Perhaps you saw the movie “The Big Year” earlier this fall. Starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, the movie is adapted from a book by Mark Obmascik of the same name. The book describes the efforts of three birders to see as many species as possible in North America in a calendar year.

There are iconic images associated with the outdoors in Maine. A large brook trout sipping a fly. A burly bull moose feasting, chest deep in water. A landlocked salmon leaping, and of course, a large buck, slipping silently through the forest on fresh snow.

I was settled in my tree stand awaiting the dawn’s early light when I heard the distinct sound of a deer’s hooves approaching on dry oak leaves.

November woods and fields look so drab now compared to summer, but curious eyes see plenty, beginning with deer signs such as heart-shaped tracks, buck rubs (bark “rubbed” off small trunks) and scrapes in soft earth.