Deer hunter bags something more rare than a big buck

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (KMEG) He's captured photos of not one, not two, but three baby bobcats who climbed into a deer stand with him!

It was his first day of bow hunting when Wendell Van Beek had the closest encounters.

"It was pretty cool," said Van Beek, a resident in Sioux Center.

It all happened on October 22nd. Wendell climbed up into his hunter blind at an undisclosed location in Woodbury County.

"Got in there early, sat down, started to see some deer come out," said Van Beek.

But that's not all he saw.

"A few minutes later I saw bigger bobcat come and walk in front of my blind and watched him for awhile. Actually he was stalking a squirrel. There was a bunch of squirrels in the field so he was stalking them," said Van Beek.

15 minutes passed by and through the trees he spotted another bobcat and this time, it brought company.

"Through the trees I can see another one coming and I can kind of see behind her and I can tell there was three little ones following her," said Van Beek.

Within moments, the bobcats found their way closer to Van Beek.

"I heard kind of a thunk sitting right beside me and looked down and there sat one of the babies right next to me. Listening to the mama below and actually there were deer out in front of me and they were snorting and stomping at the mama underneath me."

Van Beek said the whole experience was amazing.

"I had an old wooden ladder that was going up to the blind and they were swinging on there just like they were monkey bars and just playing around and watching me, and it was quite an experience."