Late Summer Deer Watching
By P.J. Reilly
It’s the last two hours of a beautiful late summer evening. The air is still. The cicadas are singing. And the deer are filtering out of the woods into the local fields. Now’s the time to grab multiple sets of binoculars, pack the family into the truck, onto the bikes or into their boots, and head out for some deer watching.
Late summer deer watching is a perfect activity for the whole family, and it also can net some valuable intel for hunting season. Find a good vantage point overlooking a field of low crops — soybeans, alfalfa, grass, etc. — and give everyone a set of binoculars.
The deer are fairly relaxed this time of year and not overly suspicious of stopped vehicles or humans standing off in the distance. Ideally, your vantage point will be a couple hundred yards away from where you expect deer to show up. It’s more fun when the kids can talk normally and maybe run around a little bit. If you have to keep telling everyone to be quiet and still, the trip is going to get old for them real quick.
If you’re in a vehicle or on bikes, you might be able to line up a couple spots to check out before the sun vanishes. If you’re on foot, you’re probably limited to one location.
The goal is simple. Watch for deer. It’s always nice to spot a big buck in your hunting area this time of year. Understand, however, bucks often spend the summer in one area before moving as far as several miles away for the fall. You never know though, so it’s nice to take an early inventory in case the big boy sticks around.
If you’ve got an early hunting season that starts in late August or early to mid-September, then it’s entirely possible the monster buck you’re watching will still be hanging around come opening day. Pay attention to his habits to identify patterns.
Does he always enter the field via the same trail? Or do changing winds lead him to use different trails? Does he show up every night? Is he always in the company of specific other bucks? This is all good information to gather.
Perhaps more important than keying in on specific deer, however, is identifying preferred locations where deer access a field. Watch a field enough nights and you’ll begin to identify patterns in deer traffic. The ones you’re watching now might not be the same deer you’ll be hunting, but the odds are very high other the deer will access the field via the same trails. Plan your stand sites based on that knowledge.
Make sure the whole family is part of the plan-making process as you watch deer on these evenings. They’ll love it if mom or dad connects on a deer during the season using that plan. Or, if the kids will be hunting too, they’ll be thrilled to have watched the deer in summer, helped craft a plan for hunting, and then execute that plan when the season opens. When they’re part of the process from start to finish, kids tend to have heightened interest.
Feel the energy in the group after the sun sets and everyone is talking about the deer they saw and the behaviors they witnessed. This is how you generate excitement for hunting season. And it’s a great way for the whole family to kill a late summer evening.
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