Seen any deer?

So the trend has been fairly universal over the first 2+ weeks - where are all the deer?

Prior to the season opening, a camera survey was run at Westmoreland to capture photos of deer for a population survey.  While the data has yet to be calculated, the number of photos captured on each camera suggested that there are a lot of deer around here.  But since the start of the hunting season, the deer have seemed to vanish for most of us.

There are plenty of theories as to why the deer have seemed to vanish and where they may have gone.  Speculation aside, its fairly obvious that something has happened to the typical pattern and expected routine we may all be used to.

Until this past Sunday, the mystery of the deer had continued to deepen around here.  Not only are hunters not seeing the same number of deer, but there is very little sign of deer activity in most portions of the forest.  Few foot prints, very little scat, and even fewer scrapes and rubs.

I'm excited to write now that some of this seems to be changing back to normal.  There are scrapes in their typical locations along the edges of our trails here at Westmoreland.  The number of fresh piles of scat are becoming plentiful underfoot, as are the number of footprints.  The number of deer sightings by myself and Steve (Westmoreland's Director) have increased in the past few days as well.

The curious thing about most of the deer sightings is that we're seeing most deer in the late mornings and afternoons.  Just today, I was out clearing trails and spotted one female around 1:30pm.  A few hours later around 3:30pm, I spotted 2 females casually walking through the forest in a separate location.

So I'm wondering if deer are adapting to the usual morning hour pressure during hunting season.  Perhaps they've changed their routines to move and forage later in the day when hunters are more likely to be out of the woods.

So what do you say?  Have a theory or an answer to the mystery we've been experiencing?  Share your point of view in the comments below.

Good Hunting,

Adam Zorn, Naturalist
Westmoreland Sanctuary