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Deer Dynamics: Hard Mast
A white-tailed buck leaves his bedding site in a stand of small pines. Instead of heading to the clover plot, he scales up a small ridge to seek out what is beneath the trees. […]
Articles by Tommy Kirkland
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Deer Dynamics: Antler Growth
As the days become longer, the process of “photoperiod” takes hold — stimulating more hormonal growth for bucks. More available sunlight allows changes to unfold with a buck’s pituitary gland, producing hormones that significantly contribute to bone and tissue growth. Other natural works play into antler development as well. […]
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Deer Dynamics: Early Summer Foliage
Once the green-up begins in the spring and early summer months, both bucks and does seek out flowering plants known as forbs. […]
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The Life of a Fawn
Spring gives way to warm days as the summer season nears. Pesky insects start to dominate the woodlots and open fields. For the young whitetails that survived the pursuit of predators, now their lives of growing into mature deer begin to unfold. […]
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Deer Dynamics: Carnivore Predation
With stealth, a lone coyote moves through the woodlot, its nose to the ground. Periodically, the canine stops and visually scans the timber. […]
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Deer Dynamics: Casting and Hierarchy
The rut has come and gone. Bucks that survived hunting season are dropping their battered racks. Though the whitetails are no longer at war for dominance, the competitiveness still exists — even in the off season. […]
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Deer Dynamics: Post-Rut
Exhaustion sets in, forcing the battle-scarred buck to seek refuge. An eye is wounded, and missing fur and cuts prevail all around its face and neck. Finally, the worn buck returns to an old bedding site. Here it beds down, and within minutes, the whitetail knocks out. […]
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Deer Dynamics
The degree of hunting pressure, nutrition, buck-to-doe ratios, management, genetics and weather can influence not just the rut’s timing, but whitetail social interactions as well. Even so, by instinct, rutting bucks usually follow the same behavioral traits — even when immature bucks get in on the action. […]