More of a sense than actual facts. I'll see if I can come up with something logical. This year was a wingdinger. If you were a marksman, you'd call this a flyer (4 rounds right on and one two inches to the left). There was a early migration during the end of the modern season, and it looked like it was going to happen, then the next thing you know it was T-shirt weather. 60+ degree temps in November, for almost the entire rut. We are not just talking a day or two. The animals patterned different with light. I mean they are going to breed. Even when I got an overcast day, they seemed so locked into their patterns. It was interesting studying rut areas. Places the deer come to , whether there was snow or not and the timing of it all. I am used to photographing the same deer in the same spots, but then throw in areas that always have deer.....had none, and areas that never have deer, had lots. Is that because of predators pushing them around. Hunters continuously permit hunting or targeting the same areas.
It was fun watching the entire rut unfold from start to finish. I had a larger comprehensive view of it this year, and hope to utilize that in the future with photography. There are definitely stages and timeing is important, and how the weather interpheres with that. Then how age structure fits in this cycle of timing. It was also good to see some interaction between species.
