Insight into deer patterns

[Eship]

So I have noticed a drastic difference in buck behavior specifically between last year and this year. This difference that I describe has been consistent across my personal private property, the public land that I hunt regularly, and completely unhunted private land within the city/suburbs that I work at (which is 65acres, roughly half is wooded). Last year, from early in August up thorough the end of October I was seeing bucks out in the morning up until about 10am. This includes all the way from them being in bachelor groups in the yard on a daily basis to having 6 large bucks in the field near my house fighting it out at the end of October, specifically Oct 21st in that last example. On public I saw multiple bucks during daylight, although none were shooters, and at my work, it was common to see massive bucks in the woods right next to parking lots during the day throughout the season. This last one you’d expect to be consistent with this year since they are unpressured city deer, but that has not been the case.

Oddly enough, I haven’t seen a single buck at my work this year despite there being no hunting. On my private land, we have not seen a single buck all year. You’d think maybe there are no bucks traveling through, but we have at least 13 different bucks on my trail camera in just the last two weeks (I didn’t have the camera up before than). Of all of the photos we have of this 13 different bucks, there were only three individual instances in which a buck was seen during shooting light. That vast majority of the photos were taken between 830pm and 330am. I should add that no one has hunted my property or even scouted it this year since we are keeping it off limits until the rut. So the bucks are around, just not at all during the day.


So really, I’m trying to figure out what would have caused the bucks all across my state (MD) to have been out so much during the day last year and this year they seem to be nonexistent, and as far as my trail cameras are concerned, only active at night. Any thoughts? Only major changes around my house is that my neighbor planted spy instead of corn this year. There were no changes around my work or the public land I hunt.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I think it is likely that they are facing some pressure from something or someone. I don’t know what or who your cameras cover, but is it possible that someone is poaching during early bow season? Are there more coyotes around? Did one of your neighbors set up feeders?

I also think it is likely that you don’t have enough data to really determine the baseline.

 

[Eship]

I think it is likely that they are facing some pressure from something or someone. I don’t know what or who your cameras cover, but is it possible that someone is poaching during early bow season? Are there more coyotes around? Did one of your neighbors set up feeders?

I also think it is likely that you don’t have enough data to really determine the baseline.

Unlikely anyone poaching. I only have 18 acres on my property and we don’t have any sketchy neighbors and there is no access to it without going through a lot of other farms. We know our neighbors well. The neighbors that do hunt are almost all rifle only guys. I’ve actually heard fewer coyotes this year than last year. I had seen some last year, haven’t seen any this year. It’s possible a neighbor may have set up a feeder that I’m unaware of. I also agree I don’t have enough data for a baseline, especially since this is the first year I’ve put up trail cams.

What I can say, is that I’ve lived on this farm for 21 of the last 25 years, and what’s going on this year with the bucks mostly being unseen during the day is actually the normal, and last years behavior was abnormal. I just don’t know why they were out so much early and during the day last season.

As far as the private where I work, it is quite literally in the middle of the city and I don’t think anyone in this area of Baltimore is out hunting. It’s possible someone is out poaching, but it’s just odd to me that these patterns are occurring within the same year in three different places that are all a good distance apart and with varied hunting access from basically unrestricted on the public, to restricted at my property/house, to off limits at my work.

 

[Rich M]

I'm seeing the same with deer in general. Was a vacant house that got purchased and folks moved in - seems like that's what happened.

Today it seems like I had more daylight deer than the entire fall put together. Crazy stuff.

 

[Eship]

I'm seeing the same with deer in general. Was a vacant house that got purchased and folks moved in - seems like that's what happened.

Today it seems like I had more daylight deer than the entire fall put together. Crazy stuff.

That’s good news. I’ll be going out in the woods at my house for the first time to actually hunt all year next week. Hopefully they’re running around with the rut and I get some good opportunities

 

[brancher147]

Acorns

 

[insanelupus]

I've spent a lot of years, time, and effort trying to figure out the "why" of behaviors and trends when it comes to critters and hunting them.

I've found it far more productive to simply identify the behaviors/trends/habits and then what I need to do to capitalize on those behaviors/trends/ habits. In doing so, what they tend to do currently and historically has helped me develop plan A through Z type strategies.

I get the why question. I've wrestled it for years. Still do. But the fact of the matter is that regardless of the answer I come up with, it will always be my interpretation of the reasoning of an animal who cannot communicate thoughts similar to my thoughts, in the same manner. So my reason for why, will rarely be correct.

Their every day is survival, and even humans in survival situations don't always follow suit with a set why/ because mentality. Stress, anxiety, and fear can severely disrupt ordered thinking.

But the facts developed from observations develops data points by which reasonable plans can be made with better odds of success, with time. If plan A fails, go to plan B. But again, it requires time.

And I think we, or at least I, have used the why question to try and shorten the time investment . If I can understand the why, I'll know what they are going to do next.

After many decades, I'm learning, nope. Just use the observations, build my plan off current/recent behavior, and play the odds of the most recent and highest volume of behavior dictating the odds of what they will do next and make my plan to intercept them to fill my tag. If that fails, go back to historical data sets and consistencies of behavior and roll the next plan.

But again, takes time. The why is a fun game to play, for sure. But the longer I live, it seems the only certain answer to why generated, is the why in relation to me. Any answer I try to develop independantly as to why for anyone or anything else, without their input, is rarely correct.

 

[journeyman713]

There’s a lot of variables that go into making deer do what they do, not the least of which is weather. How much hiking around would you want to do on a warm day, if all you had to wear was a winter coat?

Seems to me, by this time last year, I had broken into my cold weather gear more than a few times. This year, it hasn’t left the hanger yet.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Acorns

There may be something to this. I don’t know how the food looks in the OP’s area. On my farm, the deer are lower down whenever the acorns are bad. That means I see them in the pastures a lot more often.

 

[Eship]

There’s a lot of variables that go into making deer do what they do, not the least of which is weather. How much hiking around would you want to do on a warm day, if all you had to wear was a winter coat?

Seems to me, by this time last year, I had broken into my cold weather gear more than a few times. This year, it hasn’t left the hanger yet.

Oddly enough, I’d say the opposite for where I’m at. Last year was a very hot year. This year has been cool since August. So that doesn’t seem to explain them daylighting so much last year. Data also suggests this with August in Maryland 2024 averaging 81 degrees and in 2025 it was 78 degrees. The temp in Sept for 2024 and 2025 was the same.

I agree temperature has some effect, but I don’t believe it was the driving factor between last year and this year

 

[Eship]

There may be something to this. I don’t know how the food looks in the OP’s area. On my farm, the deer are lower down whenever the acorns are bad. That means I see them in the pastures a lot more often.

Last year seemed to be a good acorn harvest. This year doesn’t seem different, but I don’t have any measurable data to prove or disprove this, so it could be a major factor.