Kip’s Comments - November 5, 2025

Tale in the Leaves

As I followed a leaf-covered trail through the timber today I spotted color on the leaves that was out of place. I noticed drops of blood that began a challenge for me to unravel the mystery of the tale in the leaves.

Blood Trail - Image 1042155

Years ago, long before I ever dabbled seriously in outdoor photography, I spent countless hours hunting squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, and deer. My tools of choice were rifles, shotguns, handguns, or a bow. During those many hunts I learned to follow blood trails in addition to noticing disturbances in my surroundings. I’ve lost count of how many times I have read the book “The Tracker” by Tom Brown Jr. Lessons learned from those studies and practicing what I had read have helped me to sort through clues to mysteries in the outdoors a time or two or three.

After finding the first blood I went multiple directions to determine which way I thought the trail was leading. I would have been fine locating the starting point, but I really wanted to know if there was an injured deer in the timber somewhere - or perhaps a dead deer that had not been found. I wanted to find the end point of the blood trail - the end of the tale in the leaves.

Blood Trail - Image 1042160

It did not take long to determine direction of travel - at least what I thought was where I needed to look. As I studied the diminishing blood trail I also noticed I was not seeing any drag marks. In other words, I didn’t think a dead deer had been dragged out of the woods. I also did not notice any indication of a whitetail gimping through the woods. There just were not any scuff marks indicating that action. That was a good indication as far as I was concerned.

Also noticed was how the blood trail was following my hiking trail - something possible from an injured deer, but I would have expected the animal to move deeper into the timber, not somewhere exposed.

Before I reached the end point I had a pretty good idea what I would find and where. The tale in the leaves told me a whitetail was taken deeper in the woods and likely moved out of the woods on a wheeled cart. The blood trail I was following was from the blood dripping from the animal as the deer was moved.

As expected the blood trail ended at a large blood mark on the pavement in a parking lot. The mystery ended as did the story with me knowing there was not a deer suffering in the timber somewhere nearby.

Blood Trail - Image 1042171