One of the things that “goes with the territory” of it being late Summer is that I spend a good bit of time looking over the pictures captured on various trail cameras from multiple settings on various ranches.
I do this primarily because it is now possible to begin to “spotlight” some of the information I want to evaluate and share with other interested parties. Some are property owners, and some are guests who will be invited to spend hunting time on my own land later in the year.
From the age and gender “counts” I am looking for indications of overall health of the wildlife, especially the whitetail deer, that are all native and on low fenced acreage. I don’t do much work on high fenced properties these days, but the principles are the same. Of particular interest to me are how many fawns “made it” to this time of the year. I am also carefully trying to identify certain males that are on the “hit list” for removing, as well as the “DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT LIST” due to several reasons explained a little bit later in this Tale.
In all honesty, the best that can be done at this Labor Day weekend writing is some initial impressions, that can be “fine-tuned” with further study over the next 60 days or so before November 4, 2023. That is the opening day of the regular Deer Season in La Brasada.
My general impression so far is that the animals appear to be in about the condition I would expect, given the weather conditions over the last 9 months. Not the best body weights nor antler growth. And not an overabundance of juvenile deer. But certainly not the worst I have seen in my multiple decades of TRYING to be a better steward of the populations that inhabit the little pieces of La Brasada that I am privileged to try, and help be made better.
A spike or two and a 4 point with NO brow tines have my attention from a “need to study further” perspective before deciding on their keep or go vote. And several 8-10 pointers that are a definite “leave alone and let grow more” viewpoint that fall into the no older than a 3-4 year old perspective.
While not overly concerning, I am not seeing but one or two what I would consider mature males. The Old Guys often tend to be Loners during this time of the year and will mostly only “get out and about” in wider circles closer to breeding season. Of course, just like with most animal species including Homo Sapiens, there is a larger young to middle age population than elderly, given the normal life cycle trends.