Originally Posted By: Pass_the_Buck
Let me play devil's advocate.
Suppose the following limiting factors which could affect deer sightings, either does or bucks, are in effect statewide:
1) warmer average temperatures, which may:
a) keep deer bedded down during daylight hours while its warmer
b) boost an earlier spring green up meaning deer may travel
shorter distances in search of food during typically cooler
months
c) initiate more frequent weather fronts which suppress deer
movement I believe this to be true

2) bumper acorn crops providing more food than in average years
away from greenfields

3) higher than normal rainfall amounts which could limit or
alter deer travel patterns where flooding can occur This is true on our place

4) increased human pressure due to more hunters in the woods in
expectation of rutting behavior


You're right that all those things can cause fewer deer sightings. What concerns me MUCH more than the number of deer that I've seen, is the number of deer I have on camera. I have 2 cameras running on our farm. I have one on a trail to a food plot. I've had very few pictures on it. The other camera I stuck back in the deep woods, very close to a prime bedding area. I put it on an old trail that's been used for years. It leads to an oak bottom. I put the camera out in mid December IIRC and was planning on leaving it until the season was over. I pulled it yesterday. It's been in the woods for over a month and had 12 pictures on it. 6 of them were of me, 3 when I put it out and 3 when I picked it up. The other 6 pictures were of nothing. Maybe the wind blowing. There was not a single deer picture. This trail has been a well used deer trail since deer were first stocked here 25 years ago. That concerns me a bunch.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14