At times I have written about how hunters need to change how and where they hunt when conditions change that might move deer to other locations. Pennsylvania is an example that comes to mind that I have written about. About six years ago, the state mounted a campaign to reduce the deer population and bring it to a level experts believed were more friendly to the landscape, safer for the public and healthier for the deer. Some hunters have adjusted to this change while others remain ingrained in their old habits while hunting the same old haunts they have for years. Frustrated at not seeing as many deer, they want to blame the experts for decimating the deer herd.
It doesn’t take a whole lot of smarts to figure out that with each successive year things change in the woods. In talks around the kitchen table or at the local greasy spoon, hunters will tell yarn after yarn about the big one that got away. Often during those discussions, the notion that deer at creatures of habit rears its head. While I am one who does believe that deer are animals that seem to stick to similar routines, I also understand that certain circumstances can and will change those habits forcing deer to alter routines.
This year at my yearly hunting trip to Western Maine, I became witness to such an event. I have hunted at this one camp for over 30 years and have seen many changes. This year’s was quite dramatic.
There was a group of 9 of us who spent the entire week at camp and others, at times totaling as many as a dozen, also hit the woods there. In short, no deer were taken and only a quick glimpse was seen by only one or two hunters. I could just as easily come away from hunting camp declaring that the deer herd in Maine has been decimated because of my frustration. But that wouldn’t be fair or accurate as I quickly learned that things having to do with weather and habitat had sweeping affects on this year’s hunt.
First of all, Maine’s fall weather was mild to say the least. When I arrived in Maine, there were still a lot of leaves on the trees and in some cases those leaves were still green. My first morning in the woods and I realized there were virtually no signs of any kind of rutting activity – no pawings, scrapes or rubs. Of course we all know that the deer’s rut is triggered by the effects of natural light. As the days shorten, this triggers little signals within the deer letting them know it’s that time of year again.
I’m not a scientist but my logical thinking would tell me that if it is the reduced light or length of day that triggers the rut, then isn’t it reasonable to suggest that if the fall season was unusually bright and sunny, with very little rain or cloudy days, that this would at least slow down the start time of the rut? And if that were possible, then it would be conversely true with a lot of clouds, etc.
While the lack of any real activity from the rut reduced the likelihood of seeing deer, the one thing that I believed had the most influence on the hunt was the lack of any mast crops in the area where I hunted. I found no acorns or beechnuts. I was also unable to find what in particular the deer that were in our area were feeding on. It is my belief that they were just moving about browsing on whatever was available and not hanging out in areas where there was available food.
Once I arrived in Maine, all I heard from friends and family was about how many deer there were around this year. I soon discovered that the reason was because the deer were coming to the orchards to feed on apples and to open fields to feed on the green grasses, including clover and alfalfa. They were not staying deep in the forests.
Of course if I lived in Maine and hunted throughout the entire deer season, I would have been in a different position to change up how and where I hunted. Because I was more or less relegated to the hunting camp, I tried to make do with what I was presented with.
With all this said, I do believe there is nothing wrong with Maine’s deer population. I think it is healthy and well managed. I think some hunters will also be frustrated early on but things will change and if the hunters adapt their hunting tactics to better match those of the deer, their success rate will increase and their frustration level will subside.
Good luck to those for the rest of the season and I suggest you hunt the perimeters of the fields and orchards.
Tom Remington
