Whitetail Wizard

Spring brings with it many changes. Some of the areas are starting to show the first signs of green-up. The wind and warm weather is slowly drying out my roads, and although we need rain, it would be nice to firm up my ranch roads before the spring rains come.

The thing about a slow drive around the ranch allows me to accomplish many things, all of which are important. I can study my deer herd, look for a break in the fence, check the roads for really bad spots, look over some of my ground stands and elevated coops, and hope my pit blinds aren’t full of water.

Antlers are growing well on the bucks, and a few fuzzy-antlered bucks show great promise already. Some have definite eight points and a few appear to be 10 points with a wide spread and heavy antler mass.

The does and fawns are in groups, here and there, and the bucks are forming up their bachelor groups that will bind them together until early October when conditions suddenly change. The pecking order will have been in place for months, but fall is when bucks begin pushing each other around once the velvet falls off their antlers.

For now, they are buddies just like a group of teenagers in high school. There is always the meek and mild buck, the big bully, the even-tempered big buck, and all forms of other bucks including the occasional spike.

They travel everywhere together, and everything stays friendly right now, but the smaller bucks always defer to the biggest buck and/or the bully. They go to feed together, bed in much the same area, but the boss buck of this group always chooses the best place to bed down.

The does are waiting patiently for their fawns to be born, and they stick pretty close to areas where they will have their fawns. All does are heavy with sagging bellies, and the time is rapidly approaching when they will start having their fawns.

I drive slowly around, always looking for deer and especially for the larger ones, but I’m paying close attention to the condition of my ground blinds and tree stand, pit blinds and elevated coops. The need for constant attention is always present, and this obviously includes the flow of water through my ranch.

The stream is dammed up upstream from my ranch, and if high water comes during a rain storm and the beaver dam washes out, all that water and silt will come washing downstream onto my property.

High water, even from this tiny creek, will wash out parts of my roads, make other roads nearly impassible, and create great problems. Although deer will travel through water if they must, they also will avoid such floods and very wet locations if it is possible.

Two stands are near an old beaver pond on my property. The pond originally covered 10 acres or so, and now it is grown up to tall marsh grass. Deer will use the marsh grass on occasion, but they prefer other cover. My primary concern is to protect my roads during a rain and fences during a strong wind storm.

Spring is good for what ails a person. It is a time of renewal, a rebirth of our land and the animals that live here, and I take a genuine pleasure in driving the roads and studying the changes that winter left and those that spring will bring.