Contributors to this thread:
Thoughts on what if any impact this late season snow / weather will have on deer moving out of their wintering pattern, will it push the fall rut pattern to the right farther into November or any other possible changes this year?
I don't believe it will change anything with the timing of the rut. The rut happens the same time every year. If it's too warm, you don't see the activity because it's at night.
Rut doesn't change, not weather related in my opinion, except for daytime movement due to heat
I plan on ruttin all year :D
It will have no impact on the timing of the rut. I do think that here in the north we are seeing some winterkill so fewer deer in some areas and racks may be smaller than normal.
Had a couple visitors today by the house picking on my blueberry bushes. They looked to be in decent shape.
That's a nice buck decoy what kind is it?
That’s actually a Glenndel buck archery target. But it’s had the stuffing knocked out of it several times by bucks in the fall.
I hope that report is the case Missouri, I was pretty pleased with the amount of deer I saw last deer season in Sawyer County.
I can't find any current info on WSI but the link has an earlier report. A lot of snow and cold hit since that report though. I am sure we will feel some hurt but not near 2013-14.
I was out all day today trying to figure turkeys out. We saw a LOT of deer feeding in fields at 11am-1pm. They are looking decent, albeit feeling the stress of this last snow. We need some temp soon as I believe more snow is coming Monday. Think spring!!!!
I walked a couple mile of C-N National Forest today. I saw lots of tracks, otter, fisher, coyote, mink, grouse,,,no new deer tracks or elk. The snow is deep except under the hemlock. Great day for walking. The deer must be yarded close to logging operations...and homes.
Is there a lot of logging up there
Went scouting at 8 am in big timber . 2 feet of snow in some places & - 2 degrees . Deer looked fine .
Last year on this date it was 58 degrees & I have a pic of grand daughter reeling in a Walleye in a tee shirt .
I bougjt 2 lbs of Onion sets Friday . The lady asked me what I was planning to do with them ? I said , " Throw them in a snowbank".
I stopped to talk to a consultant forester today. Perception of logging is bad with today's "urban" people. Tough to get forest management done...i.e National Forest.
It was quite a difference in critter tracks between managed parcel and National Forest. Not enough logging!
We have grown a couple generations since the "big cut" that allowed deer to populate. We need constant harvests now just to maintain deer. Deer population depend highly on timely harvests. This is many times why hunters don't see deer on the property any more, or sightings are down. Timber harvests will bring deer back.
I will add also, a bit about what a lot don't want to hear. Hunters want a lot of deer. Unfortunately, with the available deer habitat, we cannot sustain the high deer population. Just because the land is wooded does not necessarily equate to favorable deer habitat. This is clear why some areas are devoid of deer and other areas are overrun.
If every landowner managed for deer, yes, a higher population could sustain. However, the regeneration of trees is so poor now. Deer are limited on food sources because forest management is not happening at a rate commensurate with the current deer population. Without regeneration, the available habitat depletes further.
The deer population today is held artificially high. If hunters want more deer, they should be lobbying for more timber harvest. You can't just have more deer without affecting the balance. The answer is simple...create more suitable habitat so it spreads the deer out. Spreading deer out is a win-win for hunters.
Treefarm, good post but I am seeing an increase in marked trees on the Chequamegon. Mostly due to the Good Neighbor program. If they get cut, that remains to be seen. As for what is happening on County land , it varies by County. Sawyer seems to be active, Bayfield not so much.
My records for snow here in Seeley: 60.9 in 12/13 115.4 in 13/14 60.3 in 14/15 61.4 in 15/16 40.1 in 16/17 89.4 in 17/18
In 13/14 about 30" came after this date, April 9. Let's hope that doesn't happen this year.
Smokey I talked to a forester yesterday, and a wildlife biologist, at the DNR booth,,,,, they are all on board, with their young forest reforestation initiative with all state land, and said they have been working with the feds, and going as fast as they can.........
What was interesting coming from the forester, was the difference in thought, between some of them.... he said their is complaints, that in some areas, oak can not get started with too many deer,,, his thoughts were that oak was not a native or needed tree in some of the north anyway, that to kill deer above goal for that reason, was just serving someones self interest..............................
He said that the current practice needs to go faster,,,, for instance, with a limited cut, your really only creating a food plot for them, that they will quickly deplete, so there needs to be multiple cuts going on all the time,,,,,,,, He thought when it came to the NF, the NE side, was way ahead of the NW side, in habitat improvement......
He also agreed that MI, is really into habitat improvement, also
Smokey, I also found a lot of tagged area's in the C.N.F. for cutting bids, I assume anyway. They did a few cuts in the area's I hunt last year which was nice to see.
Ground hunter, I agree with him that the East side is ahead of the west side. I don't understand what is meant by NE vs NW though.
Bayfield County on an average cuts 4000 to 4300 acres each year.
I just think he was referring to the difference of east and west north of Hwy 8...... that's all
Ya that's ok, besides, it got my curiosity up so I placed a call to Jason Bodine (Administrator Foresty). Haven't talked with him in awhile.
Eau Claire weather guy says Friday is thunderstorms with possible flooding concerns followed on Saturday with some places seeing a foot of snow
The north can't get a break the way it looks. I am generally pretty optimistic, but that is wearing thin the way it sounds. It looks like they are figuring the brunt of the snow, 4 - 8 inches, is in the northern part of the state again. There has not been the warm sunny day's required to really burn that snow off. They are already talking of winter kill on smaller lakes. But, nothing you can do about it but hope it falls apart or drops South farther.
Projected snow totals from this weekends spring storm.
Still too far out to say for sure. This morning I heard a forecast saying it is likely to be a couple of inches here in the north since most of the moisture will be south of us. But like I say, too early to tell, the storm can shift in a day. Another website is showing 8-13 inches for this area.
I'll think about the first one Smokey and forget the other two.
Smokey - I just saw on Intellicast where we could possibly get up to 24", but NOAA hasn't said anything close to that. We don't need anymore snow.
I live in Marquette county, very dry here, hopefully moisture comes our way
Hoot, this is one time I hope the weatherman gets it wrong!
Found two dead fawns tonight looking for Elk sheds. Going to be a bunch more. Lot of the fawns are starting to get that fuzzy faced blank eyed stare they get right before they tip over. Rumor is we lost 4 bull elk last week.
Took a walk today to the back of my land to check on things. Didn’t find any sheds. Old rubs and lots of beds. Deer are sticking to easy travel routs and browsing heavy right now.
Shed, where are you at? I was afraid that I would start hearing that. Hopefully it's isolated, but if your looking for elk sheds, you must be in the area I hunt. I hunt the Moose Lake/Black Lake area. They had done some logging around there and I had hoped that enough was done for good browse.
East of Winter, we've got elk in the Flambeau Forest now. Two were in Clam lake and two were local. We lost a cow a few weeks ago too. Not sure if that was winter related or an accident. It supposedly got tangled up in a clearcut top. More deer in the cuts than I've seen in a long time. Several cuts had 40+ deer in them, but those cuts were in traditional yarding areas. I've been feeding all winter and the deer have doubled in the last couple weeks. When 5 year old bucks follow you around the yard you know they are hungry.
Are all the deer looking bad?
Overall I think most of the mature deer will be ok. Definitely going to be some fawn loss and the fawn count this spring will probably be down. Most of the older bucks around here are still only 3-4 and the does really outnumber them so they shouldn't have been too run down. I think that early cold weather was harder on them than the snow. A week of below 0 temps and the fawns will die no matter how good of shape they are in. You find them out in the open with exposed Southern views. Seen it lots of times. The amount of logging we have had coupled with the reduced deer population for the last five years has allowed the browse to really regenerate. There is no shortage of food anywhere near me. If they could have traveled a couple miles before the snow got too deep they could have found a logging job somewhere and most logging jobs around here have swamps with good cover. This last snow is really going to hurt. Their metabolism is starting to ramp up and the does are putting more energy toward the fawns they carry. I really find a lot of dead ones right when you think they have finally made it.
I hope the brunt of the snow stays down here, we have basically none in Eau Claire.
