Too bad I've been gone most of the day with Dubs and Jeff beat me to it. I really wanted to one-up you again and tell you its crepuscular. (sp?)
Not sure of the pressure in your area but in mine. Not much pressure and I dont see many Mature bucks in the daylight or cam pics in day light time. BUT there there and I see em during the season
just got back from doing a lil spot and stalk pig hunting and i saw 14 deer and a ton of fawns running around and no group had more than 3 deer in each and when we go out spot lighting most of the time u get them up from bedding down in our johnson or bermuda grass fields
I can tell you from my trail cams that unless the rut is kicking in here i get no big bucks on daylight pics on my cams and i have two pieces of ground with almost zero hunting on them both have sanctuary's on them with large food plots. I feel big bucks are inherently lazy and can only think using there #enis as there alarm clock. It's like turning a page here nov1 thru the 10 anything can happen,all of a sudden it's like where did that come from? Tell you the truth the season opened here in mo the 15 and i still have not pulled my camo on. I have learned it's better to hunt during the rut and not burn out my funnels before the rut. besides if i killed a early season buck i would have to wait until next season to hunt the rut.
Been noticing more nocturnal movement here.I've wondered if they get harrassed all night long by coyotes and bed down in the day time when the yotes are least likely to be hunting.Just my thoughts.
So back on topic.......... :D (Although good discussion) Are deer becoming more nocturnal over the last 10 or so years in your area? Again, all factors included. Hunting and non hunting times of the year.
I guess I don't understand the question since deer are primarily (sp?) nocturnal. Understanding that fundamental behavior will help anyone become a better hunter. Period. It will inform the hunter what beds to look for.. what scrapes to hunt.. and how very little distance older deer will travel in daylight under normal circumstances. Because they are moving at much greater distances at night. Remember deer travel on trails primarily (sp?) by way of scent.. not sight. I guess what I'm saying is.. how is whether a deer is now more nocturnal than before gonna help you to become a better hunter other than giving an excuse. Simply knowing and accepting that they are nocturnal will make any hunter better at reading whats going on in his/her woods. Thus hunting what they already understand.
Your right I don't think you are quite understanding. I think you are still stuck on the hunting aspect which I've stated a few times that this is just deer and only. Everyone knows deer mostly move at night or in the evening. I've just noticed in my area it gets harder and harder and harder to catch sight of deer during daylight than in the past. It's been a slow transition. But if I think back to what I saw 10 years ago it was way different. And when I say my area I'm talking about ALL of SE Wisconsin. Probably 50 square miles. When I drive in the country I am always looking for deer in fields. It's just my nature. I can't help it. Well, all those years of observations have shown there are just less of them then in the past. I think Jeff Is right about Urban sprawl. I think there is some evolution to it by in this area hunters have been by far been the whitetails greatest predator for many years. Generations of generations may be causing the whitetail to be even MORE nocturnal and harder to locate in daylight. I'm not stating any of this as fact. I'm trying to promote discussion. I'm curios. Just asking a question. If you have not seen a difference in the last 10 years I would no be surprised. I'm just asking if anyone else has seen this trend.
Now I understand your discussion better. As far as seeing more or less.. I'd blame urban sprawl before more nocturnal behavior. I too travel much of southeastern Wisconsin and into northeastern Illinois... and in general.. there is A LOT less open land than there was 10 years ago.
To my point, I'm betting the deer you're not seeing from the road ARE in the fields not surrounded by them (roads).
Perhaps..... Hard to tell obviously. So they just got smarter in the last 10 years? Typically deer get used to cars and traffic. It typically takes something out of the norm to make them feel threatened to make a substantial change in behavior. Hard to imagine a major threat happened everywhere? I'm played these throughts through my mind and have not come up with a good enough reason yet. Again just saying.
Are you in an area that has CWD and has there been a thinning program in the area? Are the deer numbers in the area consistent over the last ten years or has there been a shift?
No I'm not in CWD. Unit 69, 77M and whatever Dodge County is (I forget). Those areas still have essentially the same numbers.
Brett and jmbuck hunt two distinctly different areas. Both hunt some urban areas and some big woods (Brett's big woods is thousands of acres). I'm betting there's a distinct difference in deer movement. What else could we attribute this to, other than urban sprawl? Just asking. My guess is big woods deer move earlier in the evenings and later in the mornings. I notice this even in the urban and less urban areas I hunt, here.
If urban deer move sooner in the evenings and later in the mornings than big woods deer (I agree) shouldn’t I be seeing more deer? Or are they just using different cover (I think likely). I think we are moving towards the position that habitat changes have changed deer behavior rather then simply only making them more nocturnal. Is that reasonable?
