They're Moving - Prime Time!

Showing up on cameras in daylight.

 Both morning and evening.

 I hunted the barn stand on Friday evening.  This lone doe came out in the field to feed.

 She was followed shortly thereafter by this 16" eight point buck who wouldn't leave her alone.  He chased her around and out of the field.

 After that, another lone doe came out and fed unmolested.  She wandered by this camera.  Later I heard a grunt and grunted back - nothing showed.  An unusual spike buck came out at last light - it probably had 10" daggers.  As I was leaving stand, 3 more does were passing thru.

Saturday morning I sat in the pond hi-rise.  It was a great sunrise.

 Sun just up.  I saw two blurs all the way across the main field.  Two deer (bucks?) crossed about 20 minutes apart.  They went from the driveway field, past the turnips and into the woods by the ladder stand.

 I sat on the ridge during mid-day and saw nothing.  For the evening hunt, I went to the main hi-rise.

 I noticed a doe in the patch of oats at the end of the turnips and behind her was this buck.  You can't tell in the picture but he is a very wide eight point - surely more than 20".  He chased her all over the field for the next 20 minutes.  Twice he ran her within 25 yards of the stand but he would not slow down or stop.  After they left, a lone young doe came out to feed until dark.

 Sunday morning I hunted the pond stand and only saw 2 does out in the main field.  During the day, I tried to work on cameras - 3 of them said they had photos but the cards were empty.  Lots of rubs everywhere.

 I did get the pumpkin patch turned.  It was a little wet but I did it anyway.

 Sunday evening was beautiful.  Very light wind.  I sat in the driveway stand because I thought the wide 8 and doe came out from this direction.

 A couple does did step out early.  One stayed and fed for 20 minutes. She kept looking back to the woods.

The other one headed right up to the main field.  Eventually, I could spot deer moving in the main field thru my binoculars.  One of them appeared to be the same wide 8 chasing a doe all over the field.  As light was fading, another buck seemed to join them in the main field.  I was packing my stuff to leave the stand when I saw something step onto the driveway from the right side.  It was a very large bodied buck with a very high rack.  It was too dark to make out other details but he had his nose up and went off in pursuit of the does in the main field.

 One camera said it had 170 shots but the card was empty - go figure.

 They are definitely moving right now.

 This is the one-sided buck.  I am convinced it was the mutant and it's forked side has broken off.

Good body on a little buck.

 The spike that I saw was twice as long as this one.

Poop of the week - raccoon?

 Several good coyote shots.

 Doe movement at this time of year is usually followed by a buck.

 Last Monday I toured with the Regional Biologist from the NWTF.  He's going to make some habitat recommendations.  Harvesting some timber to stimulate undergrowth seems to be #1.

 Great weekend weather wise.

I think that I fixed two of the 3 malfunctioning cameras - we'll see next week.  I'm seeing bucks live that I haven't seen on camera.