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Saw 3 does, a spike and I'm guessing a small eight walking behind a doe. They both seemed disinterested.

Sunday PM: sat another trail I knew was fresh the week prior that does use to get to bedding areas. Lots of fresh tracks in the new snow. Saw 6 deer, two forkhorns cruising through, two does with no bucks chasing them, and at sunset saw a big bodied deer cruise through about 100yd out. While walking out in dark bumped a single big bodied deer that just trotted off a little and kept cruising, likely a decent buck as well.

Monday AM: Wind switch, decided to check an area I have killed deer but wind was wrong all season. ZERO deer sign in there, very disappointing. Eventually had a small 6pt come walking in creek water after he heard me crunching leaves, he popped up at 20yd to check me out. A couple other small bucks had been cruising the area, just single sets of tracks in the snow going random directions.

Then went to another parcel owned by the same person and found zero buckthorn there. Yippie. I did walk up to a bow hunter hunting in a tree on the property line looking at an unpicked cornfield. That must be hard to see anything much less get a shot. He waved, I gave him a thumbs up and walked away from him.

On the way back to Minnesota I almost hit a small buck near the Iowa woods we hunt. Then when I got home I almost hit a doe 100 yards from our driveway and almost got rear ended at the same time.

Buckthorn and other exotic invasive species crowd out native species. Once native genetics are gone, they are gone. Look above the canopy of buckthorn. Those trees will not last forever. Once gone, there had been NO native regeneration. No more timber, no more nuts for animals. All that is left is a sterile landscape that is susceptible to errosion. Seeing buckthorn for deer habitat is exactly what is wrong. It is a sign of very poor land management.

Those that let buckthorn take over will eventually be left with worthless property...but they will have a bedding area for deer. Want deer bedding, then let native prickly ash take over time he hillside.

Look beyond today, buckthorn is going to continue to damage the wooded areas. We owe it to our future to be good stewards of the land we own, work with neighbors to educate them, and volunteer on public lands to remove buckthorn. Will you eradicate it, no. However, making your property more diverse will help keep buckthorn at bay. You want to have great deer habitat, get rid of buckthorn and make sure you invest time in getting nut trees established.

Will spend all day Tuesday working on Deer rifles . Every year a bunch of busy people wait until the last minute to call with gun issues . Most are simple fixes .

Thanks for sharing. I'm not lying. I bet I have an averge of 10 trees per 15 square feet.

I equate it to eating an elephant one bite at a time. It can be done but must be done methodically. I wrote a magazine article on just that and it has guided many landowners to success.

For those who drive north to south, south to north in this great state in late fall...that will show you what it is looking like without buckthorn and with buckthorn. The difference is profound. If you are nearly buckthorn free, you will see why you need to stay that way. 50 years is all the time it took (most areas) to go from buckthorn-free to buckthorn infested. Euraisian milfoil of the woodkand!!

I got out for the last 4 hours today, perfect wind for my favorite stand. Watched 3 button bucks for over an hour within 30 yards the whole time. Had a 5 pointer come in and head for the button bucks, one of the little ones did not like the 5 point but then followed the 5 point when he walked to my left. Later had a 7 point come into range. At one point I did a can call because I thought I saw a buck but that got the button bucks to focus on me, I would have been toast if I had to raise the bow with the button bucks locked in on me. Then at sunset I had a spike and what I think was a doe come in. Just then I felt a brief shift in wind, as often happens at sunset, it blew toward the spike and he went running with the doe following him.

I should add, those button bucks were browsing most of the time they were by me. With buckthorn around me they were eating native stuff. Go figure. Take a drive east / west across Wisconsin on 21 this time of year and you will see how infested Wisconsin is. You can spot it easily at 55mph. Most DNR stations across Wisconsin have a good brochure that talks about BT and how to get rid of it.

http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2017/10/Buckthorn.PDF

We had Dutch elm disease take out a good piece of the property, and now those elms are replaced by buckthorn for the most part. It is so thick, I leave it for the deer to bed in. You called it. I have some old oaks, hickories, cherries, and walnuts in there, but very few young trees coming up to replace these monsters.

Once I got in my stand I could clearly see a large circle of tall grass had been matted down about 30 yards from my stand and camera. I climbed down to investigate and found a dead doe completely devoured except for the head and feet. Hair and bones scattered everywhere. No clue how it died, but something clearly found and had its way with it.

There have always been predators in the area and I always have deer movement, but I’m sure the carcass is why deer have avoided the area. Unfortunately that has always been my go to gun stand as well, may have to think about switching it up this year.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

It seems a little fishy. I do share the land with extended family. No one typically wanders out where I hunt, but with gun opener this weekend it's possible someone was scouting for a spot to sit. The only think I can think of is someone was out there recently and messed with the camera possibly clearing the pictures. I won't be out again until Saturday AM, so we'll see I guess!

The link should take you there. Lets continue buckthron discussion there.

I did watch 3 adult doe and 2 fawns running around on my lawn/apple orchard like kids at a playground as I was doing bowsite stuff. Fawns were doing most of the running.