^^^^^^ THAT looks really "deer-y" !! Those clusters of evergreens are perfect. Looks like areas I've hunted in Maine.
It's funny you mentioned setting up your property with lines of conifers to dictate / encourage deer travel. I'm doing that same thing at camp!!! My plantings have been based on what I saw on the other 2 acreages I mentioned above. Another "convincer" for me was while hunting another mountain hardwood acreage some years ago. I was on a stand overlooking a saddle between 2 ridges. Just after first light, I looked down into the saddle and saw about 8 deer coming up from farmland way down below in the valley. The woods was about 95% open, mature hardwoods - but I noticed where the deer were walking as they slowly worked their way up to their bedding locations on the other ridge. (They had NO IDEA I was watching them from higher ground). They walked from one evergreen to another (white pines and hemlocks) - like connect the dots. I wondered why they did that, but then looked at the whole woods. The open hardwoods were much more "LIT" by the oncoming daylight - but the evergreens were the only source of darker shadows for security. I locked that tidbit of info away and applied it to our camp property, along with what I saw on the 2 acreages I mentioned above.
I'm convinced that in many cases, we can "steer" deer travel if we plant conifers as "walkways" of shadowy security. Sandbur's info cemented what I've seen on my own - now YOU are saying the same thing!!!