My season has been a bit freaky this year, the 21st had a high of 81. Thanksgiving day the high was 31 and we had 4" of snow on the ground. I've been scoping out a nice large doe for a few days now and as soon as the temp. dropped she went nocturnal. Yesterday the snow all melted off so this A.M. I was in the blind an hour before sunrise and it was raining, which turned to sleet, which turned to snow in a matter of less than an hr. I didn't see a thing all day and it warmed up and melted the snow off but it drizzled all day. I'm hoping for the weather to stabilize soon so maybe the deer and turkey will start coming back around. Here's a couple of pics from the deer blind at around 7:45 this morning:
Thanks Ox, we still have over a month (ends Jan. 3 or 4-I'll have to ck.), so there's still a chance. The field to the right (east) of the fence has a large flock of turkeys that have been feeding like clockwork about 400 yds from the blind every day. Just like "my" doe, they disappeared the day the snow hit. FWIW, there's a feeder just to the left of the fence along the back tree-line. The deer usually jump the fence into the field to the right and then cross over to the feeder but they can also jump into either field. It's 185 yds. from the field to the feeder which is just visible in the corner to the left of the telephone poles in the back corner.
I went all deer season without seeing a single deer. They were coming out at night. Every morning, prints were left all around where I sit...and all around the 100 yards around me.
It was wet and cold all season (average of about 25° F), but for some reason their normal moving patterns were all messed up, and instead of crossing at dawn and dusk, they were crossing at 8pm and 3am.
Oh well. There's always next year.
This next weekend I am muzzle load hunting for deer and it's predicted to be in the single digits for a low, which should be good for getting the deer moving, but I can't honestly say I am looking forward to it.
Hang in there bud. That's a good looking fence row.
Yeah, I should've been more productive and cleared out more cockleburrs and tumbleweeds, but they provide a bit more cover. It'll help if the guy who has the west(left) field leased, will strip all of that cotton so I can move the feeder out a bit farther. This corner has been very productive for several years including a buck year before last that placed second in a county-wide big-buck contest. He was a 13 pointer with and inside spread of almost 24" and both bases were over 6" in circumference.
