What do deer tracks in snow tell you?

nrowles

5 year old buck +
I am going to try and understand my new property a bit better before I make any habitat improvements. I know that deer movements may change with the time of year due to food, weather and etc. Over the winter I am going to take some regular walks and document new tracks in the snow. What do these tracks tend to tell you? This may just have an obvious answer but I'm going to ask anyways.

I went for a walk today. It snowed Friday night. There are tracks everywhere but I'm not exactly sure what they may mean (if anything other than simply deer moved from point A to point B). One thing I can say about these tracks is they kept moving and did not bed down anywhere. I have very little food source so they were just moving through. This is only 36 hours worth of movement but that's what I saw.

In the spring I will get some cameras out in the hotspots I see with winter tracks and see what pics I get.
 
I guess a question I would have is do you expect deer paths during the winter seen in the snow would be the same trails they would use the rest of the year? I would think it is definately a great starting point.
 
It really depends on your environment. When I lived in central PA, many deer trails looked like cattle paths. When I started hunting in more rolling terrain in VA, I couldn't find a deer trail at first. Here deer tend to meander rather than sticking to a specific trail. Where I lived in PA, it was more a matter of which trails were being used when seasonally. Where I hunt here, deer movements seem much more dynamic related to food source changes. Where I lived in PA, blocks of similar habitat were large. Basically for most of the year, deer would bed on the mountain hillsides and move down to the agriculture fields in the valley to feed. Except when acorns kept them in the hardwoods, this was a fairly constant pattern. Here in the more rolling area of VA, bedding locations change more seasonally as well as food sources.

Thanks,

jack
 
When you are on your walks, document the rubs and scrapes that you can see. They reflect fall movement patterns. Deer trails connecting these rubs will probably be of value.
 
In AG country, many of the trails are seasonal. I have trails beat down to the dirt leading out into fields. Much of it is summer traffic. In big timber areas, I think the travel routes are more constant year around.
 
I guess a question I would have is do you expect deer paths during the winter seen in the snow would be the same trails they would use the rest of the year?

In the Northeast...no. Now look, I know nothing about deer behavior or deer habitat in PA. Do the deer "yard up" in PA? Here in my neck of the woods deer have quite obvious winter range...dense spruce and fir stands where the snow is usually half as deep as the open hardwoods. If the snow is deep enough in a give winter the deer will leave the mountain I live on in December and I won't see them again until April.

Up here tall open pine and spruce stands are deer deserts....dark and shady with no understory. When I read your habitat post I thought just that...a deer desert. I wonder if the deer are yarding up in your pine? One inch of snow is hardly enough to cause them to seek such habitat. Put some cameras out. Take a year or two to understand how the deer are using your land already before you go and cut anything...."look before you leap."
 
I have standing soy beans and corn. Trails in the snow tell me the routes that the deer are taking to my food plots and from which direction they are coming. The deer tend to yard up either on or not far from my land due to the food available. I was quite surprised to find major trails that I do not see used other times of the year. I also drive my Kubota around the land to bust in trails so the deer can have a easier way of walking through the snow. It is all part of my plan to get my deer through the Wisconsin winter in good shape.
 
Deer tracks in the snow late season tell me you ain't in a dead zone.
 
In winter in my area I use the obvious tracks to figure out the preferred travel routes. So when there isn't snow during the hunting season and I notice subtle sign that they are using one trail more than another I know exactly what they are doing. I also like to follow the tracks back and find exactly which spots they prefer to bed. That way when they move into a pattern in the fall I have a good idea where exactly they start and end up.
If I have an idea exactly which knob they are laying on I can try and get as close as possible without alerting them. With pressured deer this helps me. Winter scouting really pays off for me.
 
I am going to try and understand my new property a bit better before I make any habitat improvements. I know that deer movements may change with the time of year due to food, weather and etc. Over the winter I am going to take some regular walks and document new tracks in the snow. What do these tracks tend to tell you? This may just have an obvious answer but I'm going to ask anyways.

I went for a walk today. It snowed Friday night. There are tracks everywhere but I'm not exactly sure what they may mean (if anything other than simply deer moved from point A to point B). One thing I can say about these tracks is they kept moving and did not bed down anywhere. I have very little food source so they were just moving through. This is only 36 hours worth of movement but that's what I saw.

In the spring I will get some cameras out in the hotspots I see with winter tracks and see what pics I get.

Are you in an area that baits? Do you bait?

Absent baiting the tracks will tell you about activity and movement.

As early spring approaches and snow is gone, you can see heavy trail activity ...
 
I'm not exactly sure what yarding up means, but their tracks in the snow are pretty direct. No much circling or meandering around. No bedding that I noticed. This is only 2 days worth of tracks so I don't have much data to go off. I will be documenting tracks over the winter. Unfortunately the bordering properties are no trespassing, so I can't follow the tracks very far.

As for baiting, I don't know what my neighbors do. I don't bait. Only thing I do is put some minerals out late summer to get some pics.
 
I'm not exactly sure what yarding up means, but their tracks in the snow are pretty direct. No much circling or meandering around. No bedding that I noticed. This is only 2 days worth of tracks so I don't have much data to go off. I will be documenting tracks over the winter. Unfortunately the bordering properties are no trespassing, so I can't follow the tracks very far.

As for baiting, I don't know what my neighbors do. I don't bait. Only thing I do is put some minerals out late summer to get some pics.

Deer don't yard in central PA. Minerals will be a waste of money. It is the salt in mineral supplements that attract deer for pics. The salt itself will be less expensive and just as effective.
 
Natty, post #6 - As a life-long hunter of the mountains of N.C. Pa. - deer don't yard up somewhere and stay there for the winter. They will seek shelter from snow and sleet in pines, spruce stands and hemlocks, but usually only for the duration of a given storm. They may stay in those areas for a few days - for drier bedding - but they'll move out and around looking for food, wherever that takes them. We definitely don't get the hard winters we used to get when I was a kid growing up in the northern tier counties of Pa. Short of a heavy ice and thick crusted snow event, deer have it easier than years ago. When we get snow , it doesn't usually last.

I've seen deer yards in Maine, where the deer more or less migrate and hang out all winter. Chummer sounds like he has the same " migration " off the Tug Hill in northern N.Y. You guys further north seem to have the " yarding " tendency in your deer.

Nrowles - Tracks in the snow now at least show you have some deer in your immediate area. That's good. Deer can alter their movements depending on available food sources. What patterns you see now, in winter, can change with spring green-up and ag activity as crops push growth. Trail cams would be a good way to figure out their patterns and see how they change - if at all - as spring nears. If your neighbor has soybeans or corn still standing, deer may be passing through your land to get to & from those food sources. Not a bad hunting set-up, being in between bedding and food source.
 
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Thanks Bowsnbucks. Interesting to learn about regional variations. Chummer and I do have a very similar thing going on...though I think he has it worse! :D

Nrowles....somebody mentioned it earlier but the fact that you have deer tracks on your property means it isn't a deer desert. You'll have a lot of fun learning why and when they are using your land. Then use that info to implement your habitat management plan.
 
I'm sure these tracks tell a story, but I'm not sure what it is.

 
I'm sure these tracks tell a story, but I'm not sure what it is.



Tells me its cold as all hell and they are moving around to stay warm!
 
I'm sure these tracks tell a story, but I'm not sure what it is.


They look confused. LOL.
 
Tells me its cold as all hell and they are moving around to stay warm!

That is true, -19 was the low after Saturdays nights snow storm, and Sundays high was -4.
 
I LOVE a fresh snow after seasons are closed. This is the best time to see what the surviving deer are doing. This tells me the routes they are taking - where they are entering my property and where they are leaving (helps me guess where they are bedding and feeding beyond my property). It tells me where they are bedding, feeding and often find rubs and scrapes as well. These are all pieces of the puzzle. You simply need to figure out how it's all related. I even often get access to neighbors properties at this time to simply look and see. The more you understand how the deer use your property the better. The only real shift I see is an increased use of south facing slopes for bedding in the winter or more use of thermal cover if they can find it.
 
Thanks Bowsnbucks. Interesting to learn about regional variations. Chummer and I do have a very similar thing going on...though I think he has it worse! :D

Nrowles....somebody mentioned it earlier but the fact that you have deer tracks on your property means it isn't a deer desert. You'll have a lot of fun learning why and when they are using your land. Then use that info to implement your habitat management plan.
Only by 200" of snow! Deer that don't migrate here, die. If they don't starve they get hit by a snow plow because they can't get over the snow bank. Some do make it but I wish they would all leave on Thnaksgiving. Tracks in snow are a great motivator if you are in season. I am not sure what they are worth unless you can follow them to a food source to target or duplicate.
 
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