The day after deer season ended everyone asked “How was your season?” The answer was always the same “Not sure yet”. Not sure, how can you be not sure the day after the season ended?

 

You’re sure of what you harvested (13 does and 0 bucks) and you’re sure of what you saw from the stand and what your cameras caught (48 unique bucks during season) but you really can’t be sure of the outcome of the season until some time later.  You have to let the dust settle and take an inventory after the shooting ends.

 

We pulled our cameras last week after shooting over 80,000 pics and were delighted to have photographed 22 unique bucks after the season ended including 3 we had never photographed before. We also have it on good information that 3 good bucks that we saw during the season are still using the property even though the post season cameras didn’t pick them up.

 

The surviving buck brigade looks like this: 4-spikes, 5-4’s, 1-5, 3-6s, 2-7s, 4-8s, 2-dropped (probably 160’s), 1-2pt.

Not exactly the Outdoor Channel but this is how it sorts out right here in the heart of NY deer country. We are pleasantly surprised with the post season results as the neighbors hit the bucks hard this year due to an early gun season which hit during a high buck activity period.  We have plenty to work with for next year and look forward to getting some age on those deer.

 

Sure we would have liked to take a big buck this year but he just didn’t show up.  We passed up a couple of mid-130 3 year olds but we have steadily raised the bar over the years and we were looking for something in the 4-5 year age class.  Every decent buck we photographed presented itself for a shot during the hunting season this year.  Our setups were good, we were just lacking age. 

 

The “trophy” of the year was caught on camera. Not a book buck but a common poacher dragging a button buck out of our property. Twelve terrific action shots of the %%&#@ sneaking out with a little guy three days before the end of the muzzleloader season. Charlie A. couldn’t have shot the picture clearer or posed it better but so far no positive I.D. The pictures have made the rounds and one thing for sure-- the neighborhood knows the Dougherty’s are watching and someone is getting a nervous tic.

 

We have kept 4-5 year old deer every year on our property now for at least 10 years but not this year.  We’ve been logging our property heavily for the past two years.  This summer the loggers concentrated their cutting in some of our best sanctuary areas. We have concluded that big bucks don’t like skidders showing up in their bedrooms.   Over the past two years we disrupted most of our sanctuaries and believe the older age class deer just didn’t tolerate the disruption. We shut the loggers down Sept. 1 and saw a quick rebound in buck numbers but the old boys had dispersed and to our surprise never returned.

 

The logging was extremely well done and a huge habitat success. Future Forest Consultants left our woods in great shape and the habitat will be terrific going forward. Bottom line---you need to break an egg to make an omelet.  We have been at this for nearly twenty years. Disruption is an ongoing part of property management and we are looking forward to rebuilding our age structure and having things get back to normal.

 

An interesting by-product of the lack of older age class bucks on the property may have been changes in buck movement patterns. Buck movement in past years has been very constrained. They seemed to stay in prescribed areas and seldom entered certain other areas. This year saw more buck movement across the entire farm than in the recent past. Bucks were showing up everywhere and anywhere. Could it be that in past years the old boys kept them in their place?  Or at least out of their place?  Opinions or observations anyone? We’ll keep an eye on it going forward.

 

Many of you have written or called asking about our high numbers of late season deer sightings. We averaged sightings of almost 9 deer per hr. by seasons end while most hunters were lucky to see 8 deer in a week.

 

The answer is pretty simple--- a “tuned up” property and low impact hunting. Kindred Spirits has been pretty much “in tune” for a number of years now. Our deer numbers are in line with our habitat and our food plots and native vegetation enhancements are able to supply year round nutrition.

 

The operative phrase here is “year round”.  It is not enough to plant a few summer and early hunting season food plots and call it done. From a hunting standpoint you need to plant plenty of late season food sources to attract late season deer. We use a combination of green plots (clover chicory, brassica) and corn to keep our deer well fed through the season and beyond.  

 

We also are fanatics (well, Neil is at least) about “low impact” hunting.  No ATV’s no pickups only electric carts and “shanks ponies”. We sneak into the woods and sneak out through designated approaches. No “bushwhacking” across country, no still hunting and absolutely no deer “pushes” (quiet or otherwise). Believe it or not well over 80% of our 500 acres is “off limits” during gun season. We move a bit more during bow season and never, never hunt a stand when conditions are wrong.

 

If you had a rough second half you need to seriously consider creating more late season food sources and adopting low impact hunting strategies. Neil stays busy all winter working with clients on improving both.  Now is definitely the time to get in the woods and get your plan in place for next year. Once spring comes things start happening fast and furious and before you know it you are up to your ankles in dirt.  If you need help give us a call at 315 331 6959.

 

 

The highlight of the deer watching season is undoubtedly the “the windup and wind down” of the rut.  Many of you noticed that in no time of 8 weeks of deer reports did we mention the word “rut”.  This is for good reason as in our opinion a great deal of confusion surrounds the rut; particularly in defining the terminology typically associated with the rut.

 

We deliberately avoided labeling behavior we and our cameras identified and chose instead to describe. We stayed away from “calling” the rut in favor of describing what we observed as accurately as possible. We learned from your emails and calls that one man’s “chasing” was another man’s “seeking” or “trolling” and almost everyone had a different understanding of what is meant by “breeding” while almost never observing any “breeding” at all.

 

We also learned that rich descriptions of behavior foster communication and shared learning. We received hundreds of responses like “we are seeing exactly what you described” or “we haven’t seen that but we are seeing this”. This was great stuff.  Instead of arguing about stages or phases of the rut (“the rut is on, I just saw a buck chasing a doe” or “the rut’s over I haven’t seen a buck all weekend”) we were sharing observations and fostering communication between thousands of whitetail watchers.

 

 

Our observations and descriptions followed a fairly predictable pattern that has been established for some years at Kindred Spirits. Other “tuned up” properties pretty much seem to report the same.

 

The season opened in mid October with 4-5 deer sighted per hr.  Our deer were using food plots heavily with does and fawns moving in well established family groups. Young bucks were all over the plots with an occasional older buck coming by to advertise his presence at a scrape or licking branch. The youngsters were already interested in does and would occasionally take a brief run at a doe/fawn group who would scatter like a covey of quail and quickly resume feeding. 

 

Many of you reported similar behavior and a few called “an early rut” (hate those labels). Those of you without food plots to concentrate feeding deer typically saw fewer deer per sit than did food plot hunters. Food is definitely the key to understanding early season whitetail behavior.

 

As the season progressed we observed more and more aggressive behavior by young and older bucks alike. Doe and fawns began to disappear from the food plots as food plots were targeted by bucks “on the muscle”. Our deer sightings dropped to roughly 2.5 with our doe/fawn count dropping and our buck sightings rising. We gradually pulled off the food plots in favor of “intercept” stands that keyed on wind currents and topography.

 

The pace gradually picked up as did the buck sighting ratios. Immature buck sightings gradually were replaced by older buck sightings as more and more older age class bucks were out and about. Aggressive “chases” were frequently seen as “racked” bucks took over the property. The younger bucks almost seemed to pull back from the core of the action becoming more observers than participants. During this “magic time” we photographed 13 new unique bucks that probably had been laid up in our sanctuaries or on neighboring properties.  Our “magic time” fell on the week of November 11-19th.  Most of the action fell during 11-15th. 

 

Then someone threw the switch.  Mature doe sightings fell off precipitously as did mature buck sightings.  Our camera photos were down 60% the week of Nov. 20-27th .  We picked up an occasional chase here and there but our sightings from the stand dropped to 2.4 deer per hr. The food plots were for the most part populated by nervous fawns and young bucks acting stupid but the real action wasn’t happening on the food.

 

Many of you reported “rut over” around this time (once again labels not serving us well).  Was the rut over or is something else going on?   Yes, we had entered into the first week of the gun season but the simple answer is the “rut” was far from over.  We were in “lockdown” the mid-rut period every year where mature bucks and does alike virtually disappear from their regular haunts.  It generally coincides what many describe as the “peak” of the rut or “breeding period” but since we don’t know what a “peak” looks like and never see any “breeding” we are reluctant to use these labels.

 

We think we know what is going on back in the dense sanctuary areas (does hunkered down with bucks near by waiting for a breeding opportunity) but our low impact hunting approach does not lend itself to crowding the participants. We hear the occasional crashing, grunting and raking so something is going on but most of it is behind closed doors in the thick cover. What do you think?

 

Gradually, during the next couple of weeks we began to once again see more deer. Doe/fawn groups once again assembled and returned to feeding behavior bucks started to show up on food plots again and our deer per hr. sightings climbed to almost 9 per by season’s end. Back to normal but more deer than ever. All this with a backdrop of ATV’s, deer drives and rifles going off.

 

Unfortunately not all of you saw this “return to normal” pattern of behavior. Some of you succumbed to the “rut over—game over” syndrome packed it up, and headed home. Others experienced the same excellent late season as we did and enjoyed a full season of quality hunting. The common denominator--a well tuned property and low impact hunting. The deer drivers and big woods hunters were done weeks ago.

 

We have observed this predictable cycle ever since Kindred Spirits reached a point of “fine tuning” 10 or so years ago.  We have heard from many of you who experienced the same cycle as well.  Some of you use different labels and terms to describe the cycle but the sequence of events seem to remain constant. Let us know what you think but please use descriptions rather than labels as labels mean many different things to many different people.

 

In our opinion, the quality of your late season hunting is what separates good properties from the not so good properties. Most hunting properties are good in the early season and almost all hunting picks up during the “rut”. Only great properties have great late season hunting. Now is the time to address this issue by taking a good hard look at your property and developing a plan.

 

Next year will see some new food plot locations (away from the core of the property to reduce hunting pressure in the core areas) and the beginning of regeneration of most of our woodland areas. We will invite the older age class bucks back into our sanctuary areas with peace and quiet and lots of high quality food. What will you be doing differently?

 

We have really enjoyed producing this newsletter and hearing from so many of you. If the weekly reports were a success it is because so many of you took the time to report what you were seeing in your neck of the woods. We are definitely planning to do them again next year and look forward to your help.

 

Many of you asked questions which we were unable to answer in our updates.  We plan on producing a Q & A publication every week or two.  If you want to receive it and weigh in with us just stay tuned. If we are bothering you, let us know and Sharon will take you off the mailing list. Thanks again for your help.