No better place than right here

No better place than right here

I am quite sure that anyone who has lived in this North Wisconsin country of ours for very long would agree with me that for all of us living every day among the trees, lakes and creeks we have in abundance is as good as life can get.

Many of us take great advantage of plentiful fishing, hunting, camping and hiking opportunities in this forestland of ours.

For the many who don’t hunt or fish, there are always wild berries to pick in season, mushrooms — if you know which ones are edible — to be found in almost any piece of the country, and wildlife aplenty to watch going about their daily business in their own natural habitat.

I hunt and I fish and I camp and I hike. I am also a birdwatcher, but unlike my late mom and dad, I recognize few of the songs that they sing. Still, along with my wife, I have greatly appreciated the many singing birds that have come to our feeders over the past 50 years or so.

Watching grosbeaks fight for positions on a large seed tray during winter months is a daily joy. Seeing chickadees and nuthatches delicately pick out a seed at a time from a feeder keeps me looking out my windows every day of the winter.

Raucous bluejays announce their presence. Woodpeckers, including hairy, downy and pileated species, tearing into a big chunk of suet hanging off a tree trunk, give me great pleasure and entertainment, mainly between November and April.

When I’m not watching birds at the feeders, I’m kept busy trying to put the run on assorted red, black and gray squirrels who try to usurp possession of the feeders.

Having ruffed grouse land on a deck railing before jumping down to the deck where sunflower seeds wait for them is something everyone should get to watch now and then. My wife and I see them doing just that almost every winter.

Hanging up the rib cage of a deer on an oak tree trunk when I am lucky enough to get one during a given deer season is something I do. It guarantees winter bird visitors along our driveway will be able to add a lot of nutritional fat to their diets.

Oh, did I forget to mention that in more recent years wild turkeys have been frequent visitors as well? They prefer corn I toss out on our garage apron.

Sometimes a visiting turkey gives you more than you bargained for. Such was a February day a few years ago when I opened a side door of our garage. Stepping outside, a tom turkey and I had an unexpected meeting from less than three feet apart.

Needless to say, he didn’t stick around to shake hands or exchange pleasantries.

Of course, songbirds, deer, grouse and turkeys aren’t the only visitors who have come to see me whether I invited them or not.

Not many years after we had our house built, my wife and I came home one summer evening to find a rather large visitor sitting with his rump on the deck and his hind feet planted two steps down from him.

Next to him was a garbage can that never held garbage. Its contents were black sunflower seeds, as black as the fur which covered what I figured was about 300 pounds of bear.

He didn’t invite me to share in his feast but did hold still long enough to get some “movin’ pitchers” of him, as Jethro Bodine would describe film shot with a movie camera.

He wasn’t the only one of his kind to entertain us on our deck, or to be more specific, entertain our daughter who was home for a weekend visit.

We had been having flying squirrels visit our seed feeder just to the left of our entry door. Hearing some kind of scratching from that direction around midnight, my daughter got up, ready to shoo the culprit away. With her nose against the picture window a foot away from the door, she flicked on the porch light.

Instead of a flying squirrel, she found herself nose to nose with a bear; a bear which had his nose on the outside of the window looking to see who was disturbing his munching on a tasty treat.

I don’t know how long it took the bear to make a scrambling retreat, but I do know my daughter set a world land speed record getting back to her bedroom, where she slammed shut and probably locked the door.

Thousands and thousands of hours I have spent roaming our woods and floating on our waters, sometimes fishing or hunting, oftentimes just wandering or paddling around, hoping to have yet another amicable meet-up with one of the wild critters who make life living in the woods the wonderful thing it is.

I wouldn’t trade life in these North Wisconsin woods of ours for anyplace else in the world.

By the way, did I ever tell you about…….