Prime Time - They Are Chasing

I've had a couple evenings in stand while I did chores during the day.  It is obvious that the rut is heating up.  On a couple of occasions in mid-day, I've had does come running out of the woods at full speed being chased by young and amorous bucks. And my sits all had some exciting activity.

On my way into my stand the first night I discovered this raccoon latrine just outside my stand door. Why do they do this up here?

Almost as soon as I got settled, I had this young buck come cruising looking for love. Here's a video. Cruising

It was a beautiful evening but really quite windy. 15 to 20 mph.

Eventually a couple does came out.

And they were chased by this buck.

He could use another year (at least).

I enjoyed the activity and then just spent the next day on chores.

There had obviously been somebody tied up in the electric fence around the orchard.  It took some time to get the wire back up, all of the grounds cleared, the weeds whacked under the wire, and the power back on.

I checked the cameras and encountered sign like this all over the place.  Several cameras were dead and needed batteries.

Next I moved on to checking the hunting stand conditions.  I found the chair in this one pretty well eaten up.

It wasn't hard to see where the fabric went.  A mouse nest.  I trimmed shooting lanes from some of the stands. I also ran some machines and got some bush-hogging done.

The next night the winds were almost dead calm.  I decided to go to the driveway stand.  I had a young buck in cruise mode come by several times. Some video. Buck On The Make

Two does hung out the whole time.  I later got a close enough look to see that they were button bucks. That's why they weren't attracting much attention.

The same (or a similar) buck came back later.  Thru the binos, I saw several does and mature bucks up in the main field near last light.  I had chosen the wrong stand. More Cruising

The mornings were gorgeous but I didn't get out to hunt them.  I plan to get more stand time over the next two weeks.

We had been traveling for a few weeks so the cameras had a lot of activity on them.  Here's some of the highlights starting with the activity at a mock scrape/licking branch that I set up.

It is sort of a message post where everyone leaves a little scent to say "I've been here".

This is the buck that Dusty shot on a neighboring property. Split G-2.

Of course, the bucks were on the make in other spots too.

Chasing.

Sniffing.

The does seem to hang out in groups.

I always enjoy it when the turkeys and the deer mix it up a bit.

Plenty of turkey activity too.

Some interesting bird captures.

The bobcat photos are often low quality for some reason.

A fox.

And the usual coyotes/

It's pretty much prime time right now for the rut.  More time in stand is the order of the day.