Daylight movement

Ski said:

Super interesting, and makes total sense when considering the patterns I see on trail cams, especially long term. And being selective browsers, it would make sense that their pattern is in constant motion. Coming back in a week or two allows time for a food source to replenish itself, whether it be new sprouts or more acorns falling, etc. Confining themselves to one place would not only realize diminishing returns in the way of food, but would also make for easier predation. Not to mention their excrement would begin piling up like a stockyard, a literal cesspool of disease.

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And this is exactly why primitive Man was nomadic. Deplete the resources in one area and then move on. Return in a generation after the resource have rebounded. Archeologic research across the U.S. (especially the Southeast) finds this pattern with early Native American habitation over and over: local resource depletion, abandonment of the area, reestablishment of settlement a generation later. This cycle repeats over and over.

TheLBLman,

This is a typical timeline of older bucks (2 1/2+) picked up on a season-long photo census on my property. Each horizontal red line is an individual older buck. The red diamond at the left of each line is the first time he is photographed. The red diamond at the right end of each line is the last time he is photographed or the date he is killed. Lines that run completely off the right side of the graph are older bucks still being photographed at the end of deer season. Notice there are just a few older bucks using the property during the late summer, and most of those will be photographed only in the sections of the property closest to the adjacent agricultural bottomlands and nowhere else on the property. Then we see the "seasonal shift" that occurs very near velvet shedding. I used to believe that was some type of biological "trigger" but now believe it is more the timing of the crop harvest in the bottomlands causing bucks to sudden move up into our hill country. Older bucks that suddenly appear on the property at that time are generally there to stay (will be regularly photographed) right through the fall months into early winter (if they are not killed).

However, then there is the rut. We see a sudden surge of new bucks that will only be photographed during the 6 weeks of peak breeding. These are bucks that live nearby, but suddenly expand their range onto our place during the rut, only to vanish as soon as the rut is over. We will often see the same bucks year after year during this rut range expansion/shift. I have no idea where they spend the rest of the year, but they definitely start crossing our property regularly during the rut. However, they vanish just as quickly right around the first week of December.

FASCISINATING DATA, BSK!
Thanks for sharing.

I see similar, including the sudden ceasing of bucks seeking does in early December.

LenS said:

BSK and LBLman,

Interesting observations. So I have a question about deer's movement and thinking, and I hope I can word it properly. Are deer able to conceptually understand a "the grass is greener over there" mentality or are they driven more by instinct/habit/etc? For example, will a buck comprehend that there are few does in his home range and go looking for a place with more does or is he going to stay within his range and simply deal with what is there?

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Complicated question to answer. First, it is believed Humans are the only animal on the planet with an imagination. It is believed that to have an imagination requires language. In that, you must be able to think in words to be able to imagine different outcomes (to reason). This is why I don't believe deer to have the ability to reason their way through a problem. They simply react instinctively, and as long as that reaction "works," they will keep doing that same thing to the same stimuli. Until it doesn't work. Then they will try something else. But they are not "reasoning" their way through the problem. In essence, to go through an "if-then" scenario in their heads requires an imagination to conceptualize if I do this, this or this might happen.

That said, GPS collar data has shown deer doing some really bizarre things. One of the most common bizarre behaviors is termed the "walkabout." It has been noted in many GPS collar studies that virtually all bucks 2 1/2 or older, at some point during the rut, go on "walkabout." They simply take off and walk in virtually a straight line for several miles. They then spend 48 hours in that new location, after which they return along the same route back to their normal range. What are they doing at that new location for 48 hours? Are they breeding a doe? If so, how did they know she was there, miles away? Again, no one really knows why bucks do this or why they choose the direction they go.

Another odd behavior is the rut range shift. Some bucks up and leave their normal range and shift to a new range miles away, staying only for about the peak 6 weeks of the rut. Afterwards, they return to their original range. How did they know to go to this other range for the rut, and why? To make matters even more strange, some of these rut range-shifting bucks never go back to the same rut range twice. They move to a separate and different rut range every year. Why? Why choose the location they go to?

BSK said:

That said, GPS collar data has shown deer doing some really bizarre things. One of the most common bizarre behaviors is termed the "walkabout." It has been noted in many GPS collar studies that virtually all bucks 2 1/2 or older, at some point during the rut, go on "walkabout." They simply take off and walk in virtually a straight line for several miles. They then spend 48 hours in that new location, after which they return along the same route back to their normal range. What are they doing at that new location for 48 hours? Are they breeding a doe? If so, how did they know she was there, miles away? Again, no one really knows why bucks do this or why they choose the direction they go.

Another odd behavior is the rut range shift. Some bucks up and leave their normal range and shift to a new range miles away, staying only for about the peak 6 weeks of the rut. Afterwards, they return to their original range. How did they know to go to this other range for the rut, and why? To make matters even more strange, some of these rut range-shifting bucks never go back to the same rut range twice. They move to a separate and different rut range every year. Why? Why choose the location they go to?

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I have come to believe both of those scenarios are one in the same, or at least relative. I see random bucks in September & early October that I have no clue how to interpret because they're alien to me, never seen them before and they were only caught once on one camera because they just passed through. It's always on a well traveled doe trail. I often see those bucks again during breeding season, and they aren't just passing by. They're doing buck stuff like scraping or chasing does.

My theory is that some time after velvet shedding and before rutting, they seek out on an adventure to take inventory of does that they'll later revisit. Especially in the big woods, deer are so scattered about that there may be acres & acres of void, deerless ground. And dynamics change every year. Where he bred old Betsy last year might now be a subdivision or fresh clearcut, so he'd be wasting precious breeding season time if he went there again only to find it isn't what he expected. That's what I think the walkabout you speak of is. Then when he shows up for just a stretch during breeding season, it's because he was there a couple months earlier to scout and knew right where to find those girls. I could be totally off base wrong but that's how I've made sense of what I've seen play out over & over on camera, and what I've got on camera parallels what you describe to a T.

As far as your chart above, it surprises me that you have no random bucks showing up in December & January. I always have a late shift of bucks. I assumed it was because they found refuge there from surrounding hunting pressure, but it might also be because my plots offer green food when none other is available anywhere else.

Ski said:

As far as your chart above, it surprises me that you have no random bucks showing up in December & January. I always have a late shift of bucks. I assumed it was because they found refuge there from surrounding hunting pressure, but it might also be because my plots offer green food when none other is available anywhere else.

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We do get the rare older buck showing up after the rut, but that is exceedingly rare. If we're going to see a new older buck show up post-rut it's almost always early to mid-January (with a mid-November peak breeding).

This crazing looking buck showed up January 4th last year:

BSK said:

We do get the rare older buck showing up after the rut, but that is exceedingly rare. If we're going to see a new older buck show up post-rut it's almost always early to mid-January (with a mid-November peak breeding).

This crazing looking buck showed up January 4th last year:

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Ha! What an entrance. Shows up to eat your food right after it's too late to hunt him.

Ski said:

Ha! What an entrance. Shows up to eat your food right after it's too late to hunt him.

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Exactly!

I have been getting more older buck movement at night especially Friday night and last night... Haven't seen any daylight movement in 2-3 weeks other than a small 5 pointer came thru last week. Hoping that will change soon.

BSK said:

TheLBLman,

This is a typical timeline of older bucks (2 1/2+) picked up on a season-long photo census on my property. Each horizontal red line is an individual older buck. The red diamond at the left of each line is the first time he is photographed. The red diamond at the right end of each line is the last time he is photographed or the date he is killed. Lines that run completely off the right side of the graph are older bucks still being photographed at the end of deer season. Notice there are just a few older bucks using the property during the late summer, and most of those will be photographed only in the sections of the property closest to the adjacent agricultural bottomlands and nowhere else on the property. Then we see the "seasonal shift" that occurs very near velvet shedding. I used to believe that was some type of biological "trigger" but now believe it is more the timing of the crop harvest in the bottomlands causing bucks to sudden move up into our hill country. Older bucks that suddenly appear on the property at that time are generally there to stay (will be regularly photographed) right through the fall months into early winter (if they are not killed).

However, then there is the rut. We see a sudden surge of new bucks that will only be photographed during the 6 weeks of peak breeding. These are bucks that live nearby, but suddenly expand their range onto our place during the rut, only to vanish as soon as the rut is over. We will often see the same bucks year after year during this rut range expansion/shift. I have no idea where they spend the rest of the year, but they definitely start crossing our property regularly during the rut. However, they vanish just as quickly right around the first week of December.

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So what you're saying is there is still hope for me zero new bucks this year on my places as of last weekend. Hopefully last week of Oct they shift onto my place. As of right now, I only have a 7.5yo cull and a 5.5yo 130" buck that are shooters. Terrible year.

As far as daylight activity, I'm not seeing any difference from years past... lots of daylight activity from the old bucks until end of Sept, then almost all nocturnal except for once in the past 3 weeks by each older buck ( but again, sample size of 2... so nothing stastically valid). Cameras are still on salt with a traditional scrape beside the salt lick so I get both deer hitting salt as well as the scrapes.

My big range shift onto my properties is also after neighboring frams (sometimes a mile away) cut summer crops. Not sure why, but none of the neighbors have harvested corn nor beans despite the full maturity of both and low humidity we've had past few weeks.

Strange year, as I have nothing on camera that keeps me awake at night, but still excited about hunting with friends and family

megalomaniac said:

I have nothing on camera that keeps me awake at night, but still excited about hunting with friends and family

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My situation as well.

megalomaniac said:

So what you're saying is there is still hope for me zero new bucks this year on my places as of last weekend. Hopefully last week of Oct they shift onto my place. As of right now, I only have a 7.5yo cull and a 5.5yo 130" buck that are shooters. Terrible year.

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So far, all I have is two 2 1/2 year-old 8 pointers and a 3 1/2 year-old 7-pointer dying of arterial worm.

TboneD said:

Did a quick scouting trip yesterday afternoon here in Wilson County and found few if any white oak acorns. Also it appears that weevils(?) have been really bad this year because from what I've seen at least, a lot of the red oak acorns are completely worthless. And the deer and squirrels are gobbling up the good ones so fast I'm not certain they'll be many left for gun season. As for the squirrel, I haven't noticed much in hickory cuttings or nuts, either. Took my nephew once last month and never heard the first squirrel chewing on a hickory nut, so I guess they're really having to move to look for mast.

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I'm in Wilson Co and seeing the same thing.

Question on your graph above.
It is evident that you put max pressure on your property during ML and the week of Thanksgiving based on the "kills" but do you see a marked decrease in actual sightings/pictures of those mature bucks after that 3 week period of max pressure? Based on you posts you have many stands and just curious if you are able to rotate stand sits well enough to keep the property fresh? If I graphed my property, it would look similar except the first influx of new bucks would be centered around Nov 1st and max pressure would be Dec 1-10th unfortunately after that I have difficulty even getting regular pics of the mature deer, as a note I usually take vacation the first week of Dec and hunt all very hard.

Still trying to figure out why we have only one 2.5yo 6pt that's moved in as of last weekend. That's the oldest buck on camera since Oct started. We have a large property, so that's concerning, but after reading this thread, it seems to be the norm for whatever reason this year. Makes me feel a little better. Plenty of does and fawns. Placed all the cameras over traditional mock scrape locations, so surely something will show up soon. Trying a new scrape method in some locations with vines hanging down. Will see what happens and I'll share with y'all.

We were really banking on our food plots producing and truly believe it will pay off if we can just get some rain!!!! Dang it's frustrating. This year would be perfect due to the lack of acorns and the number of does we are holding FINALLY since rebounding from the 2019 ehd die off. The stars have aligned on everything except the rain

puppy said:

Question on your graph above.
It is evident that you put max pressure on your property during ML and the week of Thanksgiving based on the "kills" but do you see a marked decrease in actual sightings/pictures of those mature bucks after that 3 week period of max pressure? Based on you posts you have many stands and just curious if you are able to rotate stand sits well enough to keep the property fresh? If I graphed my property, it would look similar except the first influx of new bucks would be centered around Nov 1st and max pressure would be Dec 1-10th unfortunately after that I have difficulty even getting regular pics of the mature deer, as a note I usually take vacation the first week of Dec and hunt all very hard.

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We try our best to rotate through stands and not over-hunt them. But that's a tall order. And it doesn't help that we put far more pressure on the deer on our place than surrounding neighbors do. Plus we have both the advantage and disadvantage of having the earliest peak breeding in the area. This means bucks come from far and wide to chase estrus does during our early peak breeding, but then just as quickly leave once breeding picks up in surrounding areas just as our breeding is falling off.

Nothing can be done about our early breeding. But to alleviate the effects of our heavy hunting pressure we do several things: 1) use a lot of stands so that hunting pressure is more spread out; 2) keep very close track of which stands have been hunted and when, in an attempt to not over-hunt stands; 3) try to create great sanctuary cover - thick cover we do not enter (except to recover a deer) - spread in patches throughout the property. All of these are a help, but I think we would see a reduction in mature bucks post-rut anyways, because of the later rut in surrounding areas. However, since we got really serious about creating sanctuary cover (instead of a half-dozen 3-5 acre patches, going to half a dozen 20-acre patches), we seem to see more bucks hanging around longer into the season. Last year we saw a few mature bucks and definitely quite a few 3 1/2 year-old bucks still hanging around right until January.

JCDEERMAN said:

Still trying to figure out why we have only one 2.5yo 6pt that's moved in as of last weekend. That's the oldest buck on camera since Oct started. We have a large property, so that's concerning, but after reading this thread, it seems to be the norm for whatever reason this year. Makes me feel a little better. Plenty of does and fawns. Placed all the cameras over traditional mock scrape locations, so surely something will show up soon. Trying a new scrape method in some locations with vines hanging down. Will see what happens and I'll share with y'all.

We were really banking on our food plots producing and truly believe it will pay off if we can just get some rain!!!! Dang it's frustrating. This year would be perfect due to the lack of acorns and the number of does we are holding FINALLY since rebounding from the 2019 ehd die off. The stars have aligned on everything except the rain

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My situation exactly. I thought our food plots were going to be the bomb this year with a poor acorn crop. But so far, due to the drought, they are crap. Doesn't mean deer aren't using what little growth is in them. We have more does, fawns and yearling bucks feeding in those plots than I've seen in many years, but few older bucks.

I too placed cams over traditional scrapes a few weeks ago. Nothing yet, but I did notice in my last card pull (Oct. 11) that suddenly does are becoming very interested in the over-hanging limbs, something that had not been true earlier in the fall. I hope this means the older bucks aren't far behind.

JCDEERMAN said:

Still trying to figure out why we have only one 2.5yo 6pt that's moved in as of last weekend. That's the oldest buck on camera since Oct started. We have a large property, so that's concerning, but after reading this thread, it seems to be the norm for whatever reason this year. Makes me feel a little better. Plenty of does and fawns. Placed all the cameras over traditional mock scrape locations, so surely something will show up soon. Trying a new scrape method in some locations with vines hanging down. Will see what happens and I'll share with y'all.

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It's a strange year for sure. I'm seeing same thing with the late shift. If not for what I'm hearing from yall and seeing first hand on multiple properties in two states, I'd be worried. But I'm monitoring 6 farms this year and it's the same thing at every place, same thing yall are seeing. Weird weird year.

Going to check cams tomorrow. Hope I see a big change.

BSK said:

I thought our food plots were going to be the bomb this year with a poor acorn crop. But so far, due to the drought, they are crap. Doesn't mean deer aren't using what little growth is in them. We have more does, fawns and yearling bucks feeding in those plots than I've seen in many years, but few older bucks.

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Exactly what I'm seeing. I can't tell if the plots aren't doing well or if they're just being eaten to the dirt. I've got more does & fawns concentrated in one particular plot than I've ever seen before. It's the only plot on that property that's getting hit hard, though. This is the first time I've ever had to refill a water hole tank, too. It's just a couple hundred yards from that plot and the deer drank it down so far it took a full 55gal barrel to refill it. The other two water hole tanks on the property looked normal even though there hasn't been any rain.

BSK said:

I too placed cams over traditional scrapes a few weeks ago. Nothing yet, but I did notice in my last card pull (Oct. 11) that suddenly does are becoming very interested in the over-hanging limbs, something that had not been true earlier in the fall. I hope this means the older bucks aren't far behind.

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I've still yet to see a scrape opened up, real or mock. That's VERY late. I don't recall a year ever when I wasn't finding at least small scrapes in the first week of October. Now we're closer to November than September and still nothing.