Deer Season Results

gavin.west · Post by **gavin.west** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:53 pm

All,

I am interested in doing an informal survey of results from Deer Season.

Please provide as much information relating to harvested deer (sex, antleer size, weight age, etc....)

Please provide as much information about deer sightings.

Please provide information about predator sightings.

It appears the deer herd is down and I want to collect as much eye witness evidence to add to official harvest statistics.

Thanks to all who participate.

gavin.west · Post by **gavin.west** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:55 pm

As for myself in 30 hours of hunting on Sun Mon and Tues. I saw one doe and passed up a 6 pt buck.

I saw / heard approx 20 + coyotees.

The other members of our hunting party had similar experiences. All in all we harvested 1 doe, 1 1/2 years, approx 100 lbs field dressed, healthy and fat. We also harvested two coyotes and heard dozens of them each day.

jmcbain2 · Post by **jmcbain2** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 5:03 pm

I am curious as to what impact the hard winter we had last year was on the deer herd. Perhaps fewer deer are not the result of coyotes, but a winter that started in November and ended in July?

gavin.west · Post by **gavin.west** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:19 am

Your absolutely right. The winter certainly impacted the herd. So did the coyotees. A whole bunch of variables effected them.

- difficult winter
- fawn mortality
- poor habitate / food sources
- predation

etc...etc...etc...

Lets just gather some data. That is the point of this post.

Jon Livingston · Post by **Jon Livingston** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:47 pm

Are you still having the contest with prizes for the most dead coyotes?

Jon

Chamber of Commerce · Post by **Chamber of Commerce** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:59 pm

Mr Johnson,

The Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce is NOT involved in, or "hosting" any wildlife related contest. We host / sponsor an annual Citizen of the Year event with nominations welcome in Jan.

Chamber contact information:

www.BeaverIsland.org
(231) 448-2505
Chamber@BeaverIsland.org

Keith Szczepanski · Post by **Keith Szczepanski** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:53 pm

Maybe should have let that year and a half old doe breed another year due to all of the predation.Just sayin'. QDM at it's finest.

esalveter · Post by **esalveter** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:09 pm

I am not a deer hunter, but would like to add my comments to your survey.

I was on the island several times this year starting in August. During August and September, there seemed to be deer everywhere. I probably saw a dozen or more, maybe a few dozen deer every time I drove a lap around the island. I mentioned to an island resident how numerous the deer seemed to be and how tame they seemed, and he replied that they would start hiding as soon as the shooting started. I wouldn't think bow hunters would spook them much, but that seemed to be the case. When I returned at the end of October, I don't remember seeing even 1 deer. They couldn't possibly be gone, they were just hiding.

There is a lot of talk about coyotes hurting the population, perhaps eating all the fawns. In August and September, I saw many groups of 2 or 3 deer, 1 larger than the others which I presumed were young of the year. I don't think coyotes are hurting the population this year. I do remember a year, a few years back, when I saw no fawns, only single deer. So I do think coyotes get many of the fawns some years.