Here's a simple tip.......

[ron w]

Some of you folks may already do this..... I was walking to my stand today and dragging a sent rag. When I got to my stand the rag had frayed bad and I noticed my dental floss wind detector was gone from my bow. It was all doe pee but I took one of the threads from drag rag and put it on a limb about 4 yards from my stand and at eye level from the ground. I sat at about 12 feet up but could see that thread and watch the wind at any time. What really surprised me ......the wind was from the east but now and then I would drop a milkweed seed and at 12-14 feet up it was from the west.......really strange how it moves. I'll still put a thread on my bow ,but if you hunt from the same stand or lots of stands your just get some thread and set them all up!

[stujay]

I've seen the same thing with the hi viz smoke from a sqeeze bottle. Air currents are tricky things. Thanks Ron for the heads up.

[Terry Green]

What is 'hi viz smoke'?

[bofish-IL]

I have a stand that is on the edge of a 14 acre field. It is surrounded on three sides by hills. I always look at the farmer’s flag before going down the hill for wind direction. It can be blowing from any of the 4 directions up on top the hill. Yet when I release a milkweed 90 percent of the time it travels east showing the wind is from the West.

[reddogge]

In my "house" stand I put up a small windvane I can see from the house to tell if a particular blind can be hunted. The wind will vary from the house to the gully.

[The Night Stalker]

the best wind detector to watch is a maribu stork feather. you can buy a whole pack at a fly shop. Take a piece of dental floss and tie the stork feather to one end and a clothes pin on the other. Then put a split shot in the middle. The split shot  keeps the feather from getting tangled and free flying.
To look at thermals or wind currents, get some fly glow yarn and pull a little off and let it go. It works great and is carried on the current. It also can pass the time away. BW told me about this one.

[LookMomNoSights]

Terry I believe "Hi Viz Smoke" is just talcum/baking powder or whatever super fine scentless powder is put into a small squeeze bottle so that you can give it a little pump and blow puffs of smoke-like wind detector dust into the air.

[awbowman]

IMHO, you can't beat the powder.  It will detect a breeze better than any string or such.  But the string is a great backup and constant watch.  I use both.

[The Whittler]

High visibility smoke I guess.

[Tom Leemans]

The one thing you can't do is change which way the wind will blow at any given time, so you may as well just hunt the prevailing wind and be ready for anything.