Sunday, July 30, 2006
Deer, Deer and Even More Deer
I work hard to keep our deer numbers in balance with the habitat and food supply, and after each new years fawn drop, the numbers go back up. This year, wherever I look, there are deer, deer and more deer.
It’s difficult to say whether there are more deer this summer than last year or 10 years ago, but they seem to be everywhere. Whatever I plant, they eat and there are are some good bucks as well.
The hot weather has kept deer movement pretty much limited to dawn and dusk, but whenever we go for a drive to check out the herd, the deer seem to be moving everywhere. They are out in the open fields, crossing through the hills, deep in the cedar swamps and going into and out of the tag alder all over the ranch.
I’ve taken some drives during mid-day, and even see a fair number of deer during the early afternoon. I see them with binoculars when I get up in the early morning, and see them as the light fades in the evening.
Some of the bucks, even though they are in velvet, show signs of being big, fully mature bucks with the makings of some magnificent antlers.
There have been some bucks seen with racks that seem to grow straight up. Others seem to be wide racks, and some have high and wide antlers and the latter animals would score high. There are some serious nontypical bucks, and others with a drop point here and there.
So far I haven’t seen a three-beam buck that I know was roaming the ranch, and it’s likely he is staying as cool as possible in some low spot and doesn’t move much until after dark.
There are does and fawns wherever I look, and people who are doing some work on my coops have been seeing good numbers of deer. They are painting and fixing up the coops, and it gives them an elevated position from which to watch for deer as they work.
I’ve spent a good bit of time watching certain key areas. There are some well-used funnels on my land where deer move from one patch of heavy cover to another, and although some does and fawns are using these areas, the bigger bucks seem to be using them as well.
Heavy-antlered bucks always seem to know some of the best ways to avoid hunters, and these funnels are hotspots. In one place there is a tiny creek that flows through a marsh and tag alder swale, and I’m seeing bucks moving through there as well.
I’ll have one of the new metal elevated coops on the ranch this year. They are well built, almost as air-tight as anything can be, and they offer a flat level surface inside. An office chair with rollers would be the ideal chair for hunting this stand.
One of my stands needs a serious make-over this year. A guy cut a big hole in the front of it alongside the shooting window, and even though it faces to the south, a bright setting sun shines in and lights it all up. It has to be fixed before the season opens.
It looks like a bumper buck, doe and fawn crop this year. There isn’t anywhere on the ranch that doesn’t have a bunch of whitetails moving around. As time passes over the next two months, I will be spending more time patterning the deer, and long before Oct. 1, I’ll know just how many really huge bucks are roaming the farm.
I’m looking forward to a great hunting season.—The Whitetail Wizard