Bobcats everywhere!
First day of archery season here in PA found me in one of my normal early season, pre-rut sets. I get settled in and discover that man, its a bit chillier than I thought!
Anyway, the morning progessed without too much excitement, no deer until about 8:30 or so. I caught movement to the northeast of me and found a few deer feeding on acorns, milling around. I pull up the bino's for a closer look, button buck, doe, doe, etc. There were about 4 deer, give or take a few from what I could see as it was a bit thick where they stood, some 75 yards away.
I watched these deer for about 20 minutes off and on with the binos. As I was watching them, i got a glimpse of more movement behind them, only something didn't look quite right about the movement or the sillouette I could see.
All of sudden deer started blowing and running, with 3 ending up directly under my stand, staring back in the direction they once stood. I thought... what the heck?! They continued to blow, stomp, etc., for what seemed like a minute. I was scanning the area where they were with the bino's again and all of sudden, a bobcat leaped into the open. Three of the older, adult does stomped toward the cat, blowing constantly. The cat, seemed like it knew it was out-flanked and out-numbered began to retreat. As he was, the does began chasing after him until finally the cat and does were in a dead run. The does chased the cat out of sight over the hill away from me. I could hear the snorting for quite some time out over the hill, some distance away until it finally fizzled out.
The remainder of the deer settled down and eventually bedded within 50 yards of my stand for the morning.
It's strange, but for the last 2-3 years, we've been seeing more and more cats around our property. But man, what a crazy opener for me!