White-tailed deer behaviorists and those who raise deer for research purposes mostly agree that white-tailed does are typically not that vocal during the rut. In fact, in their reports in Deer & Deer Huning over the past 30 years, many of the top behavorists and researchers have stated that does are most vocal during the fawning season.

Dr. Leonard Lee Rue III was possibly the first behaviorist to document this whitetail tendency, noting how does make a soft, cat-like mewing sound when they call for their hidden fawns. While photographing whitetails in the 1950s, Rue noted how fawns, after hearing a doe’s bleats, jumped to their feet and went to their mothers to nurse.

Despite a doe’s mute tendencies in autumn, both Rue and Charles Alsheimer agree that bleat calls (tubes and cans) are extremely effective for attracting adult deer during fall hunting seasons.

These seemingly contradictory observations bring rise to an interesting question: Are all whitetails trained at birth to respond to doe bleats?

We might never know, but we do know that calling elicits a definite and pronounced response in deer. To learn more, check out my new article, "Bleat Performance," in the September issue of the magazine. It hits newsstands on June 24.

Dan Schmidt, Editor

Attached is a picture of a deer I have seen on my way to work every day for the past month.

I grew up knowing that if I asked someone nicely, I could hunt or fish on their property. One deer season many years ago, I was driving home from a morning hunt when I spotted a nice buck and several does about 200 yards into a field. I took the next gravel road off the highway and knocked on the door of the first house I came to. An older lady and her son answered the door.  I told them about the deer I had spotted and asked if I could go in after him. They said go ahead, but watch out for the cattle back there. I drove back toward the highway, parked in a field entrance, grabbed my rifle and started sneaking back toward the area where the deer had been. I was about 2 or 3 hundred yards from the truck when I spotted white flags bouncing over a hilltop.

I thought I had lost my chance but something caught my eye, antlers. The buck was still standing but I could only see his head and antlers when he raised them to check the situation. I  could get no closer than I was, and a head shot was all I had. I was prone and had a good steady rest with my .270 and took the shot. He was out of sight, but I couldn't tell if he ran or was down. After walking to the sight I fount that he was not just beyond a ridge, but standing at the edge of a washout. He was now laying in the bottom of a steep muddy gully. I grabbed his antlers to take a look and he came back to life. I jumped back and the buck began lungeing like a horse does when it tries to get up. After several tries I thought he was going to get up so I shot him again, and that killed him quickly.

After checking him out I found the first shot had left a bare streak up the flat spot on his head, right between the antlers. It had knocked him out. It was quite a chore to get him up out of that gully.I took the deer back to the landowners house to show them and thank them, and they were more excited than I was. The old woman was acting like a kid that had just taken the deer herself. Just before Christmas that year I dropped by their house and gave them some sticks of summer sausage and the excitement started all over again.

That was a long time ago, and I bet there are very few folks that would let a complete stranger hunt like that anymore. The grandkids inherit the farm, don't know how to run it or are just too lazy, and they sell it to hunting clubs.This "business" of hunting leases, and landowners becoming more concerned about liability is going to be the death of hunting as I know it, and it is a crying shame. I live in the country but do not own enough land to hunt.

Fortunatly, I have good relations with some neighbors that own lots of good hunting ground. They let me hunt, and I keep and eye on their ground, clean up the trees that fall into the fields after high winds or ice, and give them some deer meat. No money ever changes hands, and thats the way it should be.
 
Robert Rowland
A long-time D&DH reader from northwest Missouri

Talk about a few bad apples spoiling the bushel.

Thanks to the actions of some hooligans, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are considering enacting laws and seasons on the gathering of shed antlers from deer and elk.

According to published reports, wildlife officials from those states have seen an increase in activity from individuals who harass deer and elk in efforts to get them to shed their antlers prematurely. For example, in April, Nevada game officials apprehended a man who used an ATV to chase mule deer through sagebrush in attempts to get them to drop their antlers.

Montana has been dealing with this problem for several years, and has already implemented closed seasons on shed hunting in certain parts of its elk range. Fines for harassing deer and elk in that state can range up to $500 per violation.

Other reports include violations in Idaho where shed hunters were using off-road motorcycle to chase animals.

A date-specific shed-hunting season? Now I think I've heard it all.

--Dan Schmidt, Editor

A highlight from the September issue of D&DH, which will hit newsstands in about a month:

Field Editor Bob Zaiglin reports on the latest findings from the Southeast Deer Study Group. Among them is a recently completed study by Charles Ruth, Deer Project Leader in South Carolina.

Among his findings, Ruth and his associates studied how supplemental feeds are used throughout private lands in the Southeast. They learned that corn was distributed on 94 percent of the properties with an average of 18 locations per property, 7½ months per year. An average of 34,600 pounds of corn was distributed per property equating to 1,200 pounds of corn per deer harvested. At a price of $4.50 per bushel, this represents a cost of $94.50 per deer harvested. Extrapolating survey results to the region yields 80,000 bait stations and 2.33 million bushels of feed at a cost of $10.4 million.

Baiting and feeding deer is as big a business as it is controversial!

Be sure to read Bob's full report in the September issue.

Dan Schmidt, Editor

In the January issue of the magazine, Tes Jolly presented an informative piece on how Southern landowners have used pre-established honeysuckle to their benefit as a deer browse source. One thing we should have done a better job at (and I will take blame for this) is that landowners elsewhere should not introduce this plant to their properties, especially in the upper Midwest.

My good friend Aaron McCullough of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was kind enough to share his expertise on the dangers of honeysuckle:

1. Habitat
Japanese honeysuckle  readily invades open natural communities, often by seed spread by birds. An  aggressive colonizer of successional fields, this vine also will invade  mature forest and open woodlands such as post oak flatwoods and pin oak  flatwoods. Forests with either natural or unnatural openings are often  invaded by Japanese honeysuckle when birds drop seeds into these light gap  areas. Deep shading reduces the amount of invasion.

2. Life  History
Japanese honeysuckle climbs and drapes over native  vegetation, shading it out. It is capable of completely covering herbaceous  and understory plants, and climbing trees to the canopy. The semi-evergreen  condition of this honeysuckle allows for growth both prior to and after  dormancy of other deciduous plants. The prolific growth covers and smothers  vegetation present including understory shrubs and trees in forested  communities. Although this prolonged growth period is beneficial to the  plant, it is also beneficial in controlling the plant. Vegetative runners  are most prolific in the open sun and will resprout where touching the soil,  forming mats of new plants. This honeysuckle will display little growth  under moderate shade. In deep shade, runners develop but often die back.  Flowering and seed development are heaviest in open-sun areas. Seedling  establishment and growth is slow in the first 2 years of development of a  new honeysuckle colony.

3. Effects Upon Natural Areas
This  aggressive vine seriously alters or destroys the understory and herbaceous  layers of the communities it invades, including prairies, barrens, glades,  flatwoods, savannas, floodplain and upland forests. Japanese honeysuckle  also may alter understory bird populations in forest communities. 

4. Current Status
Japanese honeysuckle is categorized as an  exotic weed under the Illinois Exotic Weed Control Act of 1987. As such, its  commercial sale in Illinois is prohibited.

Please keep these factors in mind and opt for native browse plantings when planning your next project.

Dan Schmidt, Editor

That old saying is certainly ringing true for the deer near our home offices. Here is a picture I took off the front porch of my house yesterday evening. The photo doesn't show all of them, but 15 deer in total showed up just before nightfall. What were they eating? Willow leaves and twigs. Yes, things have gotten that bad around here. We still have about a foot of really hard, crusty snow in the woods and the deer are really feeling the effects of this long winter.
--Dan Schmidt

Although the majority of white-tailed bucks have shed their antlers from last year, I am still receiving reports of deer still holding on to one side and, in rare cases, both sides. The following photo was taken by a good friend of mine (and loyal D&DH reader) from Waupaca, Wis., which is just south of our editorial offices here in northeast WI. This photo was taken Sunday, March 16. We are keeping track of dates for sightings across the country, so please add your notes to this post.
--D.E.S.