January has not been the best month on weather. We have have extreme cold, had some snow, and when it wasn't either of those it got warm and we had tons of rain.. Either way, not great weather for bow hunting. This whole thing called a polar vortex which I personally have never heard of until this year has our weather doing strange things! The snow makes for great hunting and with the snow on the ground and the deer herding up when you find them you normally find at least 3 and sometimes many more. I was out working today and had to do some driving between Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County, I saw a ton of deer, saw some small groups of 1 - 3 and a couple medium groups of 3 - 7 deer. But on my way home this evening it was about 5:45 - 6 it was dark but with the snow on the ground you can see a lot, even more so in open areas I saw one group of deer feeding in a field along the road and there must have been 40 deer in total. They were all keyed in on the food source which appeared to be some grass showing through the snow. Goes to show you, find food you will find deer. I also have some family members that live in a neighborhood which there is no real woods within a 1/4 to 1/2 mile and all the houses are real close together on 1/4 acre lots. Well, I have been told and seen pictures of does and even a good buck coming up around sunrise, sunset, and throughout the night to eat from their bird feeders. This is not a normal place for deer to be, but they are searching for food.
Find food with this cold weather and snow on the ground you will find deer I promise. However, there is one thing I will say about this. I have been asked by a couple people this week why if they have a feeder are they not seeing deer during daylight hours. Well, I am not totally sure why, but deer seem to a little more spooky with snow on the ground and they also tend to travel a lot further to get food. So sometimes they will not visit a feeder until after dark if something seems wrong or maybe they traveled further away that morning and just takes them longer to get there. Doesn't mean the same thing will happen the next day, they are just harder to pattern on times right now, but you can be sure if there is food they will be there sometime.
I have been out a couple times recently, mostly on our private land trying to take out another doe for the freezer or given the chance another one to donate to the feed the hungry program. I have seen deer, just haven't been able to get a shot..They are surely herding up, but I am only seeing does and fawns and they are real spooky where I am hunting. Past couple times I have gone to freezer my butt of I have seen deer just never got any shots...
As the season is wrapping up this week for many they are already done either because of work or the weather, others like me will still try to stick it out one or two more times this week if work allows. Friday will be a bitter sweet day for me, it has a good year of spending time in the woods with friends and learning new things and new places about the woods on the sweet side and I did get a deer. On the bitter side I didn't have a decent shot at any antlers after opening day and beyond that I had some blown situations where deer busted me and I missed a shot I would normally make. I guess this year was a year to remind me I am only human and hunting is just that, hunting. It can be challenging and it can be trying, but overall it is one of my greatest passions and I would not trade it for anything else. Well, with near zero temperatures called for this week I might trade it for a nice warm April or May morning with the bass biting! Ah, maybe not trade, but gives me something to look forward to! 🙂
Good luck this week if you are going out and let us know if you have any success! Oh, and don't freezer, suppose to be super cold!
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