Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum What is causing our deer to go nocturnal?

We have hunted 600 acres in Shelby County the last 4 years, this is the first year our deer are not coming to the food plots during day light hours. However, they are hammering them at night, eaten down and droppings all over the plots. We have killed 3 coyotes this year and we are seeing quite a bit of coyote tracks. Only 3 people hunt this property and we do not have a problem with trespassers, no four wheelers on the property either. The only deer we're seeing are either in the woods or in clear cuts. What's the deal?

Deer are naturally nocturnal, and with the slightest pressure, even more so. I wouldn't say there is anything wrong. You're seeing deer in the woods and in clearcuts. They feel more secure moving in daylight in those areas because there is more cover.

How often do the three of you hunt?

Personally I rarely hunt food plots. In my opinon they are supplemental feeding areas aND don't provide cover during the daytime. I've had much better success seeing deer in the woods. Of course at night the deer come to the plots. If a plot gets hunting pressure deer tend to avoid them during the day unless the rut is on. But then again I hate hunting out of a shooting house. Just doesn't feel like hunting to me.
If you want to increase your sightings, get in the woods, especially the thick stuff. I think hunters are getting lazier and therefore you get complants about no deer.

I have to disagree with the "naturally nocturnal" statement. Deer are crepsuscular

Other crepuscular mammals include jaguars, ocelots, strepsirrhines, red pandas, bears, deer, moose, chinchillas, the common mouse, skunks, Australian wombats, wallabies, quolls, possums and marsupial gliders, spotted hyenas, bobcats, tenrecidae, capybaras, African wild dogs, sitatunga, and the extinct Tasmanian tiger. Crepuscular birds include the Common Nighthawk, Owlet-nightjar, Chimney Swift, American Woodcock, and Spotted Crake.

People all have different opinions about this but I also posted on someone's thread a week or so ago. I hunt two places that are about 5 miles apart. They're basically sharing the same layout and field/wood types. On one property, we see 5 deer or so every morning/afternoon hunt and while our cameras show they do move a lot at night, they're also moving during the day. We have been putting "medium" pressure on them. On the second property, mind you that it is 5 miles away, you can hunt 4 times and not see a single deer and we have very low pressure on them. Cameras on the second property show the deer start moving about 30 minutes after dark and move all night until about an hour before daylight.

I have no conclusions from this. We see more deer on a property 5 miles away with decent pressure than we do the other property that has very minimal pressure.

Bud, as a biologist, I know full well what crepuscular is, and I know which animals are crepuscular. Although deer will move at any time of the day or night, and so will every creature on that list of crepuscular animals, I believe you are picking at very minor details that mean nothing. Deer move mostly at night, BEGINNING their movements at crepuscular periods.

Hey Matt, do you think our issue here is that for the majority these deer are just not bedding close which is our case for not seeing many during daylight hours?

I think it has a lot to do with our mild climate. It just doesn't really get that cold here so deer don't have to feed that heavily in the winter to stay warm. Therefore, when its warm like today, they don't have to get up and move around in the daylight as much putting themselves in danger. I think the reason you see them more when we have these cold snaps with temps in the teens is because they don't have the option anymore to lay up all day. They have to get out and get those calories during those periods. If we had colder winters, I think we would see more daytime activity.

Id help explain it by pointing out the huge acorn mast crop too. deer prefer acorns and there are a ton of them both places I hunt.
This can keep them in the woods more.

Early season, all the acorns kept the deer out of the plots during daylight hours, after that pressure is the number 1 cause. How many deer have ya'll killed in your plots over the years? This is why we don't shoot doe's in our plots, except for kids under the age of 16. I'm thinking of dropping the age limit down to about 13-14 in the future.

It absolutely has a lot to do with it in some areas. Deer will often travel several hundred yards to over a mile from where they are bedded down to the food source they prefer. If a deer gets up out of it's bed 20 minutes before dark, walks 986 yards to a preferred food, lightly browsing along the way, then you are back in the truck and half way to the house before it gets to the food source it was headed to. Food sources near thickets and available bedding areas usually see more day activity, and sometimes all day. I visit places regularly that have plenty of food, beautiful, well-maintained plots with high usage, and deer tracks everywhere. Yet, they aren't seeing deer. 1/2 mile down the road is a 300 acre three year old clearcut with blackberry, honeysuckle, jessamine, and privet which the deer are snacking on all day while bedded down. Food, in relation, to bed, is critical in deer sightings.

Another thing that could influence deer activity, and timing, is feeding corn. Almost everyone is feeding now, somewhere. There are feeders all over the state full of corn all season. That high carb food source, readily available, influences day light activity, and food plot use.

So Matt is the corn feeding legal ?
Your saying almost everyone is feeding , i hear it is and then
i hear it is not legal .

Blessed, feeding is legal. Hunting by the aid of bait is not. Regardless, there's a heck of a lot of feeding going on, whether it's being hunted over or not.

Ya'll read these two sentences again, and keep them in mind if ya wanta see and/or kill deer.

We have only killed 6 deer on the food plots during the last 4 years. I myself am the youngest of the hunters so I hunt the woods and clear cuts, the other two are over 60 and like to hunt from the shooting houses so I'd like to have more deer on the plots for them to at least watch which is what they like to do anyways.

In my opinion, deer are naturally comfortable at night. You add hunting pressure, and proximity to thick cover into the equation, and you don't see any deer. I'll take an unhunted strip in a clearcut, that is an 1/8th of an acre, all day long, over a 5 acre field that gets a lot of pressure.

So how do you find these food sources? In thick stuff, there's always something green. How do you know you're in the right area?

Fertilize your natural browse before a rain they will find it , i have done this and had deer come in and eat for an hour or two . Places that have honeysuckle , privet ,etc

Do yall feed corn?

No, we have not put out any corn. I was thinking that if the corn is over 100 yards away and out of sight that it would keep the deer from visiting the plots. Now I'm thinking that it might of helped to at least get them on their feet during the day.