This story is about the first year I went bowhunting with my dad. I was 12 years old, and we were hunting in Clarksville, Mich., at our deer lease. I had already been on two hunts that year but had only seen a very small doe, which I passed up.

After my dad parked the truck, I got my hunting gear on, readied my bow, my dad sprayed me with scent-eliminating spray, and we were on our way to the treestand. It took about 5-8 minutes to make our way through the field. When we got to our treestand, my dad and I put out some scent canisters hoping these would bring in some bucks.

We climbed up into the double treestand and pulled our bows up. After securing ourselves to the tree and hanging our bows, we waited. We were settled in the stand by 3 p.m. I didn't see anything for about two hours other than a few squirrels and birds. Another hour and a half passed. By 6:30 p.m. something was running through the woods past our field. A big doe took off, giving me no chance for a shot.

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Two years ago I went on my first hunt. I had just passed a hunter safety course that year, so I was very excited. I was using a Remington .35. It was opening day, and Dad and I went out that morning and saw a little buck and a few does. I let those pass.

That afternoon we didn't see anything. I was starting to regret letting that little deer go. But that evening around 4:30, a big, tall 12-point buck came out. I was excited and tried to get situated to shoot, but the buck went back into the woods.

About five minutes later, the same buck came out again. I squatted down and aimed then I fired. The buck took off running, so I put another round into the chamber and fired again. It kept running. I had knots in my stomach, thinking that I missed. We waited about 30 minutes and then went to look for it.

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Can your dog tell you whether to plan a picnic? Could a goose tell you to pack an umbrella? Maybe, if you know how to "listen."

Before there were TV weathermen with Doppler radar, farmers and sailors used the clouds, the moon and stars, and animals to forecast the weather. Animals from ants to wolves can all predict the weather if you believe the folklore.

Should you believe the folklore? Not all of it, but some is based on how animals behave in certain situations and how the weather affects certain animals.

Weather is caused by air, water, and temperature. Air is made of small invisible particles called molecules. As small as they are, these molecules have weight. The weight of the air pressing down on us is called air pressure. 

Warm air molecules spread out. Cold air molecules stay close together. When the molecules are spread out, the air is lighter over that area than when they are packed together. These spread-out molecules also make room for warm air to hold more moisture than cold air can.

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I have been fishing since I was five. I thought you would like to hear about the largemouth bass I caught on a hot day in Florida on July 20, 2005. Using my Ugly Stick, I was flipping shiners in a pond.

One time I cast a little too hard, throwing the shiner off the hook. As I watched the shiner swim, there was a huge splash and then a bass grabbed the bait on the surface. I could see the size of the bass and knew right away that I wasn't about to go home until I caught it.

I put another shiner on the hook and cast to the same spot where the bass hit the bait. Sure enough, I got a reaction strike and it was a hard fight but I was able to pull it up. The bass weighed about nine pounds.players.

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By Gabriel "Gabe" Borges

-- My name is Gabe Borges, and I'm 10 years old. I shot my first buck on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007, at 8 a.m. It was about 5 a.m. when my dad woke me up that morning. I got all my stuff on and headed out with my dad and my brother, Christian, for the morning hunt.

Christian was dropped off at his stand about 5:45 a.m. Then Dad and I walked to our stand along an extended power line. Sunday morning was beautiful. The weather was clear and somewhat cold. After sitting for a while, we saw a big doe walk out. My dad wanted me to take the doe, but I did not shoot.

Then at about 7 a.m., another doe walked out of the woods and my dad said to take aim. So I got ready, aimed and shot. The doe jumped up in the air about 3 feet and ran. I told my dad I thought I hit it in the side. My dad said we should wait and look for the doe in a couple of hours. Since it was so early, we stayed in the stand and waited to see if anything else would walk out.

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The weather has been damp and rainy for several days, but now the skies are clear. It's the perfect time to go on a fungi hunt. Take a walk through the woods or your back yard. Chances are you'll find a mushroom, puffball, or shelf fungus. 

Search those shady places that don't dry out in the sun. Look along stream banks and low-lying areas. You might see one or two mushrooms growing alone or hundreds clustered together. 

Keep your eyes open for mushrooms among dead leaves on the ground. How many different colors, shapes, and sizes can you find?

When you spot a mushroom under a tree, notice what kind of tree it is. Some mushrooms only live close to a certain species of tree, which helps experts identify the mushroom.

Soil isn't the only place fungi grow. Check tree trunks, broken branches, and stumps for fan-shaped fungi. Peek inside tree holes and crevices. Look for rotting wood covered with cup-shaped fungi.

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By Alex Campbell

-- My name is Alex, and I am 12 years old and this is my story. It was a very cold winter day for ice fishing. But we ice anglers would consider it to be hot. I had just bought an ice shack the previous year, so I asked my mom if we could go ice fishing. Her response was, "Yes."

She said, "Please get your stuff and I'll warm up the car." Once I had all of my things, we were off. When we got to the place, there must have been at least 50 or more people that I could see. We parked, unloaded our equipment, and set off for our journey.

I set up the tip-ups as my mom set up the shack. I put one to the left, one to the front, and one further back. As I got closer to my mom, she had already set up the shack and started fishing for huge bluegill. We were jigging for an hour when I looked out the window and my left tip-up was up. I told my mom to get gaff. When we got to the hole, the spinner was not spinning so I gave it 30 seconds to spin and pulled. Nothing.

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DEER WEIGHT TABLE (Use this table to estimate the weight of your deer by taking its chest measurement)
CHEST SIZE (INCHES)	LIVE WEIGHT	FIELD DRESSED WEIGHT
28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46	85 91 97 104 111 119 127 136 145 156 166 178 191 204 218 234 250 267 286	67 72 77 83 90 97 104 112 120 129 139 149 160 172 184 196 212 228 244

By Russell Thornberry 

The North American deer family includes white-tailed, black-tailed and mule deer, elk, caribou, reindeer and moose. The sizes of the members of this big family range from a mere 100-pound Coues whitetail at the small end of the spectrum to the largest of all members of the deer family, the Alaska/Yukon moose, which reaches 1,600 pounds or more.

So, what do all the members of the deer family have in common?

Several things. They all grow antlers that they shed in the late winter. With the exception of caribou and reindeer, only the males grow antlers. Female caribou and reindeer grow small antlers.

All members of the deer family are ruminants, which means they have 4-compartment stomachs and chew their cud like cattle. They all have cloven hooves, which means their hooves are split into two sections. And none of the deer family have upper incisor teeth. That means that they have bottom front teeth but no front teeth on their upper jaws. However, they have molars (jaw teeth) on the upper and lower jaws.

All members of the deer family have hollow hair, which insulates against cold weather. Cows, horses, buffalo and goats, unlike the members of the deer family, have solid hair.

So, a moose might look nothing like a white-tailed deer, but they are cousins with all these things in common.

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By Gita Smith

There's no two ways about it. Taylor Parria is a diehard hunter. She'd rather go hunting than do almost anything else. Taylor, who lives in Marrero, La., first went to deer camp with her dad when she was a baby. Now 12, she has taken three deer, the first one (a doe) when she was eight. Two years later came her first buck. Last December, her father took her to the Ford Ranch in Texas where she shot a great 8-pointer. Her gun of choice, right now, is a Savage Arms rifle in 7 mm.

"I mostly go to hunting camp in Hazelhurst, Miss., where we have 3,700 acres and a campsite," Taylor says. "There's three ways to get into the woods from the camp. There are a high percentage of oaks and some pines there. We love to go because so many of our friends are there, and it's a lot of fun."

The family and their hunting pals gave names to some of the places around their hunting lease. That way, hunters know which stands each person is in. "I like to hunt in the stands at two places, David's Swamp and Dallas. I also like the power line stands because you can see a long way," says Taylor.

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By Gita Smith

Photo: Nick Basler displays his turkey's fan. At the time of this hunt he was 13.

If it's spring, the woods are abuzz with the sounds of turkeys.

"Gobble gobble gobblegobble GOBBLE!" go the older males. Or, you may hear a softer "cluck" or "putt," or "yowp-yowp-yowp" from the hens. They're telling the gobblers, "Here I am." The jakes, the young boys, try to gobble. But the sound comes out like a very strange cough.

If you want to bag a tom turkey this spring, it's time to make some sounds of your own. Here is a list of some basics you should know. But remember, in the end, turkey hunting is all about calling a gobbler into shotgun range.

Before the season opens, scout the land where you will hunt. Carry binoculars and turkey calls, but no shotgun.

Nick Basler from Desloge, Mo., has already bagged 6 gobblers, and he's only 15.

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By Gita Smith

It's hard to say who is the most excited hunter in the Harris family when deer season rolls around: Lauren or her parents. The night before opening day, all their clothes are laid out: gloves, zero hoods, boots, camo -- all of it! The alarm goes off at 5 a.m., and Lauren is sure to call out, "I'm up and already dressed. You two need to get a move on it."

The Harrises live in Navasota, Texas, on a 190-acre family ranch, though they only hunt an open 40-acre hayfield with a little brush around the edges. Their treestand is made from some boards on a tank dam, and it seats three. Lauren calls their stand "The Condo." It is comfortable and lets the whole family - Lauren and her parents Scott and Debbie - share a day of hunting.

On the opening day of Texas' youth season in 2007, Lauren was in the Condo's "shooter's chair" by daybreak. Her parents were there, as well, keeping a lookout for big bucks. If a giant buck came into view, they would quickly estimate its distance.

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By Gita M. Smith

Photo: Goldfinches at a Handmade Feeder -- by Gita M. Smith

Have you ever been hunting in a deer stand and heard birds calling out a warning? Or have you ever heard them calling their mates to announce that they have found food? Birds have calls for different occasions. You may hear the assembly call (parents calling the young ones to come to them) or the stay-away call that male birds make to warn other males off their territory.

If you start listening to the birds in your own back yard, you will soon hear the different songs and calls they make. In summer, the birds are raising their young, and they are looking for food close to their nests. By keeping some feeders full of seeds, you’ll be sure to attract lots of birds to your back yard.

To tempt goldfinches to visit you and stay, you can fill a mesh bag or a stocking with thistle (or nyger) seeds. The brightest yellow finches are the older males. The least showy ones are the females and the new babies. They have dull feathers so that predators won’t see them when they are in the nest. As the young male finches start to grow up, their feathers get gradually brighter.

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By Gita M. Smith

Have you ever gone camping and had so much stuff that it felt like you never left the city? Or have you been out in the woods and realized you forgot something really important – like toilet paper or a flashlight?

Most kids go camping with their parents or someone older who is in charge … but just for a minute, let’s pretend that kids ruled the world and it was up to YOU to find shelter, safety, and have enough food and water in the great outdoors. Would you know what to do?

Test your know-how and see.

TRUE OR FALSE:

1. As long as water is running over rocks and it is cold, it is safe to drink.

2. Mosquitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide we breathe out.

3. Bears will not come to your campsite if you have a campfire burning.

4. Mushrooms that you find in the bark of trees are safe to eat -- it’s the ones growing in meadows that are poisonous.

5. Never dive into any water because you cannot see rocks under the surface.

6. Lightning comes before thunder because light travels faster than sound.

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By Gita M. Smith

Photo: Wyatt Robinson uses two hands to grab hold of his 15-inch rainbow trout.

From one side of America to the other, you can find rainbow trout in cold streams and lakes. If you want a fish that will give you a fight when it is hooked, but also tastes yummy on your plate, go after “rainbows.”

Rainbow trout - sometimes called redband trout because of the red-pink streak down their side - are related to salmon. But unlike salmon, they can spend their entire life in fresh water. Here’s how to recognize a rainbow trout: They have small black spots along their back, dorsal fin and caudal fin. They also have a pink streak that runs from the gill cover to the caudal fin. The color of a rainbow's back varies from blue or green to a yellow-green or brown, and they average from 12 to 18 inches in length. But some rainbows found in the Great Lakes have even measured up to 32 inches.

If you catch a trout in a large lake or in salt water, and if it is silvery all over, chances are you have caught a steelhead trout. This trout migrates between fresh and salt water.

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By Gita M. Smith

PHOTO: Nicholas May caught his 35-pound striped bass when he was 10, out on the Atlantic Ocean.

Want to go after some of the biggest fish you’ll ever see? Then get ready to go fishing for striped bass this summer. The world record striped bass, caught in 1982, weighed 78.5 pounds and was 53 inches long. It took one hour and 40 minutes to land that striper!

Kids all over North America enjoy fishing for stripers because they are found in oceans as well as fresh water lakes and rivers. Nicholas May caught a 35-pound striper for the first time when he was 10. He went out on the Atlantic Ocean on the charter boat “Misty” with his family, off the coast of Rhode Island. The boat left the Port of Galilee, and Nicholas threw his line out with a squid jig on the end. His fish measured 38 inches -- that’s more than three feet long!

Striped bass prefer moving water which offers them some protection as well as panfish and other food being swept along in the currents. That’s why you will often find stripers on rivers near dams where there is rushing water and a hard current. Of course, that makes it hard to control a boat, so always wear a life preserver when fishing for stripers and be sure that an experienced adult is steering your boat.

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By James Spiess, Age 14

I started fishing when I was about 4 years old, but I only caught blue gill and small bass. When I got older I started to catch musky, northern, large mouth and small mouth bass, and large crappie.

The day I caught the large mouth bass I was fishing on Red Rock Lake. It was early morning about 7:10 a.m. I threw out a dare devil spoon to try to catch a few northern, and maybe a bass. I caught a northern but threw it back because it was too small, only about 2 pounds.

A few hours later, about 9:10, I was kind of getting sick of fishing for northern, so I put a bobber on my line and a shiner minnow and threw it out onto the water hoping to catch a few crappies.

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By Gita Smith

How often does a boy catch a fish and win thousands of dollars? Not very often.

But Ben Ibarra, who lives in Baytown, Texas, did just that. He won a fishing contest called StarKids Rodeo, which is held every year.

This past September, on Labor Day, Ben cast his line into the water, and he let it fall to the bottom. He felt a sheepshead (a striped fish with a hard mouth) starting to chew on the bait. Ben reeled the fish in, taking a couple of minutes to get the big guy to the boat.
To Benís delight, the fish weighed 9 pounds, 10 ounces on the boat scale.

By the time Ben brought his fish to the official weigh-in, it had lost a little, and it weighed in at 8 pounds 14 ounces. That was still enough to put Ben in the winnerís spot for the contest. His prize was $50,000 for his college education.

Here is how Ben remembers that day: "I was on a boat and my dad was driving. It was 9 o'clock in the morning on the last day of the contest. My sister was winning the contest. She already had the biggest sheepshead, 7 pounds and 12 ounces."

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Josh Marrujo started shooting archery when he was 2 1/2 years old. We bought him a red Lil apache Bow. He started shooting at a target with balloons on it in our basement. The better he got, the smaller the balloons he arrowed. He quickly grew out of shooting at balloons.

Josh entered his first 3-D competition in Stanley, N.D., when he was 4. He was excited. He kept watching all the adults shoot.

As Josh has grown during the years, so have his bows. Right now he's pulling back 15 pounds. His bow has no sight on it, so it's considered a bare bow. He does not use a release with his bow, but instead relies on his fingers.

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By Tom Watson

Photo: A standard compass dial face has a magnetic red needle and North Arrow outline, compass dial with degree markings and directional arrowhead in black.

People often say you should carry a compass when you go into the woods so you won’t get lost. How does that work? If possible, hold a compass in your hand while you read this.

The Earth is like a huge magnet spinning in space. There is an imaginary magnetic rod through its center — from the North Pole to the South Pole.

A magnetized piece of metal — like the light, free-swinging needle on a compass — is attracted to the North Pole of the Earth.

Compasses have a circle-shaped face to imitate the shape of the earth. From any point on earth you can turn in a full circle and look in all directions — North, West, South and East.

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The print of a deer’s cloven hoof is a split heart shape. The pointed end is forward. Size varies greatly from region to region and from one subspecies to another. Most tracks are between 2 and 3 inches long on relatively hard ground. If they are much smaller, a fawn probably made them. (See illustrations below.) 

BUCK TRACK A mature buck's tracks range from 2-3/4" to 3-1/2" in length.	DOE TRACK A mature doe track ranges from 2-1/4" to 2-3/4" in length.	LARGE-BODIED BUCK Rear tracks of a mature buck fall slightly behind their front tracks with no overlap.
BUCK & DOE TRACKS Rear tracks of young bucks and does slightly overlap their front tracks.	OLD DEER Toes of older deer hooves are often worn and more rounded than those of younger deer.	YOUNG DEER The young deer typically have sharp, pointed hooves.

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• What’s the difference between an albino deer and a white deer?
• Is every white deer an albino?
• Can deer be black, too?
• What are my chances to see a white deer?
• What's a piebald deer?

Albino deer are white and as rare as gold. If you ever see an all-white deer in the woods, you will be very lucky. These deer, called albino whitetails, are quite rare. Only one deer in 100,000 is born this way, say biologists. Chances of seeing one in the wild are very low. It might be easier finding a rare coin or a gold nugget in a stream.

So rare are albino deer that generations of American Indians thought them to be magical. The Indians had no way of knowing that all living things have cells, and within those cells are chromosomes and genes. Genes are what make us unique.

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By Gita Smith
Photo by Deane Winegar

Fawns are often born as twin pairs if a doe has enough food to eat. In years when there's not enough food, a doe might have just one fawn or none at all.

Fawns are born in warm weather months. Amazingly, they stand up on their wobbly legs just minutes after they are born. The doe cleans them and eats the birth sac that surrounded the fawn while it was inside the doe. The reason that does lick their young and eat the sac is to get rid of the smell so that coyotes, wolves and other predators won't smell anything and come to attack the fawn.

She moves the newborn fawns to another place as soon as possible, away from any smells of their birth.

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Photo by Deane Winegar
The whitetail fawn’s coat coloration enables the animal to blend with patterns of sun and shade. Researchers counting the number of spots on fawns found them to range from 272 to 342. Spot size averages between 0.6 and 1.3 centimeters (0.24 to 0.51 inches) in diameter.

Two rows of spots occur along each side of the area of the backbone, extending from the base of the tail to the ears. Spots on the neck are two continuous white lines. The remainder of the pelage spots is restricted to the trunk of the body, over the sides and flanks. Fawns lose their spotted coats when the molt occurs in August or September.

The word pelage (pronounced pell-edge) means the hairy covering of a mammal. It refers to a mammal’s coat.

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• What's a buck rub?
Buck rubs are long polished scars that you can see. They’re found low on saplings and bushes where the deer’s antlers have scraped away bark. Rubs signify that a buck inhabits the area. .

• What does a deer bedding spot look like?
Look very carefully. Bedding spots are slight depressions or ovals where the leaves have been pressed by body weight. Unless a deer has been scuffling up the leaves and brush, a bed may be almost indiscernible. A bedding depression on snow is more noticeable.

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• How do deer talk to each other?
• What kinds of sounds do deer make?
• Why do deer stomp their feet?

Whitetails, especially does and fawns, sometimes communicate by bleating like a lamb or bawling like a calf. Bucks and mature does also snort, and a buck’s snort is often characterized by a kind of whinnying or whistling.

Very little communication among white-tailed deer is vocal, but they do vocalize more than most people realize and in a variety of ways. Adults or fawns may groan in complaint when they are restrained. Fawns may bleat to call their dams (mothers), and bucks occasionally bleat when chasing does during the rut.

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White-tailed deer have five sets of external glands: 1) preorbital glands in the corners of the eyes; 2) tarsal glands on the inner surfaces of the hind legs; 3) forehead glands located, as the name implies, on the forehead; 4) metatarsal glands on the outer surfaces of the hind legs; and 5) interdigital glands between the hooves.

	PREORBITAL GLAND The preorbital gland, located immediately in front of the eye socket, is sometimes called the tear gland. However, the waxy substance in the preorbital gland serves as another means of identification through odor as the deer rubs his face against branches, shrubs and trees. The preorbital gland does not produce tears.
	TARSAL GLAND Tarsal glands are located on the inside of the hocks of both hind legs on bucks and does alike. During the rut, both sexes squat down and urinate on these glands and rub their hind legs together, which turns the glands from their normal white to dark brown or black. This process also helps deer locate one another during the rut.
	FOREHEAD GLAND As the name implies, the forehead glands are located on the buck's forehead, between the eyes and the bases of his antlers. When he rubs his antlers on shrubs and trees, he also rubs his forehead, leaving the identifiable scent of his forehead glands on them. Leaving his scent on shrubs and trees in this manner is like leaving his personal signature, so that other deer may know he has been there and personally made the rubs.
	METATARSAL GLAND The metatarsal glands are located on the outside of the lower hind legs of both bucks and does. They appear as round white puffs of hair. Their purpose is unknown at this time.
	INTERDIGITAL GLAND The interdigital gland is located in the cleft between the toes of the front hooves of both bucks and does. This gland also emits and odor which is left in the deer's track, enabling other deer to follow by smell. It appears that does leave an identifiable scent through their interdigital glands that tell a buck when they are ready to be bred. The buck singles this track out and follows it much like a dog sniffing his way along the ground.

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• Why do bucks grow antlers?
Whitetail bucks’ antlers evolved as a weapon system and display mechanism associated with social hierarchy, especially in terms of reproduction.

• Are Antlers like bones?
Antlers are the crowning glory of the male white-tailed deer. Antlers are composed of true bone. They grow from pedicels on the frontal bones. These pedicels form the buttons, which are the only antler development of most male fawns.

• When do deer get their first antlers?
A buck’s first set of antlers grows during his yearling spring and summer. Annual antler growth begins in mid-March to April. The size of a buck’s antlers depends on his age and nutritional intake.

• How are points counted or measured on racks?
A buck’s first set of antlers (or rack) can vary from spikes to as many as 10 points. To be counted, a point must be at least 2.54 centimeters (1 inch) long. This length is consistent with scoring standards.

• What happens to the velvet on antlers and why do some antlers grow in weird shapes?
The growing bone—or antler—is full of blood vessels and nerves. Antlers are covered by a hairy skin called velvet. Injuries occur easily to the soft, sensitive growing bone, and accidents during this state cause many deformed antlers.

Growth continues through August or September. The bone then hardens. The velvet dries up and is rubbed off or falls off.

• When do bucks shed their antlers?
By late December through early January, the supply of testosterone decreases. A separation layer forms at the pedicel, and antlers are shed when they fall off.

In March or April, the whole process starts over. Scientists believe it probably starts under the influence of increasing daylight hours and prolactin secretions. (Prolactin is a protein hormone of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland.)

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No one in our family calls Uncle Junior a liar. That would be mean.

Instead, what we say is, “That Uncle Junior, he sure can stretch the truth.”

Now and then, at hunting camp, folks like to tell stories about deer they shot or big, BIG ones they saw. It is part of the fun. And no one has more fun at those times than Uncle Junior.

Why did you know that one time he saw a buck so big it had to carry a saw around just to cut a path through the trees to fit his antlers through?

And did you know that another time, he saw a buck a mile away with his bare eyes, and made the shot just perfectly with his trusty .270 rifle? Yup. He did. So he says.

The fact is, deer hunting is full of strange stories that are true. For example, a Manitoba hunter once found the bodies of two huge deer at the bottom of his pond. Their antlers were locked together.

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