Wes Coffey

Again, not unusual by itself.

But when I looked south, where the woodpecker had been, I noticed something that I couldn't immediately make sense of.

There was a shape at the base of a large maple, maybe 70 yards from my stand.

It hadn't been there before, I was sure of that.

I'd been looking in that direction for the last hour and there had been nothing at the base of that tree.

The shape was dark.

It was roughly the size of a person, but it was low to the ground, pressed against the trunk.

My first thought was that another hunter had walked in and sat down against the tree.

It happens.

People get tired.

People sit down.

But there was no blaze orange.

No movement.

and I hadn't heard anyone walking through the leaves, which would have been impossible to miss on a quiet afternoon, with the ground covered in dry oak leaves.

I stared at it for a full minute.

It didn't move.

I pulled out my binoculars.

The light was getting flat.

That time of day in November in northern Wisconsin, the sun is already behind the trees by 3.30 and everything turns gray.

Through the binoculars, I could see the shape more clearly, but I still couldn't identify it.