Whitetail Buck Suvivors

Keep your game cameras clicking.  Bucks are still in their winter pattern and now is the best time to locate “survivors.”  When spring arrives, whitetail deer will change their feeding and travel behaviors, possibly taking them from your home range until next fall.  By analyzing deer pictures, you can learn which deer to plan for when the season rolls around.

Three Buck Parade

The above photo was taken from my box blind Friday evening.  As you can see, it shows a 2.5-year-old 8-point with one antler dropped, a button buck in the center of the picture and, I believe, a mature buck to the left.  If you look closely, you can just see two pedicles where its antlers were shed.  I experimented with Osage orange fruit, commonly called hedge apples, late last fall yet neither deer nor squirrels ate them.

Predator Patrol

Deep snows were devastating to deer populations in parts of the Rocky Mountains last year with up to 90% mortality is some areas.  Luckily, the mid-West and East have been spared that tragedy with recent mild winters, yet coyotes, bobcats, and bears are at record numbers in most areas and a trail camera is your best means of keeping track of them.

Territorial Coyotes

Research shows that coyotes are territorial in late winter and early spring.  This means if you kill one or more, another roaming coyote will not move into that territory until summer or fall.  Since most states have no season or restrictions on coyote hunting, reducing their numbers can dramatically improve the health and survival of this year’s fawn crop.

Of Bears Beware

Do you have black bears in your deer area?  This picture of a mature sow and two cubs was taken on Christmas eve, a time when all three should have been hibernating.  Biologists suggest that mild winters allow bears, especially boars, to shorten their normal winter nap.  Instead of “denning,” some curl up in a deadfall or sheltered pile of leaves.  Research from Pennsylvania studies have shown black bears to be significant predators of fawns.