To add a little depth to Terry's photos of my “stalk,” here is the rest of the story. A group of 4 or so javelinas was approaching from the end of one of the senderos that form the spokes of the wagon wheel that we had corned. My plan was to cut through the underbrush until I reached a spot I knew about where I could be well concealed, but have a shot at one as they were approaching while they were munching corn on the sendero. Most of the time, it would have taken them a half hour or so to munch the distance from where they were to my ambush spot, and I reached the spot in about 15 minutes, accumulating a few new arm punctures from the thorns along the way. I couldn't see them during my approach, and when I got to my window and peeked through, there were no javis on their way to my spot, or so I thought. I said to myself, “oh well, they spooked,” which often happens.
Then I turned around and looked toward Terry, and there they were about 25 yards past where I was standing, munching toward him at the incredible speed of maybe 10’ per minute. They had gotten in front of me! At this point I didn't see any other alternative than to sneak after them, and try to close the distance. I was upwind of them, and whenever one of them turned around to stare at me, I froze until he or she went back to feeding. If a javi can't smell it and it doesn't move, it doesn't exist for him, I guess. I soon closed to within 20 yards, but all I had to shoot at were javi butts, not an ideal target, or sort of a quartering away shot whenever one of them turned back to stare at me, but no opportunity to draw my bow without spooking them. Well, eventually they tired of that game and faded off into the brush, so I walked back to Terry to wait and see if they would reappear.
As I approached Terry, I could see that he had sort of a peculiar look on his face. I was not real happy with the way things had turned out, but I was sort of proud of myself for making a successful stalk and getting within shooting range of them without spooking them, so I wondered what the peculiar look was all about. What I didn't realize until he told me was that as I was stalking the javis, a javi was stalking me. I was so focused on the 4 in front of me that I hadn't looked back and noticed that a straggler was trying to catch up with the rest of the pack, coming close enough at one point that through Terry's camera it looked to him like the javi was about to goose me with its snout! The javi probably wasn't ever really that close, due to foreshortening of the camera lens, but pretty close nevertheless. He had drifted off into the underbrush when the rest of them did, so I was never aware that he was there.
I'm not sure what I should have done if I had been aware that one was right behind me. I know that if I had turned around and drawn my bow, he would have been gone in a flash. Probably I should have just frozen in place without looking at him and maybe he would have stayed on the sendero and tried to catch up with his group, and I could have shot him when he was focused on them and not me.
Anyway, I had a great time on the trip, and hope to do it again next year, if the good Lord is willing.
Topic: LTR 2025 - The Madness has begun! (Read 12982 times)
