Watching the fog burn off over a swamp in the Francis Marion National Forest is the perfect way to start a fall morning.

Many hunters using public land, like the Francis Marion or a local wildlife management area (WMA), or a parcel of private land, can be found perched 15 feet in the air watching the day start. Deer are what the majority of hunters hunt today. Deer hunters spent over 2 million days afield during the 2006 season and harvested nearly 250,000 deer.

However, as I watched the treetops materialize at dawn, I wasn't in a tree stand nor was I bathed in scentless soap or clothed in scent-blocking camouflage. Nope, I was wearing an ordinary pair of camo jeans and my favorite chamois hunting shirt. The hunting vest that I was wearing had a faint smell of gun oil and a leftover empty cracker package in one of the pockets, a definite no-no had I been deer hunting.

But I wasn't waiting on a 200-pound Muy Grande buck of the swamp to come bouncing out trailing a hot doe. Instead, I was scanning the canopy above me for a 1-pound bushytail, a gray squirrel that would be out shortly looking for an acorn breakfast.

In mid-October, many of the leaves were still on the trees. This is good and bad. As a squirrel feeds on acorns, you can hear the particles of shell careening off the leaves as they drop to the ground. It is also easier to see a squirrel shaking limbs as it moves about. The leaves help hide you from a squirrel's sharp eyesight as you move into position as well. Another benefit with the leaves on the trees is they are not crunching underfoot.

The same leaves that help hide you from a squirrel, however, also help the squirrel hide from you. You might see where a squirrel is feeding, but it can be very difficult to locate and positively identify your target for a successful shot.

Before long, I heard some debris raining down from the top of a red oak. The leaves jiggled with the regularity of a feeding squirrel. I moved into position each time the limb shook, believing that if the squirrel were busy pulling off an acorn he'd miss me slinking through the woods.

I was right.

After feeding on one section of the oak, the squirrel began moving toward another limb. That was his downfall. He became very visible, and a load of No. 6s from my 20 gauge collected the first ingredient for a recipe of fried squirrel.

I put three other squirrels in my vest that morning before I left the woods for work. Although I heard some shots in the distance, I never saw another hunter and the woods seemed to be moving with squirrels. It's rare to go deer hunting on public land without seeing another hunter in the process, and obviously even rarer to be able to pull the trigger multiple times.

Small-game hunting opportunities found around the state are usually like my hunt. You'll hit the woods or thickets with few (or no) other hunters and normally find an abundance of game.

"There is a tremendous amount of small-game hunting available across the state," said Billy Dukes, small-game project supervisor for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). "Many species receive very little pressure since most hunters are hunting deer these days."

Dukes is not kidding when he says most people are deer hunting these days. A survey conducted by SCDNR indicated that 134,750 hunters hunted deer during the 2006 season. They expended over 2 million days afield and harvested an estimated 221,320 deer.

The number of small-game hunters pales in comparison. It is estimated that there are fewer than 90,000 hunters in the state who hunt rabbits, squirrels, quail, doves, woodcock, snipe, rails, ruffed grouse and crows combined. Since some hunters more than likely hunt more than one small-game species, the actual number of small-game hunters is much lower. These hunters spent 75 percent less time afield than deer hunters.

You should have no problem finding a place all to yourself to hunt if you are after one of the small-game species.