regular firearms season in the northern zone runs until Dec. 6.

After that, Wildlife Management Units 5A and 5G that run from the Canadian border to southern Essex County, generally paralleling Lake Champlain, and 6A and 6C in the St. Lawrence Valley have late muzzleloader seasons from Dec. 7 through 13.

If the deer take has been down, the number of bear shot is up from 2008. According to Reed, as of last Monday 572 were reported in the northern zone compared to 406 last fall. The numbers are evenly spread out throughout towns in the tri-county area.

Wild Turkeys
Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and we cannot forget Ben Franklin's choice for a national bird — the wild turkey. This is a remarkable story of a successful introduction of a species to northern New York and elsewhere. From small transplants in the 1980s, there are now literally thousands of turkeys up here, and hunters have not only a spring hunting season, but a fall one as well that runs from Oct. 1 through 23. I did not hunt wild turkeys this fall, preferring instead the challenge of calling one in the spring, so my family will have to contend with a store-bought one this Thanksgiving.

However, if we wanted to go completely wild, we could serve trout, grouse and some of last year's venison (courtesy of me), along with Jerusalem artichokes and chanterelle mushrooms (courtesy of my wife). All this would be downed with some homemade highbush cranberry wine.



Rabbit Derby Sponsors
This is for those clubs or organizations that sponsor rabbit-hunting derbies this winter. I also write an Adirondack column for Vermont-based Outdoors Magazine that circulates in New York. If you want your hunt mentioned in my January column, you must get the who, what, where, prizes and contact information via e-mail or some other means to me as soon as possible as my deadline is the end of this month.

To all my readers, hunters and nonhunters alike, have a Happy Thanksgiving.

E-mail Dennis Aprill at daprill2000@yahoo.com and check out our Web site at www.pressrepublican.com/0105_outdoor_perspective for more photos and past articles.