Tuesday, October 03, 2006
The Deer Knew The Storm Was Coming
Hunting was far from good tonight. The weather was unseasonably warm, and although the wind direction was good for hunting, what action we had was a brief movement between 6:30 and 7:15 p.m.
I saw one good buck, a long distance from my blind, and had two small bucks and a few does show up during that brief time period, but the deer seemed eager to feed and get back into thick cover.
The forecast is for thunderstorms tonight, high winds and possible hail later, and I suspect if we’d been hunting at 3 p.m. we probably would have seen more deer. The deer I did see were testing the wind, which was swirling at times from the southwest.
The deer, just by their actions, gave me an impression that a storm was brewing. The barometer was falling, and the prediction is for colder weather tomorrow and a north wind. Deer sense these changes long before humans know they are coming.
I have a buddy who broke his back many years ago, and arthritis has set in along his spine. He claims he can tell when a storm is coming, and also claims his back starts acting up six to 12 hours before a storm.
The thing I noticed last night was that the deer moved in very slow. It was almost as if they were overly cautious and were sneaking in, and it was as if the scenting conditions were good. Much of that may have been due to the occasional swirling winds.
They would head for the croplands, and by doing so, had to pass by my elevated coop at the edge of a beaver pond. They came sneaking along, in and out of the pines along the old marsh grass, and every deer that passed me was within 20 yards.
On two occasions I saw deer behind my elevated coop, and they were heading back into the pines. They weren’t trying to circle me but were heading back for cover. They acted in a predictable manner: they had headed out earlier to feed in the corn and other crop fields, and were on their way back to cover.
It was an interesting thing to watch because such actions are rather predictable. and watching deer move to and from the croplands at the same time was a great experience. Those deer were leaving their bedding areas, feeding and heading back for cover in rapid fashion.
The biggest buck was a nice 8-pointer that dawdled along, and it would have been an easy shot. I was in no rush to shoot a deer tonight, and there are many days in the future when the hunting will be better.
Until then, I will continue to study and watch deer. The bow hunter who is a keen observer of the weather, and the whitetail deer’s reaction to it, is the hunter who will be successful during the 11 weeks of deer season to come.
Me, I’m content just seeing deer and I’m looking forward to the days ahead. It’s when the weather may become a bit more predictable, and deer will follow their normal schedules. Watching deer reactions, as I did just before dark as heat lightning lit up the western sky, would tell even the casual observer that weather patterns are a major part of the key to unlocking the travel mysteries of these animals.
Observe and learn. It’s the hunter’s way.—The Whitetail Wizard