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Acorn crops and early activity

Acorns over a corn field. Couldn't get much better. Well yeah it could. Only if they had horns.
 

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BSK said:
Below is a graph of scrape visits by older bucks (2 1/2+) caught on camera for 2020 and 2021 on the same property (same number of cameras on scrapes both years). 2020 was a moderate to poor acorn year. 2021 was a monster bumper acorn crop. Notice how much earlier and more intense scraping was in 2021 (bumper acorns) versus 2020 (moderate to poor acorns).

And I tell you what, the cyclic nature of scrape visits through the season really intrigues me. I have no idea why that happens.
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Great data. It would be interesting to see last year's data with the drought and poor acorn crop on this graph.
 
DeerMan66 said:
Great data. It would be interesting to see last year's data with the drought and poor acorn crop on this graph.
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I'll put together the scrape visits graph tomorrow morning, but here's the buck-doe chases caught on camera. Notice the early food plot pestering chases both in 2021 and 2022 (zero acorns, severe draught), but the peak chasing around peak breeding was around 10-15 days late in 2022 compared to 2021 and 2020.
 

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BSK said:
We already have a HUGE Mountain Chestnut Oak acorn crop on the ground. These are not preferred acorns by deer, but when they are the first acorn on the ground, deer will scarf them up until the Whites start to fall.
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What is the difference between Mountain Chestnut Oak and Swamp Chestnut Oak? Is it just where you happen to live? A cursory internet search turned up more about American Chestnut Oak than anything.
 
BSK said:
Below is a graph of scrape visits by older bucks (2 1/2+) caught on camera for 2020 and 2021 on the same property (same number of cameras on scrapes both years). 2020 was a moderate to poor acorn year. 2021 was a monster bumper acorn crop. Notice how much earlier and more intense scraping was in 2021 (bumper acorns) versus 2020 (moderate to poor acorns).

And I tell you what, the cyclic nature of scrape visits through the season really intrigues me. I have no idea why that happens.
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My theory is, when there are ample does coming in heat the bucks neglect the scrapes. I think scrapes are a reflection of sexual frustration or just more testosterone than they can handle. I realize that's just one component and that the types of scrapes I find and key in on the most are these types. I found probably 15 fresh aggressive rubs and approx. 10 scrapes from this guy yesterday. He's patrolling around a hot oak flat with lots of chestnut acorns and a few does. There's a pulp wood pine thicket above him and a beetle killed thicket below him it was in the beetle killed thicket drain that he went crazy. He's definitely aggressive, and has been here all summer long. I believe in my area peak breeding is Nov. 15 and I believe your chart proves to me what I've been thinking.
 

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Swampster said:
What is the difference between Mountain Chestnut Oak and Swamp Chestnut Oak? Is it just where you happen to live? A cursory internet search turned up more about American Chestnut Oak than anything.
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Mountain Chestnut Oaks are an upland/ridge-top species that grows in the worst ground possible (because it can, while other oaks cannot). Swamp Chestnut is a bottomland/swamp tree. The Swamp Chestnut is a preferred acorn (taste) while the Mountain Chestnut acorn is not. And although deer like the Swamp Chestnut Oak acorn, they go crazy over the Swamp White Oak acorn even more. In most locations where it exists, no acorn is more preferred than the Swamp White Oak.
 
Harold Money jr said:
My theory is, when there are ample does coming in heat the bucks neglect the scrapes. I think scrapes are a reflection of sexual frustration or just more testosterone than they can handle. I realize that's just one component and that the types of scrapes I find and key in on the most are these types. I found probably 15 fresh aggressive rubs and approx. 10 scrapes from this guy yesterday. He's patrolling around a hot oak flat with lots of chestnut acorns and a few does. There's a pulp wood pine thicket above him and a beetle killed thicket below him it was in the beetle killed thicket drain that he went crazy. He's definitely aggressive, and has been here all summer long. I believe in my area peak breeding is Nov. 15 and I believe your chart proves to me what I've been thinking.
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My local peak breeding is between Nov. 10 and 20 every year, except for years with extreme drought. In the two extreme summer/fall droughts I have data for (2007 and 2022), peak breeding appeared to occur closer to the Dec. 1.
 
Here's the older buck scrape visits for 2020 (moderate to poor acorn year), 2021 (bumper acorn year), and 2022 (total acorn crop failure and severe drought). Notice how late and how muted the scraping is in the no acorn/drought year of 2022. Also of interest was the distribution of who was visiting scrapes by age. During the two previous years (2020 and 2021), the majority of scraping visits are middle-aged to mature bucks. Yearling don't visit scrapes anywhere near as frequently as older bucks. This matches the data from Miss. State Deer Labs data. However, in the drought year of 2022, the majority of scrape visits were by yearling bucks. It's as if older bucks simply didn't have the extra energy to work scrapes, hence most visits were by young bucks.
 

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I'm still not seeing ground scrapes. They're getting aggressive with locking branches but not hoofing the dirt yet. So far I've only found one and it was near a single buck bed in the middle of a dropping white oak grove. Opposite the scrape was a stripped clean sapling. There was no visible trail but you could draw a straight 50yd line connecting them all.
 
Ski said:
I'm still not seeing ground scrapes. They're getting aggressive with locking branches but not hoofing the dirt yet. So far I've only found one and it was near a single buck bed in the middle of a dropping white oak grove. Opposite the scrape was a stripped clean sapling. There was no visible trail but you could draw a straight 50yd line connecting them all.
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We don't start seeing then until mid-October in our area. I found a few on field edges, but that's about it
 
JCDEERMAN said:
We don't start seeing then until mid-October in our area. I found a few on field edges, but that's about it
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Yeah that's about par for me too. I'm not sure what to expect really this year because even older bucks are still grouped up. Most years they would have already dispersed. These critters are always rewriting the script.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
We don't start seeing then until mid-October in our area. I found a few on field edges, but that's about it
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Normally I don't see them until early to mid-October. However, the timing varies with the acorn crop. Great acorn crop, I'll find some by late September. Terrible acorn crop, I might not find the first one until late October.
 
Ski said:
Yeah that's about par for me too. I'm not sure what to expect really this year because even older bucks are still grouped up. Most years they would have already dispersed. These critters are always rewriting the script.
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And that's why I never tire of studying them. Just about the time I think I've got them pegged, they throw a curveball at me, and I learn something new.
 
Ski said:
Yeah that's about par for me too. I'm not sure what to expect really this year because even older bucks are still grouped up. Most years they would have already dispersed. These critters are always rewriting the script.
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That is what they do best. After what I saw last year, I don't have high expectations for this year. A lot of 2.5's and some 3.5's that look promising, but so far only one 4.5+ that just moved in.

I pulled all the cameras off salt and put the rest of our cameras out this past weekend…on areas where traditional or mock scrapes are. At those locations, I saw less than 3 little faint pawed out areas (out of 23 locations). I did this because I didn't know when I'd be back (I was thinking late October). Turns out, I may be there the next 2 weekends
cowboy dancing GIF
 
BSK you called it. I saw lots of scrapes this past weekend. Nice torn up cedar rubs too. I hung a couple of cameras trying to figure if it is day or night. Picture of 3 scrapes connected into one mega scrape. Loads of mountain oak, beech, white oak, on that ridge
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BSK said:
Normally I don't see them until early to mid-October. However, the timing varies with the acorn crop. Great acorn crop, I'll find some by late September. Terrible acorn crop, I might not find the first one until late October.
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Definitely a bumper on the mountain chestnuts. Need a hard hat for sure. I found that the whites on top were more loaded than the whites in the bottoms, which I found a little odd.
 

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