‘Tis the season.
If you are a serious bowhunter, you are undoubtedly in the woods now. The bow season opened four weeks ago, but deer activity is only now intensifying.
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It is called the “rut” — the breeding season for whitetail deer. At this latitude, anyhow, you can roughly figure early to mid-October through mid-December as the rut.
Contrary to popular opinion, the rut is not influenced by moon phase, weather changes or planetary alignments. Photoperiod (amount of daylight each day) is what triggers females to come into estrus, and the does dictate rutting activity. Bucks are ready as soon as their antlers shed the velvet in September, but the girls come into estrus later.
While photoperiodism is the key, some does come into estrus before others. Depends on age, past sexual history and/or the availability of suitable bucks.
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A whitetail doe of reproductive age comes into heat for a 24-36 hour period each fall. If she is not bred in that time frame, she regresses and will come back into heat 28 days later. If she isn’t bred at that time, the cycle starts again. More than 98 percent of all mature does are bred successfully each year.
When you hear hunters talking about the rut, they are undoubtedly referring to the peak of the rut — the short timeframe when the highest percentage of does come into heat.
It’s going to be close to the same time each year.
Old buddy Charlie Alsheimer of Bath, a nationally renowned whitetail fanatic, made a living predicting the peak of the rut in various locations, creating books, calendars and series of magazine articles on the mysterious biology. He swore up and down that the rut was based on moon phases. Modern wildlife biologists argue that it is not.
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Whatever, around here activity tends to ramp up around Halloween and peaks at the end of the first or second week of November. The firearms deer season in this zone is timed so that the majority of bucks will have bred before the guns get to the woods — assuring the best reproduction.
The rut peaks again in early to mid-December, the next estrus cycle for those does not bred in mid-November.
During the rut, normally-cautious bucks, fueled by intense hormonal urges, search far and wide for receptive does, often recklessly.
That’s the increased activity that hunters see. Truthfully most of the breeding is done at night, under the cover of darkness. But deer are often still chasing when the sun comes up.
Hunters swear that cold weather triggers the rut, but actually daytime activity increases simply because bucks are uncomfortable lying about in the cold.
“Cold makes deer move around more, but it has nothing to do with the rut,” deer biologist Mike Hall once told me. “Guys see more deer movement and think that’s the start of the rut. If they don’t see much activity, they think there is no rut that year.
“Do they honestly believe that something as essential to the species as breeding would rely on weather patterns?”
A mature buck may breed several does, and an experienced doe may breed several bucks each year.
Some female fawns (six months old) can actually come into estrus if they reach a certain weight, which typically occurs later in the year.
Hunters, of course, tend to perceive the rut based on what they see from their individual stand. That’s why I hear “expert” opinions such as “there was no rut last year.” (Gee, where did all those fawns come from in the spring?) or “The rut was early (or late).”
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Suffice it to say that the rut will peak the same next year as it does this year, and last. Seeing the activity fits into the “right place at the right time” description.
Groton shooter wins Cayuga Trap
Groton’s Steve Uhrovcik, tied for the league lead after five weeks, broke 48 birds at Dryden last week to take the season’s scoring title in the 2018 Cayuga Lake Trap League.
Newfield’s Chuck Smith, who was tied with Uhrovcik entering the final week, broke just 45 at Dryden and fell to a three-way tie for fourth in the final standings.
Past champion Chris Landon of Groton broke 49 to finish second in the league with 289 birds, one behind his teammate.
Another teammate, Gerry Ostrander, successfully defended his Senior Veteran (70 and older) title with a 287 total while past champion Dan Card of Dryden broke 49 to clinch the veteran (65 and older) title with another 287.
Pat Logan of Dryden broke 45 to clinch the Ladies’ Division title and Newfield’s Chase Wojtanik, at 13 one of only five teenagers in the league, won the junior title.
A total of 26 Senior Veterans competed in the six-week league; 11 Veterans and 11 women.
Past junior champion C.J. Smiley, shooting on his home course, was the only one of the week’s 101 participants to break all 50 birds.
Groton won the team title by 16 birds over two-time defending champion Dryden. The league’s shoot-off championships will be held Sunday, Nov. 4, at Groton.
Henderson’s outdoors columns appear weekly. Send information to Henderson Outdoors, 202 Prospect St., Endicott, NY 13760, or e-mail [email protected].
Source: https://t-tees.com
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