Christian Valley gives up another one

[Robert_G]

My whitetail doe draw turned out to be a pretty short hunt.
I pulled into Rock Creek and right there at the motel, there is a bright eyed whitetail doe staring me in the face. She was right in the motel parking lot.
I'm thinking I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. Sometimes you see all sorts of deer in town and they are nowhere to be seen in the bush.
So anyways. I head up the Christian Valley to a nice spot that someone here at HBC shared with me.
On the way up I notice that one of the farms has over 100 wild turkeys on it. I've never seen anything like that before.
I really love the area. Easy to see why there are so many deer around there



I get up to the spot with about 1 hour of legal hunting light left.
Just before I get to the spot where I'm about to set up camp, I notice a herd of 6 elk up a trail. One of them may of been a 5 point even. Unfortunately, I hadn't unpacked my camera at this point.
So I get set up and go for a bit of a walk. First clearing spooks 4 deer including a nice 3 pt. They all run away. I went to another slash and there were at least 5 deer in it. They didn't care about me as much as the others did, but it was questionable light by this time. I figured they'd be there in the morning anyway. One of them was a decent buck too.
I went to bed and a nasty cold had hit me like a tonne of bricks. I barely made it through listening to the Canucks get beat by Edmonton before I went to sleep. But I never really got any sleep as the cold kept me awake all night.
During the night the whole ground began to shake. I'm all alone out in the woods...thinking what the heck is going on. I get my flashlight and look out the window. The entire herd of elk is running past my truck. There were at least 10 of them. At one point they were barely arms length from my vehicle. Talk about 2AM excitement. There was a lot of game moving. So now I'm pretty excited about the next day.
Unfortunately, tiredness has caught up with me from that and the cold, and I wake up at 8:15AM instead of 6AM.
The sun however, hadn't reached this little area I was in, and with no other hunters there yet, I figured the deer may still be relaxed.
I stumble out of bed, and get all ready to go. My head is splitting and the thought of hiking isn't too appealing, but then I remember all the planning and the 4 1/2 hour drive and I'm reminded of why I'm here.
I don't think I even walked 5 minutes...and there were 4 deer in the first spot I checked out the night before. Unfortunately I was walking with my head down and didn't see them until it was too late. The 3pt buck took off with 2 of his women. The 3rd doe decided to peek around a tree and look at me. At 50 yrds it was over in one shot. Instant drop and painless kill. I basically hunted for 15 minutes...that was it.
My shots are always a bit high for whatever reason, but I managed to go through the rib cage, hit the spine, but low enough not to damage the prime rib. All in all a decent shot. No meat lost, and no exploding guts.



She was a nice young dry doe. Actually come to think of it, I didn't see any fawns in either of the groups.
Here is a picture of the slash that I got her from.



These birds came on the scene pretty quick. I was obviously not the first hunter they'd ever seen. I think my gunshots were a dinner bell for them or something. These guys can really pack away the gut pile.
Does anyone know what kind of birds they are?


　
When it comes right down to it, I have to admit, I'm not much of a hunter. I want to be one though...and if I had more time, I would of gone back to RC, bought another tag and got one of those bucks.
Thing is, I started hunting right before I started to have a family. Apparantly (and I go agree) this stage of life for most people is the hardest to find time for hobbies...or really anything other then family. My oldest is still 3 years from being able to hunt and my youngest 2 aren't even in school yet, so I still have a bit to go before I can put real time into it. Living in the Valley doesn't help either.
Anyways...it was good to get out and fill the doe tag. I still have a mule doe tag for Nov in Mcleese Lake that I'm hoping to fill too. Those Mule does are huge compared to the size of the RC whitetail does.
This whitetail doe was about 115-125 on the hoof. The last doe I got at Mcleese Lake was about 190. Must be the alfalfa.
Thanks again to the person here at HBC who PMd me the great spot.

[rocksteady]

Congrats...should be some good eatin....

The birds are whiskey Jacks (AKA CampRobbers) they have no fear of humans, they actually follow/go to humans as they know we have food usually....

Light a small campfire somewhere in the fall, make some noise, they will be coming looking for a handout....

[lilhoss]

Those birds are called Gray Jays,or "whiskey jacks" is what we always called them.You can get them to feed out of you hand if your patient enough.Good eatin doe too!You'll find time to include family with your hobbies.Make sure you do that.My son,9,daughter,7 love going for rides with me out in the sticks.Successful or not it is a good time.Great pics & story.



Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis)
Species Code: PECA
Description: Gray Jays are medium-sized, gray songbirds with lighter gray bellies. They have a long tail and a short, black bill. The tips of the dark-gray tail feathers are white. The head is grayish-white with a gray crown and white forehead. The eyes are dark. The short legs and feet are gray.
Gray Jays are found primarily in mature, humid, sub-alpine, spruce forests. They do not generally breed below 2,000 feet, and are most often found from 3,000 feet and above to the tree line, although some are found nesting locally in lowland habitats.

In Washington, the Gray Jay is common in moderate and high elevation conifer forests throughout the state and locally at lower elevations in western Washington in coastal rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula, Willapa Hills, and the Fort Lewis area (Pierce/Thurston Counties). Gray Jays require mid-to late-seral coniferous forests. .

Diet: Grey Jays are omnivorous, meaning that they eat plants and animals. They feed on fungi, small rodents, eggs, fruit, berries, insects and various vegetable substances. They are attracted to campsites where they steal as much food as possible. They are known by many people as Camp Robbers.
Behavior: Gray Jays are gregarious and are often found in family groups. They can be very bold and will beg from campers, follow hikers, and go inside cabins to steal food. These jays forage from perches and fly from tree to tree, scanning for food.
They cache food during the summer and fall, using sticky saliva to paste it in bark crevices and other hidden spots above the height of the eventual snow line. The Gray Jays eat this stored food during the winter when other food sources are scarce. It may be this food storage behavior that allows the Gray Jay to survive, far north, throughout the winter.
Gray Jays often carry food with their feet in flight, which is unusual for songbirds. Other songbirds carry food in their beaks - like the American Robin. (sources: Birdweb; All About Birds)


Did you know?

• Gray Jays cache food for use in the winter.
• They can carry food with their feet, which is not typical for a songbird.
• Because they like to steal food at campsites, they are known as "Camp Robbers".

[hunter1947]

You can't get meat any better then that deer ,congrats.

[Foxtail]

Lol The little grey birds are whiskey Jacks, I'm surprised you haven't seen them before, they are all over bc and have absolutely no fear of humans they will eat out of your hand. They can be a pain in camp when you are trying to eat a sandwich, the cheaky little buggers will take bites off it while ur bringin it to ur mouth lol. Good job on getting the doe.

[2slow]

Just got back from the same area myself. Congrats on the deer, that is going to be tasty. That is also probably the best meat to feed to non hunters as an introduction to wild meat. Once they taste that they will be begging you for more

[THE SWEDE]

Those birds are delicious

[Dadawa70]

Congrats on your doe. Some yummy meat there.

[Robert_G]

I kind of thought they might be Whiskey Jacks, but I guess I'm used the ones in Manning Park that perch themselves on the picnic table or even your shoulder.
These ones were actually pretty respectful. While I was cleaning and skinning the deer, they would stay off the tarp and only grab what I threw into the gut pile.

[Moosehunter64]

Its been about 3 years since I have been up the christian valley.Its an awesome place to hunt.We always see lots of game up there and usually get a few deer.I have had moose draws the last couple years so haven`t gone there.I have taken a couple imature moose up the valley over the years,I have hunted that area for about 20 years now.Did you see many mulies? The mulies tend to be further up the valley.Were you anywhere near Damfino creek? Nice camp site there.That will be a nice eating deer.Congrats and maybe see you there next year.