Sits # 4, 5 & 6 - And The Return of HighRise

In the most classic way, the trail camera pictures and daytime movement have nearly come to a halt. It's not like I should expect it to be any other way, but I guess I get too caught up in admiring these bucks that I forget that they are shifting into a survival pattern. It's truly amazing what two weeks to a month can do. The 28-30th of August, bucks are still very predictable and not camera-shy in the least. As soon as they peel velvet, it's like they bed down and don't move.
Sit # 4 found Steph and I in the ground blind in the one spot I most anticipated some type of action - the island. We saw 5 deer on our way to the blind and zero once we sat down. It was the only sit we actually got to do while we had one week of permission for that spot. The wind was just backwards on the nights we had free. Too bad. Sit # 5 was me by myself in the ground blind overlooking a waterhole that I recently discovered. I put up my Bushnell and finally got to use it on Field Scan mode. There were several deer using the waterhole as I predicted and a majority of that was during daylight hours. My first evening sit I had a doe and a fawn come in for a drink at 30 yards directly across from me. After they hydrated, the fawn ran up to the doe and started nursing. It was pretty neat.

Sit # 6 was me by myself again in the same spot but was a morning hunt this morning. I sat from 6:38 to about 8:45am and saw no deer. I also pulled the camera down, but left the ground blind up. I plan to bring a first time bowhunter out there to see if he can shoot his first deer with the bow.
On my way back to town, I checked and moved a few cameras. On the last camera I checked, I lifted the cover only to see that the batteries were dead. I hate that feeling. I reviewed the pictures and sure enough, there was HighRise again! About time. The crazy thing was that he was there at almost the exact same time, exactly 27 days later. Maybe he travels by moonlight? Interesting. He came in on September 5th at 9:50pm and then on October 2rd at 8:38pm. He stuck around for quite a while. I hope he begins moving into the area like he did last year. He's a brute!