Downy Monday

Temperature: 48 degrees 5:15am, 71 degrees 10:00am, 78 degrees 3:00pm, 64 degrees 7:00pm. Wind: minimal. Skies: clear
Had a rare monday off (9/14) and decided to spend most of the day in the stand. Reached the cedar stand on the south side around 5:15am. The stars were out and the Barred Owls were welcoming to the woods. Around 6:50 am I noticed movement to the ridge on the right. What I saw was a deer using its back leg to scratch himself. I first thought it was a doe but as it turned its head I could tell it was a small buck. Most likely the small buck that Jason saw the morning before. The buck was a little more leary that what Jason described the day before. After about 7 minutes the buck started to paw at me in the dirt and then turned and ran to the east. A couple of minutes later he sneezed at me multiple times and was gone. Around 7:30am a rabbit took off running up the left ridge which must have startled a deer. The same type of sneezing started. This time louder and more aggressive. Possible member of the elusive "Big Boy" club. Eventually sounded like the deer trampled its way toward the foundation field. The rest of the morning was spent watching birds and squirrels. A Downy Woodpecker decided to land on my tree and peck its way up and down to keep me awake.
After a couple hours of sleep I headed back out to the ECO lodge for a late afternoon hunt. Decided to give the North Woods a try, so I went to James' stand by the sand pit/pines. Host site of many epic bow hunts of the 1990s and James encounter with the "big one" in 2006. With the temperature approaching the 80 degree mark i thought there would be some visitors to the pond/swamp behind me. No such luck. Only thing using the pond was a couple pairs of Sandhill Cranes.
After 12 hours of hunting in two days and one deer sighting I had to head back to work. On the way back I came within 5 yards of hitting a young buck. Maybe get that close later this week.