"I can make out the noise of the tractor somewhere in the darkness." I can hear a big tractor working a field a half mile away as the farmer takes advantage of the lack of snow cover and warm November temperatures of 40-45 F. I am deer hunting, enclosed in one hundred sixty acres of trees, brush and wetland, with several hundreds of similar acres behind me. Southwest of our place is an intersection of two roads where on-coming vehicles often the hit rumble strips preceding the stop sign, or truckers use their engine-brake for reasons known only to themselves. This increased vehicle activity, so natural in the spring of the year, seems quite alien now. I would wear ear plugs to drown out the unnatural man-made noises, but listening to what’s going on around me during hunting season is important just as deer and other animals must accept its presence in their world and gauge what threatens them -- as if their lives depended on it. Sometimes, vehi