Buck Scrape research

[Ski]

That's really odd Ski. I wonder what caused that?

Below is a graph of daily bucks photographed for 2021. The thin red line is daily number of bucks photographed and the thicker purple line the three-day running mean. The two vertical blue lines indicate peak breeding. Notice the two peaks of buck photographs; one right after peak breeding and the other at the end of November. That first peak right after peak breeding consists mainly of bucks photographed seeking - just making tracks through the woods, on a mission. The second peak in late November and early December is primarily bucks back working the scrapes one last time, and a high percentage of these scrape visits were in broad daylight.

That is an interesting graph and very telling. I'd have to look back through my pics through the years to be sure but at first glance your graph pretty closely parallels what I typically see.

I have a few suspicions about the change this year on my place. One is a clear cut a few hundred yards away on public land. It just this summer reached a maturity level where bucks could navigate through it.Until now it was too thick for antlered bucks. They'd skirt it but didn't seem to like going in. This year they can and do.

My other suspicion is poacher pressure. I live 6.5hrs from the property so I'm not there enough to keep an eye on it. There's been a chronic poaching problem in the area for a long time but for the past several years it's been quiet. On my latest trip up there a week ago I found a dead doe in a plot, under one of my busiest scrapes. A review of the camera showed she was shot and died right there, but nobody on camera. I don't know if they shot from afar & turned away when they realized she was lying dead in front of a camera, or if they never had any intention of retrieving her. But there she was rotting away at a scrape that usually is pretty hot. It's hard not to think that isn't an isolated event, that somebody has begun hunting my place when I'm not around. It would sure explain the terrible hunting I experienced this year. But before I go too far blaming anybody else, I lined my property perimeter with cams. If a turkey farts I'll know it.

 

[BSK]

In the 2020 season, a poor acorn year, the last scrape visit where a buck interacted with the scrape occurred on January 2nd, even though I let the cameras run into mid-January. Just picked up the cameras this year, a bumper acorn year, and bucks were still tearing up the scrapes as of Wednesday the 12th. Very interesting. I wonder if this happens every good acorn year?

 

[JCDEERMAN]

In the 2020 season, a poor acorn year, the last scrape visit where a buck interacted with the scrape occurred on January 2nd, even though I let the cameras run into mid-January. Just picked up the cameras this year, a bumper acorn year, and bucks were still tearing up the scrapes as of Wednesday the 12th. Very interesting. I wonder if this happens every good acorn year?

Very cool and I suspect there is correlation. I'm surprised you didn't leave your cameras out to see how late the scrape activity goes.

 

[Ski]

In the 2020 season, a poor acorn year, the last scrape visit where a buck interacted with the scrape occurred on January 2nd, even though I let the cameras run into mid-January. Just picked up the cameras this year, a bumper acorn year, and bucks were still tearing up the scrapes as of Wednesday the 12th. Very interesting. I wonder if this happens every good acorn year?

You might be pulling your cams a bit early. Here's one in March working a scrape through the snow in early march, even though the licking branch had long been broken off. Then he's back a week later after snow melt to work it again. Granted the activity at that scrape had tapered way off since Oct/Nov but it was still getting use until antler drop. The other pics are bucks working a mock scrape.

In the last couple years I've been leaving my cams out until antler drop, where in the past I had always pulled them after season ended. I've been pretty surprised at how rutty bucks can be all the way up until antler drop. At that point things seem to immediately shift toward summer patterns. But up until then, there can still be a show to be seen. None of it really pertains to the hunting season, but for behavior observation I find it worthwhile.

 

[BSK]

Very cool and I suspect there is correlation. I'm surprised you didn't leave your cameras out to see how late the scrape activity goes.

I would have, but in most previous years, it was over by the first week of January. I've left cameras running until spring a few times, and it is interesting that bucks will check out a scrape once or twice in February and March.

 

[BSK]

Ski, I posted the above before reading your post. Interesting we've both noticed those very, very late scrape visits right up until antler drop.