BSK
Well-Known Member
I posted this in the Trail Camera Forum, but wanted to make sure anyone using the QDM Forum also saw the thread. I'm wondering if anyone else has observed anything similar:
During what is the rut month in my area (November), I shift more than half of my cameras to monitoring scrapes. This has proven invaluable in invenorying buck populations, especially when you have a lot of "rut-shifting" bucks (bucks that shift their range just for the rut).
Using this technique, I have experienced excellent buck photo results using all types of scrapes--traditional, field-edge, scrapes along old logging trails, etc. However, this year, I noticed something interesting because I left my cameras running much longer than normal (I usually remove my cameras from the field at the end of January, but this year I left them running until this last weekend). Several of the cameras were left running over different scrapes until this first weekend of April.
I found that most "temporary" scrapes--scrapes that only appear during the peak of the rut--are abandoned once the rut is over. However, known traditional scrapes--scrapes that appear in the same spot year after year and are usually the first scrapes to be seriously worked in fall--continued to see doe and buck visits long after the rut was over. In fact, at two of my most traditional scrapes, I was continuing to get doe and buck visits right up to the time the cameras were removed. Even bucks that had lost their antlers continued to work these scrapes fairly regularly and intensely.
Has anyone else noticed traditional scrapes still being worked in February and March? And from the picture sequences, it appears bucks are still conducting the full scrape sequence at these traditional scrapes even into late winter--working the overhead limb, pawing out the scrape, and urinating in it.
It has long been known that traditional scrapes see deer visits year round, but usually this is just to check/work the over-hanging limb as these are used as licking branches outside of the rut. But I was very much surprised by the "full sequence" scrape-working behavior observed throughout the winter into early spring.
During what is the rut month in my area (November), I shift more than half of my cameras to monitoring scrapes. This has proven invaluable in invenorying buck populations, especially when you have a lot of "rut-shifting" bucks (bucks that shift their range just for the rut).
Using this technique, I have experienced excellent buck photo results using all types of scrapes--traditional, field-edge, scrapes along old logging trails, etc. However, this year, I noticed something interesting because I left my cameras running much longer than normal (I usually remove my cameras from the field at the end of January, but this year I left them running until this last weekend). Several of the cameras were left running over different scrapes until this first weekend of April.
I found that most "temporary" scrapes--scrapes that only appear during the peak of the rut--are abandoned once the rut is over. However, known traditional scrapes--scrapes that appear in the same spot year after year and are usually the first scrapes to be seriously worked in fall--continued to see doe and buck visits long after the rut was over. In fact, at two of my most traditional scrapes, I was continuing to get doe and buck visits right up to the time the cameras were removed. Even bucks that had lost their antlers continued to work these scrapes fairly regularly and intensely.
Has anyone else noticed traditional scrapes still being worked in February and March? And from the picture sequences, it appears bucks are still conducting the full scrape sequence at these traditional scrapes even into late winter--working the overhead limb, pawing out the scrape, and urinating in it.
It has long been known that traditional scrapes see deer visits year round, but usually this is just to check/work the over-hanging limb as these are used as licking branches outside of the rut. But I was very much surprised by the "full sequence" scrape-working behavior observed throughout the winter into early spring.
