Calling and Tracking Moose During the Rut

Description

In this video, I track moose and call in a couple of bulls during the September rut in Ontario, Canada.

Tags: moose,moose hunting,algonquin park,tracking,calling,moose calling,trailing,tracking skills,survival,bushcraft,self reliance,hunting,big game

Video Transcription

morning September 21st just out looking for moose to photograph brought the long lens in the backpack here that's a I've got a 100 to 600 millimeter Sigma lens hoping to get close to some moose oh it's just after actually the Sun hasn't risen yet I was in the bush about 45 minutes before sunrise this morning it's hiking back through the thick stuff here over to to a pond or clearing that I noted on the map and it's kind of spot I'm looking for you can see behind me I've got a moose trail going through here there's some old and fresh tracks this is a gut it's like a little stream Valley goes down into a little pond area so it's a pretty prime moose rutting area trying to find a clearing see if I can find some hollows and rubs on the trees probably down into the thicker stuff will find the alders all rubbed up but nothing yet I've done a few calls haven't heard anything but like I said this is kind of spot I'm looking for it's a bit of a thick area with some little clearings and I'm betting it betting a spot behind me so I'm gonna hike back up into the hills here up into the Maples where they're gonna be breeding and eating twigs so the moose are just browsing through here on their way down to the pond so like I said I gonna head up and see what I can find here we've got some older droppings not very fresh got mushrooms coming up through you see some depressions but in the ground weather moves walk through but nothing fresh you can tell with all the leaves and debris on top of everything but through some fresh tracks in here as well looking like a really good spot you can see here just near those droppings that moussa we're in here early could be even spring browsing on these two eggs so they're nothing fresh what just shows that the moose are using the area pretty much all the maples in here or burrows thinking this is gonna be a good spot to come in the winter to look for for moose that little valley going down in that pond this is all really heavily browse all of this read read out a head level stunted so looks like probably winter because there's growth up above that browsing yeah right down through this valley I've actually never seen an area so heavily browse that's all clipped off at at head level for her moose as far as you can see all through this area definitely a winter spot so I'm gonna you mean a winter camp in this area see if I can get some winter shots yeah look at all of this browsed off Oh

Oh here we have a moose bed in the middle of this little open middle and of course all the maples our brows all around here so on living in here I don't know when a spring winter for sure but assuming the spring as well I'm not seeing really much fresh sign now this is what we were looking for this isn't this is not a rub actually but that's really fresh that's still wet actually we're feeding it here probably last night yeah got fresh brows right here that's actually most eating the bark of this maple it's not a not a bowl rub gently rub so they're in here right now for sure is fresh tracks it's a nice spot lots of shelter for them tons of maple brows maple bark it's easy for them to walk through their four-foot long legs not so easy for me to walk through or deer or any predators actually so they have an advantage in this stuff see really walk through the moss here there's a little bit fresher stuff not warm so it's not from this morning but it's still not dried out you can tell that's for sure this is such classic boreal forest moose habitat

kind of stuff they love to live in tons of maple and other hardwood browse in here lots of cover ought to place the light out lots of openings to see each other

surprised I haven't seen anything or got anything respond to my coals yet so this is actually a run which is it's what you call a trail that game uses on a regular basis so moose can go anywhere with their long legs but some spots that they've just continued to use other game will to bear and deer probably come through here wolf and comes a clear trail because they keep beating it down so like I said moose don't usually need to use these but balls like to because their antlers are can go clear through so you go there you see some older smooth droppings good sign branches are all broken off or from animals stepping over the downed tree again we're still in prime prime habitat another prime run and it's skirting around the edge of this it'll see up here I think it's a pond according to the map maybe dry it up but it looks like it's got thick alders and stuff in there at the most like the feet on a lot of branches hit you in the eye when you're walking through the thick bush like this especially at night or when it's dark out in the morning so these protect my eyes I always wear sunglasses of some kind in the woods no too many branches in the eyes over the years and it's not worth risking so these aren't cheap but I've had them a long time and these lenses are easily interchangeable so I've got two or three extra pairs of lenses darker ones and they're all polarized so I can see into the water what I'm canoeing or fishing but these are great in the woods the yellow actually makes everything a little bit clearer more vibrant more separation so if you were hunting for example with an especially a bow hunting through this kind of stuff it actually allows you to pick up the branches and see the branches a little bit better that's what I'm wearing why stopped here I just want to show what typical moose habitat looked like again got an older swamp here behind me yeah that's classic that's where I've shot my moose and spots like that okay thought I might find that wall here on this trail looks like the kind of an intersecting trail so the trail up there is the one I was following but like a major that is so what I expected was wallow and some tree rubs and here that's kind of a wall but then he gets into the low spot here and really tore that off you can see through and stuff all over the place so what they'll do is urinate in that roll around in it get all covered in musk musky urine and then try to attract them crack the cow the cow will visit these walls and follow the scent of to find the bolt it's contrary to what most people think the cows typically actually go to the polls similar to turkeys which is more natural as well so when we're trying to call them in or hunters trying to call in the bull with a cow call they're very cautious because they don't typically deal with out there they'll come part of the way and then typically the cow would would join the ball or meet him halfway or come all the way show you the perspective to show you the size of the wall so it's pretty deep actually and I don't think it's a big bull that's not a very big tract and they you know the cows tracks probably in there too but i don't see a great big bull track so probably a yearling bold maybe a two-year-old bull so that would be a great spot to sit and call anywhere in this area which I was just down over there on the other side that bowl that I called in this morning probably came from here it's a major trail so now that there's a rut pit or a wallow here the other moose other Bulls will be visiting it as well trying to find they trying to intercept the cows that come to it so it's a marsh in the center here that we vetted out in the center of that right now some of them and we're up in these hardwood hills behind us like 10 o'clock now I'm not likely to see anything unless I jump it as I'm circling but I just gonna circle that pond to check it out so that's the wobble in the background and here's a tree that was snapped off last year last year the year before by a moose typically typically do that in the fall bend that over as Easter rushing rubbing his antlers and leaving scent and getting out aggression you're gonna or fresh rubs on the same earth this year or not not today by any means but certainly if only it's September 21st they've only lost their velvet in the last week or two to see where he's really beat this tree oh you broke that one right off so actually that's all very fresh green still so yeah this week sometimes for sure sometime for sure really testing the ground through here urinating everywhere it's what we were looking for earlier that's smoking fresh that's a cold so but it was it was overnight it was eight degrees this morning overnight so it would cool off quickly but that's green and fresh not drying it at all just stopped here because the smell of moose you're in a soul strong I'm wondering if you stand in here somewhere nearby it's all right here it's not what on the plant stole but the ground is saturated with urine very distinct smell fear no that's what that bowl smell like no there's a wall oh that's why very fresh well that wall is not fresh but this is his spot holy smokes I ever strong you're walking her around a pond or a bog like this one most of the time I found you get these bowls on the higher ground so kind of heavy rising in elevation here I don't know if you can see it on the camera but very thick

especially as you get close to the edge of that fog a pond and you're a moose and you get on this downwind side of the pond so in this case with the funnels here in the higher ground southeast corner of the pond will be the lower or downwind side and you get these little high ground anyway you get up on those you can smell all around if you're a moose or an animal what better smell than we have and something comes along and spooks you you can smell everything Louise could smell everything coming from the opening and you can bolt into that if you smell something or see something coming from the other way deer will do a lot the opposite a lot of times they'll keep a clearing to their downwind side or open hardwoods are open forests more likely where they can keep an eye on it they'll face that way and then the winds hitting them in the back of the head so they can smell everything out wind so the way they've got pretty much a 360-degree 360-degree line of defense

we had a wind storm come through here pull the trees down in a linear line I think I might have just heard of moose up here let's go check it there's a good example of a moose but I was talking to me

spot right here in the ferns went that way or had a calf but bedded there with it but another bad day so great spot for a moose to bed cuz this these ferns are so high that you could be lying down in here and nothing would know what's here certainly people would walk right past and not know what's here this is very typical of a bedding spot for a moose and for deer actually in these tall ferns especially when they go Brown and they kind of blend in on the other side of that pond now and got this older older

rut wall just been raped like a couple of weeks ago but it looks about nothing fresh in there well the roots are ripped up so it's definitely a most turnover tearing at this you know it was before the luster and actually I can smell the urine too but they're just circling this pond which is fantastic spot the set up for pictures thick as hell though getting back here is a bit of a challenge now here's the wallow with a big track so this is likely the abode of a big bowl scraping up the ground all through through here you