Deer and pine trees
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Deer and pine trees
So I scouted out a piece of public yesterday that had a section of pine trees (8000 I believe) all planted in rows about a quarter mile deep and probably 30-40 trees wide. I saw a lot of tracks on both sides running parrallel, but I also cut a lot of very well worn trails crossing it and going up the hills that surround this patch of trees on both sides. I saw a few spots that appeared to be bedding (i will load pics soon) but could have been spots where the snow blew around the sides of the tree and just had a bowl shape in front. Most of these were on the first few trees in and none in the middle.
So, my question is: How do deer relate to pine trees? Will the bed in there routinely, or do they not like the thickness of it and the reduced wind flow (scenting ability diminished), or do they like the seclusion from wind and other elements? I saw some very nice rubs on the outside edges. I do not intend to hunt these, but I would love to use the trees to access the 3 spots I found yesterday because of decreased visibility and lack of noise when walking on pine needles, but I do not want to bump deer, even if they are does. I will say I think the deer are really using the outside hard edges where the pines meet the hardwoods, TONS of tracks and scrapes and a few rubs, but downright cattle paths alongside it.
So, my question is: How do deer relate to pine trees? Will the bed in there routinely, or do they not like the thickness of it and the reduced wind flow (scenting ability diminished), or do they like the seclusion from wind and other elements? I saw some very nice rubs on the outside edges. I do not intend to hunt these, but I would love to use the trees to access the 3 spots I found yesterday because of decreased visibility and lack of noise when walking on pine needles, but I do not want to bump deer, even if they are does. I will say I think the deer are really using the outside hard edges where the pines meet the hardwoods, TONS of tracks and scrapes and a few rubs, but downright cattle paths alongside it.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
How big are the pines? Is ground visibility obscured? Or are they large pines that have the branches trimmed up quite high? I scouted and hunted a couple similar spots this year. One was large pines, really open (you could see >100 yards between the trunks), while the other spot had large trimmed trees again, but was really full of untrimmed undergrowth which cut ground visibility severely. The second spot had doe beds in fairly random spots in the pines, while the more open spot had no beds in the pines, but several heavy trails on the edges and bedding nearby.
- Dewey
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Re: Deer and pine trees
I see a lot of these pine plantations in Kettle Moraine State Forest and the deer mostly use them for travel routes along the transition edge just like you described. Most of these are trimmed up pretty high so the deer have no cover and really no reason to go into them. The ones that are not trimmed and hang low to the ground are used very heavily in the winter for thermal cover to stay out of the wind and heavy snow but the rest of the year it seems like they like to bed in spots with better visability.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
Thick pines: Mature bucks like to bed on the downwind transition line smelling the thick pines behind, while wathcing the open woods downwind.
Open pines: Mature bucks like to bed up wind of the pines with thick cover behind them that they can smell, and the open pines down wind.
They don't often bed in the middle of the pines unless something creates a bedding spot like an interior transition line, a hill, etc.
Scout the transition lines (edges)
Open pines: Mature bucks like to bed up wind of the pines with thick cover behind them that they can smell, and the open pines down wind.
They don't often bed in the middle of the pines unless something creates a bedding spot like an interior transition line, a hill, etc.
Scout the transition lines (edges)
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Re: Deer and pine trees
Just an observation I have made. Pine trees offer a little bit of shade, and also attracts the sun's warmth. I often notice snow underneath or near pine trees melts faster and offers some browse and an open spot to lay in other than snow. I usually find most beds right underneath the pine canopies with usually alot of droppings also. If there is a cluster of pines in a mixed hard woods, its usually a guarantee there will be a trail that goes thru them. They seem to attract deer.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
Deer love to bed in pines. They love the young 4-10 year patches of pines that are really thick. Although this is great, those expansive plots of land with rows and rows of regular pines don't hold as many deer because they can be seen from so far and there is no food or lower cover. The best situation is a hardwood bottom with pine transitions. Bucks will scent check in Oct and Nov, deer in whichever has more cover and move to acorns in the hardwoods.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
Crazinamatese wrote:Just an observation I have made. Pine trees offer a little bit of shade, and also attracts the sun's warmth. I often notice snow underneath or near pine trees melts faster and offers some browse and an open spot to lay in other than snow. I usually find most beds right underneath the pine canopies with usually alot of droppings also. If there is a cluster of pines in a mixed hard woods, its usually a guarantee there will be a trail that goes thru them. They seem to attract deer.
I do see deer bed in pines a lot in winter.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
I do too. I used to live next to 10 acre pine plot. Like, 25+ foot tall skinny trees offering no canopy close to the ground. Basically telephone poles. The deer never wintered in there though. depending on the ag. crop on the adjacent field, but they would winter about a half mile away where there are thick white pines and travel to the ag. field to feed every evening during the winter. Im guessing the big white pines made for better security from the elements, or the ten acre plot wasn't big enough for them???
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Re: Deer and pine trees
A lot of hunters overlook the attraction of a single pine tree or a small grove of them, 2 or 3, for deer bedding throughout the year. White pine and spruce have a lot of cover low to the ground and in mixed growth of pines and hardwoods they can be attractive for bedding. On a small property with little cover preferred for bedding, the deer treat this small grove or singular trees like they would a blow down for bedding. If you have a lack of bedding cover make sure you scout them out...
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Re: Deer and pine trees
These trees were planted in 2000 and are in perfect rows but they are thick, the branches go pretty much to the ground. If say there 25 foot tall and maybe 10 feet wide at the bottom.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
x2, Singing Bridge. There is a big marsh/swamp area that I've scouted and that technique has led to me finding some buck beds. This is a big, wet area with very few pine trees- after I began to put it together this winter, I would go online and view satellite images and find the lone pines (of which there were only a handful in a very big area).
After walking through and checked them out and they often had beds with rubs right at the base of the tree. I agree that the roots of these may create the only dry, comfortable ground in the area.
After walking through and checked them out and they often had beds with rubs right at the base of the tree. I agree that the roots of these may create the only dry, comfortable ground in the area.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
Singing Bridge wrote:A lot of hunters overlook the attraction of a single pine tree or a small grove of them, 2 or 3, for deer bedding throughout the year. White pine and spruce have a lot of cover low to the ground and in mixed growth of pines and hardwoods they can be attractive for bedding. On a small property with little cover preferred for bedding, the deer treat this small grove or singular trees like they would a blow down for bedding. If you have a lack of bedding cover make sure you scout them out...
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I have very little pine in my area. Interestingly though, 40 acre parcel has 4 pines - each one has a bed under it. Only one is low enough to really offer some thermal cover, but I think the year after year pine needles create a good bed on the tree's "island" above the marsh.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
They certainly love the fact of natural camo too...
I watched deer, numerous times, specifically walk to a destination while selectively choosing their routes to be within a very short run of a hemlock/spruce or small pine.
I have also seen them hide behind the drooping brances and watch humans walk by - pretty cool sight to see. Kind of a like a game of hide-n-seek, knowing the humans wouldn't spot them...
I watched deer, numerous times, specifically walk to a destination while selectively choosing their routes to be within a very short run of a hemlock/spruce or small pine.
I have also seen them hide behind the drooping brances and watch humans walk by - pretty cool sight to see. Kind of a like a game of hide-n-seek, knowing the humans wouldn't spot them...
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Re: Deer and pine trees
On our hill country land we have several patches of CRP land that were planted in white pine.They are probably 100 feet wide and vary in length from several hundred feet to a 1/4 mile long. Trees are about 15 feet tall give or take a few feet. I specifically scouted these for beds right after gun season this year. My thoughts were that the deer may be bedding in some of these areas. I found a grand total of one bed, it was a buck bed, but from a small buck. I found they like to bed on the edges of these pines and travel throught them, but other than that don't really spend a lot of time in them. On my farm country land, whe have pockets of black spruce that are pretty thick and the deer especially the does really like to bed in there. It seems the does pick the larger areas and the bucks like small clumps of these spruce to bed in. Just my observations.
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Re: Deer and pine trees
Look low or high in the pines. Our deer generally bed in the pine thickets near a flag pond or on high ground, guess that's the same as anywhere else... Only our 'high ground' means only a couple feet elevation change most times...
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