Things learned from trail-cameras

[BSK]

I'm in the midst of a fairly massive project I've been wanting to do for years. I'm going back through all of my tens of thousands of trail-camera pictures collected over 20 years and looking at the date and times of every buck scrape visit. I'm also looking at the "behaviors" at each visit (working the overhanging limb, actually reopening the scrape [scraping the ground], etc.). I'm only through one year, but I did notice something very interesting. Looking at the behaviors, it is VERY rare for yearling bucks to actually work/reopen an existing scrape. They usually work the overhanging limb, and will urinate in an existing scrape, but they rarely paw out the scrape. Scraping the ground is very much limited to older bucks. In fact, the older the buck, the more likely he will work the scrape.

Now this observation may be heavily influenced by the local herd dynamics. The local population has an advanced buck age structure (8-10% mature bucks). Perhaps if few older bucks existed, yearling bucks would more actively participate in scrape-making. I remember way back before we started QDM, and our buck population heavily favored yearlings, I watched yearling bucks work scrapes pretty frequently.

 

[fairchaser]

I would love to see any correlation of scrape size to the age/size of buck.

Also, I recently made a scrape with my own urine and was surprised how many bucks investigated it.

 

[BSK]

Post-rut, few scrape visits - even by older bucks - involve working the scrape itself. So just because a scrape appears to have gone dead (ground not being reopened) doesn't mean bucks aren't visiting.

 

[BSK]

So far, this is just a single year's data (last year, 2020). As much as it pains me (and it REALLY pains me!), I'm going to have to admit TheLBLman was right. A much larger peak of buck activity occurs between 9 AM and 11 AM than I expected. Now I'm going to have to go back in previous years and see if this pattern has always been there, or has just developed due to massive habitat changes, such as JCDEERMAN suggested.

Again, these are JUST visits to the scrape being monitored. I did not count bucks walking through in the background or not stopping at the scrape.

 

[BSK]

I should also add that 2020 for the location of data collection was a very poor acorn year. I look forward to seeing 1) if a difference will exist for a good acorn year; and 2) how consistent these times are from year to year.

 

[BSK]

And here's the data by date. Again, poor acorn year when breeding is usually delayed. from looking at observed chases on camera, peak breeding that year was most likely Nov. 13-20.

 

[BSK]

Here's the same data with chases caught on scrape cameras added in.

 

[TheLBLman]

A much larger peak of buck activity occurs between 9 AM and 11 AM than I expected.

Ah, and now, next year you'll be sitting on your laurels until at least 11 AM, cursing me for causing you so much pain

Once I started hunting longer, sometimes all day on stand, it has done nothing but gotten easier, especially when the conditions are most ideal for all day hunting.

Enjoy the Journey.

 

[BSK]

You can't imagine how much it hurt to admit that.

 

[Antler Daddy]

Glad the resident deer researcher is back! How many scrapes are your cameras watching!, or is that irrelevant?

 

[TheLBLman]

You can't imagine how much it hurt to admit that.

As an aside, maybe @ 20 years ago, I was telling hunters (especially those hunting public lands and/or within hunting clubs) that one of the best tactics for finding mature bucks was to go hunt those places no one else wanted to hunt. Often, it was because these places had lacked "sign", maybe close to a road, etc.

Wasn't too long later, BSK came up with his famous "spatial analysis" study,
saying essentially the same thing

And then the "pee in every scrape you walk by thing"!

Many thought I was pulling their leg, when I said years ago the very best deer call is simply peeing on the ground from high in a tree.

Wonder what else we don't know about deer?

 

[BSK]

Glad the resident deer researcher is back! How many scrapes are your cameras watching!, or is that irrelevant?

It's very relevant to the scrape visits by date. If I wanted to get technical, I would "normalize" each day's data by the number of cameras monitoring scrapes that day. But for the daily data by time, not as important.

As an aside, I usually have at least 5 cameras monitoring scrapes from early October through the end of the season.

And for anyone who is interested, that 2020 data involved 197 photographed scrape visits.

 

[BSK]

Now if only I had marked my data by yearling buck visits versus older buck visits. Guess I'll start that with the 2021 data, and if it appears interesting, go back and get it for the 2020 data.

 

[megalomaniac]

Bsk... this info is HUGE! Cant wait till you get years of data compiled. This needs to be published!

 

[DoubleRidge]

Extremely interesting data.... appreciate you sharing the results.... No doubt time consuming to put it all together..... studies like this motivate me to keep better notes and to pay more attention while reviewing trail cam pictures.

 

[BSK]

I'm working on 2021 right now. And I'm now separating the data by yearling buck visits, middle-aged buck visits (2 1/2 and 3 1/2 year-olds) and mature buck visits (4 1/2+ year-olds).

If the data is interesting, I'll see if anyone wants to publish it.

 

[BSK]

And since I have every year's acorn crop documented, I hope to be able to compare years with good versus poor acorn years. maybe there's a difference and maybe not. But I suspect there will be.

 

[BSK]

Ah, and now, next year you'll be sitting on your laurels until at least 11 AM, cursing me for causing you so much pain

Once I started hunting longer, sometimes all day on stand, it has done nothing but gotten easier, especially when the conditions are most ideal for all day hunting.

Enjoy the Journey.

Discussing this situation with the other hunters, we really have three options: 1) Hunt longer in the mornings, say to at least 10 AM to cover some of that 9-11 AM peak. This will extend our hunts to about 4.5 hours. 2) Go in later in the morning, walking in just before sunrise, and hunt from about 6:30 AM to 10 or 11 AM. 3) Realize our hunting is just a form of entertainment, and have fun, hunting the way we've always hunted while realizing we're missing some late morning action.

 

[BSK]

Bsk... this info is HUGE! Cant wait till you get years of data compiled. This needs to be published!

What really blew me away was how high that peak between 4-5 PM was. And that year (2020) we had great afternoon hunts, seeing and killing some great bucks on afternoon hunts.

Then we had this year (2021) and we ended up seeing just one older buck on an afternoon hunt all season. What will the scrape visits look like this year? Looking forward to finding out.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Absolutely awesome information! I can't wzit to see years of compiled data.