Italy Valley Report #5

[fasteddie]

NorthCountry Deer Report

Week #5

2011

If you believe in the “lockdown” theory of rut behavior this was your week. The week started with fairly normal rut related deer activity but by the weekend most if not all of the breeder bucks were “locked down” along with the does.

Last week we observed 11 bucks, 19 does and 21 fawns in 30 hours of sitting. This averages out to 1.7 deer sighted per hr. This was the second week in a row we had a marked decrease in deer sightings per hr. Unlike prior weeks where 50% of our buck sightings were 2.5 or older this week only 36% of the bucks sighted were 2.5 or older.

“Lockdown” refers to that period of the rut when most of the does in a given population are either in estrous or very close to being in estrous. If there are plenty of does in your herd the breeder bucks don’t have to work all that hard to find a doe to breed. Bottom line, instead of walking around looking, they are “locked down” breeding.

Does have been harassed so much that they are avoiding their usual hang outs. They are not showing as much on food plots and when they do, they are moving to them later in the day. They lay up with other does and fawns or pair up with a breeder buck for 2 or 3 days at a time. They often seek out the thickest stuff they can find or in out of the way places. This morning I saw the same doe and fawn in my dooryard I observed all spring. I have not seen them since late June. Neil has a whole group of does who have taken to his back yard to escape love crazed bucks. They come to plots late and leave at the slightest sign of buck aggression.

Many doe fawn groups have been broken up by bucks and it is not uncommon at all to see lone fawns or fawn twins with no mature does in evidence on food sources. Does and fawns are very much on edge and young bucks are still moving about looking for some “action”.

This is what we witnessed through most of last week and this is what we expect to see through most of this week as well. It is tempting to call “rut over”; in fact, a neighbor hunter stopped by with a “rut over” report last Friday (said his buddy read it in the paper). Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The rut may be on but all bets will be off as the weekend approaches and the gun hunters take to the woods en mass. From this weekend on (at least for a week or two) hunting pressure will dominate deer behavior. If you have a hunting property with minimal hunting pressure your deer will return to normal in a few days following the gun opener and your population will no doubt grow as pressured deer seek sanctuary on your property. If your property gets hit hard your deer sightings will go down and probably stay down.

As far as a bow strategy this week we will be once again hunting “intercept” stands near thick cover. The warm weather will slow down movement but a cold snap will probably put some lead in their pencils. As more and more does are bred this week our breeding bucks will be switching partners which may require moving from point “A” to point “B”. That’s when opportunity will knock. The sightings will be random but the rut is still very much in play and breeding activity is in full swing. You may not see many deer this week but it is an excellent time to intercept a good buck as they go back on the prowl.

I just took Radar out for a bit of air and sure enough spotted a nice shooter buck running a doe through the woods 100 yards from a stand I hunted Saturday. Honest I just saw it a minute ago (10:30 a.m.) in the woods next to the cabin. Here I am, writing a report while…………… oh well, I’ll be in the woods this afternoon.

We pulled the plug on our ratio and fawn recruitment data gathering for herd monitoring last week as our ratios are currently skewed due to the rut and will continue to be skewed due to gun season.

Overall we ate pretty pleased with things here at Kindred Spirits. Slightly under 50% of our bucks are 2.5 or older (this is about as good as we have ever had it).

We were also very concerned with fawn recruitment due to our increase in coyote sightings and explosion in bear sightings (someone sees a bear almost every time out). Our recruitment rate seems to be somewhere around .84. (102 does divided into 86 fawns +.84). This is just about dead on with the national average which has a range of from .5 to 1.2 fawns per doe (depending on state). We are pleasantly surprised by this number (remember only a small % of the 1.5 year old does in most areas of NY are bred as fawns). We also observed numerous sets of twins which suggests to us that the coyotes are not making a big impact on our fawn crop.

If you have been looking at your twin numbers and you fawn to doe ratio and even your buck ratios all season do your tallies now before the gun harvest changes your numbers significantly.

You should also be setting your gun harvest goals this week. Our current buck to doe ratio seems to be about 1 to 2.5. We would like to improve that ratio a bit. We would like to take our overall deer numbers down for winter. There is not a single acorn on the ground nor is there much left in our standing corn. The deer worked the corn stalks in the dry season when growing stalks was the best thing around and the bears worked it at the milk stage. This means we will enter winter many tons of food behind most years (no acorns, no corn and green plots hit hard all summer). Our deer will be eating a lot of browse this winter and that can really impact the native vegetation we have worked so hard to establish over the years. This is a good year to take an extra 10 does or so out of our population and trim back our numbers going forward.

We are also hoping to thin out the bears some. Almost every sit someone in our gang sees a bear. They along with the deer ate up our early corn and they are very disruptive to an evening sit when they are working an area. The population in our area is way out of control. Will report next week.

This is the time to be thinking about where you are numbers wise on your property. Best get it done now before the season gets away from you. We know it does with us (always waiting for that great shooter and never taking those does).

Thanks for all your reports they have been terrific. Keep them coming and hunt safe.

www.NorthCountryWhitetails.com

315-331-6959

[troutman]

Insightful report . Thanks.