Bio Clock Is Ticking - Nature's Cycle

It's almost Halloween and the leaves have turned.  The season change is underway.  For deer, that means the breeding cycle (the rut) is starting to kick in.  The science shows that the deer sense the change in the day length and hormone changes start to occur.  That changes behavior in a number of ways.

I've hung a number of "licking branches" and tried to make "false scrapes".  These are places where deer, and bucks in particular, like to show their presence and mark territory,  They rub on the branches to deposit scent from their glands and often urinate under the branches.  It's supposed to be a dominance ritual and means of social communication.  Everybody comes by, takes a sniff and leaves their own calling card.

I've had several branches on this setup just get murdered.  Completely broken off and thrown to the ground.  Here I've just installed a new cedar branch - we'll see if it survives.  This structure also became popular with the birds - more on that later.

And rubbing trees in general also intensifies as the rut approaches.  Here's a sampling of some rubs that I saw on a walk this weekend

So, in addition to the rubbing and marking, the bucks start to spar.  This becomes more and more intense as the rut approaches.  It is another way of establishing dominance and pecking order for breeding rights.  They lock horns and push and shove until one gives up.

Sometimes there's casualties.  Broken antlers happen along with other injuries including stab wounds and lost eyes.  This young buck appears to have lost one antler already.  Hopefully it will come back next year.

Even mature, dominant bucks get injured,  Below is a nice 10 point in September.  He's not real wide but has nice tine length and mass.  A month later his neck is huge from fighting and his left antler is broken off halfway down.  Hopefully he will survive this season and be even bigger next year,

They eat and put on weight leading up to the rut.  Once the rut is in full swing, the bucks are so crazed about mating, the don't eat much and run around like crazy.  They can lose 25% of their body weight in about a month.  Below is a brassica field that they've been hitting pretty hard.

Not only have they been eating the greens, they've started to eat the turnip bulbs too,

Persimmons, apples, pears and other soft mast are huge favorites at this time of year.

And they start showing up anywhere at any time of day.  Especially the young ones who haven't really been thru this before.  They're looking to get lucky while the big boys aren't watching.

On my walk, I checked out the neighbors ag field.  He had it in soybeans this year and it has been harvested.  That's a food source that has gone away.

That just makes the clover and brassica in the food plots more attractive.

Some of the maples have already finished and dropped their leaves.

The oaks are at peak at the moment.  The acorns are another preferred food at this time of year - especially the white oak acorns.

I got lighted knock bolts last year for Christmas and never broke them out.  I did so this weekend and made sure that they shot the same as the regular ones.

They did,  And I eventually figured out how to turn the LED back off.

I spent Saturday night in stand with a bunch of wasps.  It was a beautiful night.

I had a visit from six does but never saw a buck.

Sunrise Sunday morning was gorgeous.

I got the pumpkin patch cleaned up for the year.  Tape down and weeds mowed. 

I also dusted off the 45-70 and checked it's zero.  Not long till gun week.

After the first two shots on the left, I moved two MOA to the right and the next two shots were good enough.  Those 325 grain bullets are lethal anywhere close to the boiler room.

A bright tree on my walk.

I mentioned that the mock scrape attracted some bird attention

There were lots of shots of various raptors perching on it.

I believe that this is a small owl.

And apparently pouncing nearby.

Raptors hunting elsewhere too.

Not sure what this flock is or what got them moving.

And then our resident ground birds.

Coyotes as usual.

Interesting shot of a coyote getting its picture taken by a different camera.

And the fox.

Keeping the salt blocks restocked.

The next two weeks should be the frenzied period for the rut.  I hope to hunt at least some of it if work allows.

Super Stairs, More on Elk Hunt, Farm in Fall

As reported previously, I went thru a stair on the pond stand and almost went for a wild ride.  After design consultations with Van, he and Donnie set their mind to an improved structure.

And they outdid themselves.  The new setup is awesome.

They even used shingles on the stair treads to make them nonslip.

The old structure is ready to be burned.

Fall is upon us at the farm.  The maples are turning.

The asters are blooming.

And the hunting stands need cleared of wasps.

Joan and Daisy enjoy a Ranger ride.

Last weekend, I tried to help my lost foodplot.  I was in Scheels in Springfield IL and made an impulse buy of this seed.  It's winter wheat, rye, oats and peas.  I thought I'd just over-seed the lousy plot and see if anything comes up.

It hasn't rained in weeks and there's none in the forecast.  It was probably wasted effort.

Last weekend I hunted the pond stand and on the way out, I saw turkeys.

It was a pleasant night in stand with a visit from several does.

I was waiting for a buck and didn't take any shots.

Based on camera activity, I chose to try the driveway stand this week.  There seems to be a lot of activity in the brassica.

It's a little spotty but has come in in a big way.

My first customers were a doe and fawn,  The fawn almost disappeared in the big leaves. Video of first customers  Video of grazing

My next customers were a doe and twin fawns from the other direction. Video of twins arrival

Eventually, the one doe worked around to where she got a little whiff of me.  Busted.  Video of busted alarm

The others then got nervous too.

I did see a couple more does later but no bucks made an appearance.

On the trailcams, I had several weeks of activity.  Let's start with the varmints. Fox.

Bobcat - I think these are two different ones (male and female?).

Coyotes.

Lots of turkeys all over the place.  You can tell it's not turkey season.

Of course, the deer were out in impressive numbers too.

And the bucks are sparing already.

There's been a one-sided buck around.  Doesn't appear to be broken off.  Injury to pedicle?

Some activity at the licking branches that I hung,

I had a block out for awhile.

Here I am working on hanging the licking branch.

My friend Jim was in Chama NM a week ahead of me,  He was with Bob and Bill at the Lodge at Chama. Lodge at Chama  It's a really high-end hunting experience with 4 star lodge, gourmet meals, and high fence hunting.  All three hunters took elk in excess of 400".  Take a look at this beast that Jim got.

On my hunt in a different part of Chama, Junior (hunter from TN) kindly gave me some of his chestnuts with some instructions on how to germinate them.  They are currently in my beer fridge.

I forgot to put the OnX maps in the elk hunting post.  This one shows most of the areas that we hunted with some pins dropped where my elk went down etc.

This one shows the drive in from Chama across the Chama Land and Cattle property.

And finally, I found a rainbow on a trailcam.