I have been observing the deer on my place for several years now and there is something that puzzles me about their movements at times. Case in point: This past weekend there were deer EVERYWHERE you looked at dawn and dusk. Tuesday they flat up and vanished and I havent seen a single animal since then. The weather is the same and there has been no disturbing activity. They are not feeding at night because I have no new tracks anywhere in the normal paths they travel when they are here. This is not the first time this has taken place here and I know they will be back but I am curious as to what causes this. Anyone have an educated guess?

This is only a possibility:

You may have a travel area only or predominantly. We own 110 acres in Rogersville, AL and there is plenty to eat on the farm but the deer travel there was and is sporadic. Also, and I saw that you already covered this, there may be evidence that the full moon phase changes their movement times (but you stated that you didn't see any fresh tracks).

Chances are, they'll be back. Deer have favorite foods and eating times and they seem to change up all the time.

They are probably just like the Elk in Oregon. Fish and Wildlife goes out and informs them that it is hunting season, and when hunting season is over, F & W goes back out and lets them know the coast is now clear.

Why do you think all of those environmentalists and PETA people, get jobs at Fish & Wildlife?

cheers
seafire

Bill,
With the full moon I'm betting they are feeding at night, maybe just in a different spot. Whitetails change patterns depending on food source, hunting pressure, the rut. The deer activity on my place has slowed down right now. Happens every year. I see a ton of deer the first week and a half of October (start of our bow season). They then disappear for a couple weeks as they go more nocturnal and switch to feeding in the corn. Starting this weekend I expect bucks to start suddenly popping up as they start searching for does.

Jeff

We killed 500,000 deer last year in Michigan so they must be doing a lousy job of getting the word out

Jeff

They probably just changed their food. Different food sources become available at different places at different times, the deer will follow the food, if acorns are dropping in one part of the timber, they'll be there until the acorns are cleaned up, then they may move to another spot to eat winter wheat (change the foods for YOUR part of the country, the point remains the same). If something else comes in, they'll move to that spot. Something on your place was ready to eat, they ate it, and moved on.