Sunday ended the archery season for this year. It was chilly but sunny and calm on Saturday so I decided on one last sit. I sat in the main field because it was obvious that they were hitting the turnips. Extreme cold is supposed to move in soon so I thought it might be enough to get them moving.
Sure enough, with an hour of light left, 5 deer magically appeared in the field. On close examination, they all turned out to be bucks. There was a 10 point, an 8 point, two bucks that had already lost one side (4 points on each remaining antler), and one that had already shed both sides. The half-rack bucks looked fairly mature but the intact ones seemed young. They weren't much outside the ears and they didn't have a lot of mass.
Of the two half-racks, one of them had a stump remaining. He had clearly been broken off. It's not very exciting but here's a short video of them twitching their ears.
5 Buck Frolic They hung out at 60 yards for 20 minutes or so and then sort of oozed into the treeline. Ten minutes later, four of them came back.
They stayed about 50 yards munching until light was gone. They should all look better next year.
Sunset from the main stand.
I had several nice walks although it was pretty chilly. Here is the frog pond with a solid layer of ice.
The aerator keeps some open water on the big pond.
I love to see the tracks in the snow. You can get a sense of the traffic, the preferred routes, and what they're eating.
Elliott's trail seemed to be popular.
I've been told and have read that these "foot-dragging" tracks are the bucks.
There are a lot more high-steppers than foot-draggers.
I really couldn't figure out why this area was popular. They were digging in the snow under the maples but not under the oaks.
This is Tommy's trail - also lots of traffic. While I was out walking, I stopped and leaned against a tree to rest. I noticed some movement below and by the time I got the phone out, this was all that I could capture.
Doe moving
I also noticed the condition of my target stand. That telephone pole served me well for a number of years but it is about done.
I had propane delivered this week and I noticed on the cameras that he got stuck. There was snow on the driveway and there was freezing rain when he arrived. He swung around to back up and he got off the driveway and got stuck. He was pretty close to the porch post. Eventually he had to get a wrecker to pull him out.
He left some ruts in the yard but I was glad to get the propane - it was starting to run low and a severe cold snap is on the way.
One of the half-racks.
This might have been the 10 point that I saw.
Another half-rack.
I saw one doe over in the driveway field but there are certainly a lot of them out there somewhere.
And our usual 'yotes.
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