Opening day: Fox squirrels and talk of corn

“I heard a lot of talk of corn.”

That was Paul Shelton, forest wildlife program manager, on his way back from the Winnebago County check station Friday night, on the top topic of hunters as the first firearm deer season opened in Illinois Friday.

I saw a lot of corn, unpicked, miles of it north of my tree stand in Kankakee County (above).

“It is looking like the [deer] harvest is comparable to last year, which wasn’t a particularly good opening day,” Shelton said. “It is pretty clear it will not be on par with opening days in 2005, ’06 and ’07 when crops weren’t an issue.”

May the combines arrive by Sunday. I am hunting over harvested bean and corn feilds, but having miles of unharvested corn right next to it kind of defeats the purpose from my perspective.

I did see lots of fox squirrel activity to keep my interest.