What causes daytime movement?

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Landonk
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What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Landonk » Mon Dec 30, 2013 9:53 am

I have had a camera placed in the same spot since August. It is on a corn feeder and, until today, I had gotten a total of two daytime pics of deer around that feeder. Both were taken in September.
Almost all of the photos, several thousand and counting, were at night. Some were late at night, some just after sundown or just before sunrise.

Today I go out and pull the card and was pretty surprised at what I found. I have about 100 pics of around 8-10 different deer with 6-7 of them being bucks and they are all between 1 and 4pm. There are also some night pics, but many more daytime pics. The cameras are not in an area that I ever see deer bedded, or find beds. The photos are pretty regular between 1 and 4. At least a pic or two every 15 min and as many as three bucks on camera at once. (I have a night time photo of this same bunch of bucks with 6 in one photo)

The weather was cloudy/overcast all day yesterday and almost no wind in this location. The temp was about normal in the 40's.
Two of the bucks have very nice racks, but are likely not more than 2.5yo. Another one has a huge 6 point rack and looks a bit older. The rest are smaller bucks. None appear to be 4+ years old, IMO.

Any idea what could have these deer moving during the day? Possibly the overcast weather? We have had plenty of overcast days in the last few months that never yielded pics so I am lost as to what could have caused them to not be on the bed during the day.

Thanks!


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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby christian1 » Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:02 am

Sex and weather. The question for me is often how much of each it takes to make them move during the day.

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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 30, 2013 11:04 am

Could be cold weather, could be a barometer movement, could be moon phase, could be wind direction... Look at the dates and times of the pic's and compare.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Ghost Hunter » Mon Dec 30, 2013 11:23 am

Bucks are worn down after rut an food is getting slim. The bucks are starting to bunch up an the corn feeder is an easy meal.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Landonk » Mon Dec 30, 2013 11:24 am

From what I can tell the moon phase was pretty close on September 28th, the last daylight photo I had around 8am, and yesterday between 1 and 4pm.

The barometer was around 30.1 and falling yesterday, but no storms were approaching or leaving. It was likely a front of some sort.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Landonk » Mon Dec 30, 2013 11:26 am

Ghost Hunter wrote:Bucks are worn down after rut an food is getting slim. The bucks are starting to bunch up an the corn feeder is an easy meal.



Any idea why they bunch up after the rut? I was under the impression that they tend to be more solitary animals as they get older.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby CMBOSTC » Mon Dec 30, 2013 1:19 pm

What is the night time temps?
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby PK_ » Mon Dec 30, 2013 1:43 pm

Ghost Hunter wrote:Bucks are worn down after rut an food is getting slim. The bucks are starting to bunch up an the corn feeder is an easy meal.


My guess would be this and decreasing hunting pressure, possibly?

Run the cam year round and see if hunting season is mainly when they avoid the feeder during daylight.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Crazinamatese » Mon Dec 30, 2013 2:19 pm

Landonk wrote:
Ghost Hunter wrote:Bucks are worn down after rut an food is getting slim. The bucks are starting to bunch up an the corn feeder is an easy meal.



Any idea why they bunch up after the rut? I was under the impression that they tend to be more solitary animals as they get older.


IMO, I think in a wintering herd, they have a better chance of survival. Most deer tend to bunch up near hot food sources like a cut corn field, soybean, or whatever is in abundance in your area when the temps drop down. Especially if there is alot of snow. Bucks also spent a month and a half running relentlessly looking for does to breed during the rut. This time of year, they are recovering and focusing on staying fed and warm. Where I used to live in farm country, the deer would migrate a mile or two away where there were cut cornfields they can feed off of during the winter. It was rare to find any fresh tracks on the 180 acres I hunted this time of year. I think was because the land didn't have the food source to hold them there.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby vanceg » Mon Dec 30, 2013 2:44 pm

PalmettoKid wrote:
Ghost Hunter wrote:Bucks are worn down after rut an food is getting slim. The bucks are starting to bunch up an the corn feeder is an easy meal.


My guess would be this and decreasing hunting pressure, possibly?

Run the cam year round and see if hunting season is mainly when they avoid the feeder during daylight.



I think you nailed it.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Bucky » Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:28 pm

Are you in WI? Once late Dec roles around with cold and snow cover deer NEED to eat or die. I think it is the most predictable time of year to hunt food sources. If you have mature deer this is the time of year they will show up in daylight on food sources.

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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Stanley » Mon Dec 30, 2013 6:51 pm

I can never give a good guess unless I know how the cameras are being operated and checked.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby CMBOSTC » Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:38 am

Bucky wrote:Are you in WI? Once late Dec roles around with cold and snow cover deer NEED to eat or die. I think it is the most predictable time of year to hunt food sources. If you have mature deer this is the time of year they will show up in daylight on food sources.

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I live in MD... not as cold here as WI but the deer do the same thing here (at least from my observations).
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Southern Man » Tue Dec 31, 2013 1:10 am

I agree with Stanley that it might depend on how you deployed the cameras and how often you check them.

But, deer here do the same thing. You being in Arkansas, your weather is pretty much like ours, and unlike the weather up north. We don't have the winter snows like those guys and the temps aren't quite as cold. But food is at a minimum, so a fresh corn pile or a feeder will draw them in big time. I use to feed during the winter months and there would be deer feedin throughout the day. There is virtually nobody in the woods this time of year and deer relax.

Another thing is if you live in the eastern part of the state where the duck hunters are, they might have been pushed to areas that aren't bothered. Duck hunters pound the swamps and sloughs along the rivers here this time of year.
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Re: What causes daytime movement?

Unread postby Landonk » Tue Dec 31, 2013 3:55 am

Thanks for all of the input.
Just to try and give a bit more info on the topic, the location is low to no hunting pressure.
However I have been running 1-3 cameras at least once a week in a small area around the feeder to see which ways they enter and exit the feeder. This is next to my house in a somewhat urban area and I use it as sort of a proving ground so to speak. I look for beds where I think they should be, sign, sheds, droppings...etc and check to see when they are active with my cameras in this spot.

I do know of a bedding area on a ridge about .75 miles away and have jumped bucks off of their beds before just to see if they were there on days I suspected. Again, this is not an area I hunt but I do keep a feeder going for the fun of seeing what is coming to it with a camera pointed at it.

The only pressure I can think of is maybe someone walking their dog in the woods and jumping them off of the beds, or kids playing in the woods.

It looks like a weather front did move through the day after the daytime photos, but it did not bring any real changes in the weather. I suspect that front had a lot to do with the movement. The acorns were thick this year, but starting to dissapear I am sure. The bucks certainly lost a lot of weight in the last month or so due to chasing during the rut!

My thoughts are that the weather front, combined with the acorn crop dissapearing, had more to do with the daylight movement than anything.


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