Monday - December 14, 2020 - 'DECENT DEER DAY':
From a Deer's perspective above, from the ground where I've been hunting in Fairfield Co.
All deer have the ability to see 300* of view in full focus at all times, much like what you see above but, in grey tones of mainly of black and while. The do however, have the capability to see the color blue, which totally stands out like a sore thumb in case you did not know. Studies have shown that;
Blue Jeans won't cut it...
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This morning I woke up early so, I packed up and headed to the property I've been hunting over the last four days, this being my very first time this season hunting from first light.
Once I started to hike out through the picked cornfield, headed to my tree-stand, I had my ATN Thermal Monocular turned on to scan the field first. As I started to approach the wooded finger area that goes clear out toward the middle of the field, I noticed a large bodied deer due South in the middle, and a much smaller deer in the SE corner, grazing. So, I paused for a moment and watched, since I had plenty of time to get to my tree-stand, which is clear around the wooded finger and just inside the wooded area, right off the NE corner of the picked cornfield.
After a few minutes watching those two deer within the field with my thermal monocular, each of them were facing towards the East and slowly walked into the woods, roughly about 80 yards just South of where I go in to get to my tree.
I continued my hike to my tree, climbed up into it without any issues, got settled in about 15 minutes before legal hunting time. As I was waiting for legal hunt, I started to scan the area where I saw those two deer go into the woods with my thermal monocular and saw the much bigger deer bed, approximately 70 yards to the SE of me.
After about 30 minutes, I saw that same big deer get up from its bed, and slowly headed N-NE into the thick pines, then completely out of sight within seconds.
Right at 8:00 a.m. sharp, I caught movement to my North, which were four Wild Turkeys that popped over the large North hill, slowly headed towards the picked cornfield and to my laid out corn. Just moments later, about 10-15 minutes, a young six point buck came over the top of the North hill right behind those turkeys, right in the same area. Then the buck entered into the very beginning of the thick pines, from the North, and casually cruised along the West edge of them, headed South. I got a real good look at him from the closets point of the entire encounter, which was 50 yards straight away, as he continued to head further South, to the other end of the pine patched, then finally out of sight.
Meanwhile, the Wild Turkeys continued their quest to hit the cornfield. I pulled out my cellphone right about the time they entered the field and captured a couple of photographs and a brief video clip of their initial activity.
All of them were long-beards and I watched them graze clear across the field, headed South, then an hour later, they entered back into the woods from the East side of the field, approximately 100 yards South of me. That was the last time I saw them for the entire day.
Then around 9:30 a.m., three antlerless deer came form the South wooded area and cut across right in front of me, headed into the thick pine patch. At the same time, which I did not see initially or know about it, there was another deer that was apart of that group that walked down through the picked cornfield right behind me, and headed to the laid out whole corn within the three corn rows. I caught a brief glimpse of movement right out of my left eye as I was paying attention to those three antlerless deer, straight out in front me, approximately 50 yards away, heading into the pines.
When I turned to look, to my surprise, the adult doe just took her last bite of the laid out corn, turned and headed towards the deer that was pretty much waiting on her, just to the NE of me. I could have shot her if I have known that she was right there behind me, but unfortunately, I missed seeing her when she first arrived.
Then about an hour later, a doe popped out of the pines, right where the previous four went in earlier, and headed in a big hurry to the South, much closer to the edge of the cornfield.
An hour after that, right at 11:00 a.m., another doe comes screaming out at the very same area of the previous one, and did a ditto of what the prior deer did, however this time there were two little bucks chasing her, with the one buck tailing, grunting the entire time.
Those last five deer were all within bow range too, however, only the one that fed briefly at the laid out corn provided any such shot opportunity, if I were to have seen her first, or at the moment she first arrived at the corn, but unfortunately I didn't.
Then about a quarter to the noon hour, I packed up and broke for lunch at my pickup truck where I had a couple of sandwiches that the wife made for me the night before waiting on me, plus a full thermos of hot coffee.
Most of the morning, the wind was coming mainly from the E-NE and fairly mild. As it got closer to the noon hour, the wind shifted to the NW and the winds dramatically picked up, making it much cooler than what it was during the early morning hours.
Right after lunch, I carried out another 50lb. bag of whole corn to replenish the area for the next couple of days, since it's supposed to snow on Wednesday, and I will not be hunting tomorrow. I have to cut more firewood instead for my workshop and my poor animals. I burn wood all winter long, 24/7 within my workshop's woodstove. I intend to get back out to the property on Wednesday, when the wind is more favorable for my current setup and the wintery conditions should hopefully get those deer moving all throughout the day, much like this morning.
I got settle back into my tree by 1:00 p.m. and I didn't see my first deer until 3:30, then again at 3:40, which I believe were either the two young bucks I seen previously chasing, or the two does that came flying out of the pines prior to them. Each of those deer came from the South wooded area, heading North back into the pines.
At to my surprise, because I was expecting a fair amount of deer activity during this evening's prime-time, I only saw one deer, which was a large doe that came out from the South side hedgerow property line area right at 5:20 p.m., and into the picked cornfield. She casually walked out all by herself and fed/grazed approximately 50 yards along the South edge of the field, roughly 150 yards away from me to the SW.
I packed up immediately right at quitting time, climbed down, walked over to both TCs to swap out the SD cards, then gathered all my belongings and headed to my pickup truck through the cornfield, around the wooded finger, which put me approximately 70 yards away from the big doe that was still feeding within the field, turned North, and hiked straight to my truck, just beyond the cornfield.
The follow are the only wildlife captures on only the 'Corn Pile TC' this time, over the last 24hrs.
(Then the first & last deer captured on my ATN Thermal Monocular, 41 seconds of video of two deer.)
Video description:
ATN Thermal Monocular video clips of the first & last deer of the day. One large bodied deer that bedded just inside the thick pine area to the SE and one large adult doe that entered the picked cornfield approximately 10 minutes before quitting time to the SW edge of the field and grazed there well after quitting time, even while I hiked out through the cornfield and she never became alarmed of my being in the area. I always walk in & out with any source of light.
So, inconclusion for today's first time all day hunt at this property of this season so far, I saw a total of approximately 13 or 14 deer, which I believe 4 or 6 of them were bucks, and roughly five deer got to be within bow range, but only one of them left me any such opportunity, which I happen to miss out on completely.
So once again, I am NOT hunting tomorrow. Instead, I'll be doing wood work for the day at home. I do intend to get back out at that property on Wednesday, during the early morning hours again. Then I'll take Thursday & Friday off, giving the area a short break just before 'Bonus Gun Weekend', which I'll be back at that same location once again, most likely setup within the wooded finger area someplace, overlooking the entire North cup edge area, East edge area and SE corner of the picked cornfield, leaving me and ideal shot opportunity for my 12g Remington 870 Express Magnum pump shotgun with a 100 yard zero. I should basically be able to cover the entire back half of that entire cornfield for any deer that steps out.
