winter patterns

[Steve Bartylla]

Dipper, 100% correct that white cedar swamps can be ideal yarding areas, as they produce both thermal cover and food (I read some study stating the white cedar is the only woody browse deer can eat exclusively all winter long, without suffering ill effects from it...Sure, they can and do survive on other browses, but they must combine other browse species to not suffer ill effects, where as they don't have to with white cedar). One problem is that white cedars often aren't located where they are accessible to deer. Another problem is that they are being logged off and/or maturing past the point of ideal cover much faster than they are being replaced. Yes, white cedar falls, but in deer yards the rate of falling often doesn't keep up with the demand from deer packed in these cedar swamps. That's another area where being overly mature hurts, as the reachable branches have typically been browsed clean and scraps are all the yarding deer can hope for. Several northern wildlife biologists have been sounding alarms about this for many years, now. You are lucky, in that you have a good amount of cedar swamps in your area of the state. Most of the state does not.

In the area of N WI I grew up, you couldn't find a cedar swamp if your life depended on it. There, the traditional yarding areas I studied/scouted were either groves of pines/spruce or valleys sheltered from the winds. You could go to any of them and, by Feb, walk through, see a couple hundred deer and never have one run more than a couple bounds from you, but the standing cornfields not near them would be void of tracks. In areas like that, I've personally never been able to get deer to stay over normal-bad winters with just corn. That's also been the experience of other's I've spoke to about this (being a N WI boy, yarding has always fascinated me).

In your area and points south, my experiences play out exactly as you describe. I couldn't agree more with what 10 acres of corn will do in those settings. That said, that just hasn't been my experience at all in areas void of thermal cover in the areas further north during bad winters. I've learned that lesson the hard way more times than I'd care to admit.

 

[bueller]

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

I agree with much of what you are saying. I'm definitely not trying to pattern the current winter movements of the deer for use during the fall hunting seasons. Its more of a curiosity thing with having a new property right now and trying to figure out how and why the deer are using the property at all times of year. I've never had much winter activity on the old place so this whole winter pattern is fairly new to me. As I posted recently in another thread regarding deer yarding, yes I am not in a traditional yarding area but the deer here without a doubt travel about in larger groups during the winter than they do the rest of the year. And yes food is the driving factor along with the cold and snow concentrating them very near the available food sources.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

On one of my pieces of land it used to be virtually deserted in the winter. No tracks or nothing. They were all across the street in very similar cover but a much larger piece of woods. Now after planting acres upon acres of food for them it is the exact opposite. I easily winter 40 plus deer in that pice of land. Counting the neighbors land it is about 160 acres total. Then come spring a good chunk of them leave but are back come the next October to tear up all the crops.

 

[BJE80]

On one of my pieces of land it used to be virtually deserted in the winter. No tracks or nothing. They were all across the street in very similar cover but a much larger piece of woods. Now after planting acres upon acres of food for them it is the exact opposite. I easily winter 40 plus deer in that pice of land. Counting the neighbors land it is about 160 acres total. Then come spring a good chunk of them leave but are back come the next October to tear up all the crops.

How many acres of food did it take before it made a significant difference?

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

I have not run any trail cams in over 6 years. Going to get a bunch this spring and take a much closer look on what I have and how much they are moving between pieces of land. Also curious how many young Bucks come back to live at my place in the winter only. This spring we had sheds from 9 different bucks in one of my plots. Yet only shot 1 buck that could have been from that group.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Probably all started to turn for the better with about 2 to 3 acres of crops. There is virtually zero af activity except for hay in my area. I now plant about 14 acres for wildlife. There is NOTHING left in the spring.