Watching Deer – Watching You

“One hot afternoon in August I sat under the elm, idling, when I saw a deer pass across a small opening a quarter mile east. A deer trail croses our farm, and at this point any deer traveling is briefly visble from the shack.

I then realized that half an hour before I had moved my chair to the best spot for watching the deer trail; that I had done this habitually for years, without being clearly conscious of it. This led to the thought that by cutting some brush I could widen the zone of visibility. Before night the swath was cleared, and within the month I detected several deer which otherwise could likely have passed unseen.

The new deer swath was pointed out to a series of weekend guests for the purpose of watching their later reactions to it. It was soon clear that most of them forgot it quickly, while others watched it, as I did, whenever chance allowed. The upshot was the realization that there are four categories of outdoorsmen: deer hunters, duck hunters, bird hunters, and non-hunters. These categories have nothing to do with sex or age, or accoutrements; they represent four diverse habits of the human eye. The deer hunter habitually watches the next bend; the duck hunter watches the skyline; the bird hunter watches the dog; the non-hunter does not watch.

When the deer hunter sits down he sits where he can see ahead, and with his back to something. The duck hunter sits where he can see overhead, and behind something. The non-hunter sits where he is comfortable. None of these watches the dog. The bird hunter watches only the dog…”

From the chapter entitled “The Deer Swath” in A Sand County Almanac”, by Aldo Leopold.

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I read this for the first time many years ago, and the basic premise of it has stuck in my mind ever since. It is classic Leopold, whose writings always seems to leave behind more thought provoking questions than he answers. He was, and still is, one of the preeminent teachers of the natural world.

Looking back, I realize now that I have always sat with shoulders squared up to something at my back, watching.

Perhaps I am just a deer hunter at heart. It is the promise of deer, for which I wait.

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Where do you sit?

Michael Patrick McCarty

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