winter patterns

[bueller]

So I really haven't run trail cameras very much during the winter months but a couple weeks ago I put one out on my new place. I put the camera on a heavy trail where it crosses an ag ditch on one of my borders. 100 yards or so on the other side of the ditch there is a farm field. I expected to see deer leaving my place in the afternoon to feed in that field, and possibly coming back in the morning after feeding. Well after pulling the card this weekend here is what I found. Early morning, 1030 and earlier, was by far the most active time with groups of deer leaving my place. Very little afternoon activity in either direction and nothing after dark. Could they be going to eat that early in the morning during the recent below zero weather? Or was I wrong to assume they were bedding on my side and maybe they are bedding on the other side of the ditch? There is a farm field about 1/2 mile away on my side that they could be returning from. What do you guys see as mid-winter deer patterns?

 

[tooln]

Sorry but I don't see anything till spring. I'm working to change that.

 

[wklman]

My deer vacate the premises in the winter. I've had my cam out for 3 weeks and I've only got 3 pics with deer in them. A doe and a fawn. Not sure if it's a bad or good thing but they come back in greater numbers(10-15) in the spring and stay until the next winter hits.

 

[wiscwhip]

You have far more of those pivot irrigation fields near you than we had bueller. The deer on our old place holed-up in the woods south of our place and seldom came across the road after the creek froze over. Every once in a while, when we had a nice long warming trend, we would see some random tracks in our south food plot and down near the south bank of the creek. On the north side of the creek, it was basically devoid of deer for most of January thru early March. I think they all went the 3 or 4 miles north and west to the irrigated fields south of Necedah near the intersection of 58 and 80. I do agree with the mid morning movement though, in the many years I lived in that area, if the deer were moving during that time of year, it was right during the times you are seeing them as well. I couldn't tell you if they were going to feed or going to bed, but that is when I would see the majority of deer movement in that area during the dead of winter.

 

[bueller]

I suspect that these deer are bedding on or near my place as I was hoping they would be. My plan is to improve the bedding each year. My new place is between my pop's 40 and the nearest farms. The amount of deer activity in the winter on the new place is several times that of on my pop's, and I don't even have a food plot in yet. On the 16th at around 1030am I had a group of at least 8 deer cross the ditch going towards the farm. I haven't seen a group of 8 in years on pop's place. My feeling is the deer are not nocturnal right now like they are in the fall. Instead I believe they are bedding during the coldest time of day, overnight, and then getting up on their feet to go feed once the sun is up.

 

[wiscwhip]

I would totally agree with that assessment bueller. The closer proximity to those fields is what concentrates them near or on your place more so than on your dad's place. When it is below zero, the shorter distance they have to walk to feed the less energy they burn trying to get food and the more energy they can use to keep warm.

 

[bueller]

The proximity to the farms was a huge factor in me purchasing this place. I already have good bedding in place and as I improve it the huntability of the land should continue to increase. I know where they feed, the nearby farms. And if I can get them to consistently bed by me the trails in between should provide some very good opportunities. Running cams in the winter on pop's place was pretty much a waste of time, but its been fun here so far. The ditch with steep banks helps a lot as it creates some major funneling of the trails.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

in our coldest snowiest winters I see something similar to what you are describing. The deer bed as close as they can to the food sources and are more active during the warmest periods of the day. they pretty much hunker down to endure the bitter times of day/night.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

The proximity to the farms was a huge factor in me purchasing this place. I already have good bedding in place and as I improve it the huntability of the land should continue to increase. I know where they feed, the nearby farms. And if I can get them to consistently bed by me the trails in between should provide some very good opportunities. Running cams in the winter on pop's place was pretty much a waste of time, but its been fun here so far. The ditch with steep banks helps a lot as it creates some major funneling of the trails.

that creek crossing may even produce a shed or 2 for you!

 

[bueller]

that creek crossing may even produce a shed or 2 for you!

Especially if they hit the single strand of barb wire as they sneak underneath :D

 

[phil@thesidehill]

Especially if they hit the single strand of barb wire as they sneak underneath :D

yep....or if they give it a hop over the wire the force of the landing may shake 'em off.

 

[dipper]

Their stomachs dictate where the deer will be. You don't need what everyone calls thermal cover if you have the food. You won't have much consistent bedding if you don't have food. Food is the big one. It's real easy

 

[bueller]

Their stomachs dictate where the deer will be. You don't need what everyone calls thermal cover if you have the food. You won't have much consistent bedding if you don't have food. Food is the big one. It's real easy

The food is on the other side of the ditch on the neighbors property. My concern with the morning flow off my property is that the deer are bedding on the other side of the ditch where the farm is and using my place for transition only. But if this was the case then I should be seeing minimal deer activity but I'm not, so they must be bedding somewhere on my side fairly consistently. And anything I can do to keep that up and even increase the bedding is a priority of mine. The field I speak of is not visible from the road or I would check it out midday to see if the deer were already on it.

 

[bueller]

If the pattern I'm seeing now (deer leaving my place in the morning) holds true during the fall, then I will have to assume the deer are going elsewhere to bed. But being the middle of winter I think this morning exit route is actually taking them to food, not bedding.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Their stomachs dictate where the deer will be. You don't need what everyone calls thermal cover if you have the food. You won't have much consistent bedding if you don't have food. Food is the big one. It's real easy

That's pretty true of C WI and points south. Get above that imaginary line and it shifts more and more to thermal cover being the deciding factor. In fact, the further north you go the harder it is to get deer to stay on your ground over winter (assuming it's not a traditional yarding area), particularly during bad winters. You can often see that with cornfields that are left until spring. Even when located near decent cover, during winters with deep snow or nasty temps (Ozoga's studies in the UP found that snow depths actually inspired yarding more than temps), those fields not located near traditional yarding areas will often essentially go untouched.

I've tried many times to break that cycle. In the north, food alone will work fairly often on mild winters, but is most often a dismal failure on normal-bad winters. Even after thermal cover becomes established, it takes time to retrain the deer to winter on grounds that aren't traditional yarding areas. That's been my experience, at least.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

If the pattern I'm seeing now (deer leaving my place in the morning) holds true during the fall, then I will have to assume the deer are going elsewhere to bed. But being the middle of winter I think this morning exit route is actually taking them to food, not bedding.

Impossible to say for certain, but odds are the pattern won't hold. As you speculated and others noted, winter changes things. Add in a lack of hunting pressure this time of year and every advantage shifts to feeding during the warmer portions of the 24 hr cycle, without there being a downside. It seems that in some areas deer figure this out more than in others (really think it's a school of fish mentality....when a bunch of does start doing it and aren't suffering ill effects, then more does try it and then the bucks follow suit, sort of a snow ball effect). On several of my long term management grounds, you can see more deer on food sources during the winter during the day than you will an hour after dark, on the really cold days.

 

[bueller]

Impossible to say for certain, but odds are the pattern won't hold. As you speculated and others noted, winter changes things. Add in a lack of hunting pressure this time of year and every advantage shifts to feeding during the warmer portions of the 24 hr cycle, without there being a downside. It seems that in some areas deer figure this out more than in others (really think it's a school of fish mentality....when a bunch of does start doing it and aren't suffering ill effects, then more does try it and then the bucks follow suit, sort of a snow ball effect). On several of my long term management grounds, you can see more deer on food sources during the winter during the day than you will an hour after dark, on the really cold days.

I don't think the pattern will hold either and I sure hope it doesn't, although I'm 100% good with it during the winter. I suspect the same ditch crossing will be a hot spot in the late afternoon during the fall hunting seasons, rather than the morning hours now, with deer leaving my place for the food on the farm field.

I think you nailed it with the lack of hunting pressure and other disturbances "teaching" the deer that its OK to move and feed during the day in the winter here. From the bedding on my place they can get to the farm field without crossing any roads and without any human activity. And then once on the farm field they are still not visible from any roads or other human disturbances.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Don't have a good enough mental picture to say for sure, but it also sounds like that ditch crossing may be a really good first 30-60 mins of morning light stand, as well...Assuming you can slip in on your ground undetected. I'll be honest. When setting up properties, I focus more on creating low impact AM stands than PM stands. Though every property is different, finding/creating low impact PM stands is typically comparatively easy. It's the low impact AM stands that are most often tough to come by. My mental image may be off, but it sounds like you may have a good AM & PM location.

 

[bueller]

Don't have a good enough mental picture to say for sure, but it also sounds like that ditch crossing may be a really good first 30-60 mins of morning light stand, as well...Assuming you can slip in on your ground undetected. I'll be honest. When setting up properties, I focus more on creating low impact AM stands than PM stands. Though every property is different, finding/creating low impact PM stands is typically comparatively easy. It's the low impact AM stands that are most often tough to come by. My mental image may be off, but it sounds like you may have a good AM & PM location.

Well if they come across towards me in the morning at first light I will be in good shape. The crossings are on the northwest corner of my property while my house is on the southeast corner. So while I'd have to walk my perimeter trails the length of the property to get there, I could be setup and waiting before the deer are even back on my side.

 

[dipper]

Deer "yard" in cedar swamps, cedar swamps are food but also thermal cover. White cedar is constantly falling of the tree during winter, so it's alswAys accesssable. The food has to be reachable. If u had a 10 acre field of standing corn the deer will appear to yard up as well. If there is so called thermal cover or not. Deer can keep warm in -20 below as long as they have enough food.
I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish bueller, but trying to pattern deer now is of minimal use now for what they'll be doing hunting season. It's never a bad idea to always know how deer are using your property, just don't make concrete judgements from what your seeing now. My so called sanctuaries have more coyote than deer tracks in them now, but I know it will be completely different as the seasons change. Deer's fear of Humans is at an all time low of the year, to a certain extent they are a differant animal