Let 'em shed, let 'em shed, let 'em shed

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the archery season was so not delightful, and since there's no legal time left, let 'em shed, let 'em shed, let 'em shed. Dad and I checked the hot spot again this morning. Nothing. Twenty - eight below zero @ 8:00am. The cameras have a bit of a struggle in weather like this, but I still managed to get 184 pictures in 3 nights. To my surprise, the buck activity has lessened. I didn't get any pictures of any of the bucks off of next year's hit list. Either the batteries were dying because of the cold and were missing some pictures, or the bucks are over on the pile of year old sunflowers. I may have to adjust the placement of the camera.

The antlers are dropping, though. Not as many as expected, but there's three bucks now that have dropped. The first was a yearling, then a 3 year old, now a 2 year old 8 point. None of the bigger bucks as far as we know. It's supposed to stay chilly for the next few days. When I say chilly, I mean lows in the 20s below and a high of 1 degree on sunday. No snowfall in the forecast for a few days, so if we pick up one of the bigger deer on the camera with no antlers, it would be possible to venture into some of the beds, but then again, it might be smart to wait it out and not spook 'em out of the area.

In two months it'll be a free for all. I don't think there are too many bucks that carry their antlers into March around here, so I'm not really worried about that slim minority. With the rutting activity non-existent, we have to focus on the feeding and bedding areas. As long as the deer aren't messed with too drastically, and we don't get too much more snow, we should be able to locate a few antlers this spring.