102 ~ A different sort of ice fishing

I love winter. It is the haiku season - clear, concise, yet movingly beautiful. I have never met a winter that was too long, too cold or too snowy, and I never will. It has the added benefit, apropos of my last post, of being the season when one is least likely to get lost - you can see a long way in winter, to spot landmarks, and if all else fails you can backtrack yourself in the snow. It is in winter that I can best keep contact with my true self.

I’ve been in my element, then, with this recent pulse of wintry weather here in the Driftless. I’ve been getting out daily to immerse in the pristine white world on snowshoes and cross-country skis, and a few days ago I made an interesting discovery at the pond near the house. The photo above and these that follow tell the story:

Note the tracks of an investigating coyote directly above the antlers - and the coyote’s territorial pee; the isolated antler would be attractive like a fire hydrant.

With a fair bit of work and chopping of ice, I was able to extract from the pond’s muddy shallows the skull and antlers of a 14-point buck:

Based on the condition of the carcass, this big fellow didn’t die recently. Before freeze-up he probably waded into the shallows, driven by thirst, and expired there. This is not unusual; with some regularity I find dead deer around the pond, and along streambeds. Dying deer commonly head toward water - intense thirst is a symptom of both the late stages of Chronic Wasting Disease, and of a gutshot wound (from a poorly placed bullet or arrow). It could have been either (or something else) for this old duke. His age and size made him susceptible both to CWD and to someone taking a shot at him.

Once we make the turn toward spring and the world re-warms and re-awakens, his carcass will feed the turtles and the cattails, the tadpoles and the crayfish. He will nurture the continuation of life. Yet for now, I’m happy for winter’s cold to hold him a while longer.