Tag: white-tailed-buck

The North Winds

Posted on by
A young White-tailed buck seems to defy gravity as it speeds across a field in Iroquois County.

December 7, 2021 – Those inevitable cold fronts bring damp and chilly changes to the Midwest, causing white crusty ice crystals to form during the night. Across the tired and dejected-looking landscape, a delightful sugary coating enhanced by the morning light shimmers and sparkles, the heavy frost covers the withering but determined understory and tells the tale of the coming change. Strong north winds remove stubborn leaves from the nearly bare trees. Marcescent hardwoods, with their tattered dried leaves, rattle in the breeze, a somewhat haunting sound that will continue through the dormant season. The pockets of cover that wildlife like White-tailed deer and Coyotes have used all summer will no longer be the havens of safety and vantage for these large mammals, although they remain to be quick escapes for pheasants, cottontails, and fox squirrels. Those tangled bare stemmed forms that border woods and prairies that were once places of a safe retreat have been reduced to transparent wiry frames offering much less safety and protection for the coming months. The struggles of winter are within sight. Flushed out into the open by the strong desire to breed, the behavior of White-tailed deer has changed with the colder weather of late autumn. Meteorological winter began December 1st, and although the rut will soon start to decline, the breeding will continue a bit longer. It is not unusual to see a doe bed down in corn stubble mid-morning in a wide-open area with a few bucks standing nearby waiting for an opportunity to breed. The gestation period for the White-tailed deer is about six months. The female deer will carry her unborn through the harshness of winter, a time of snow, arctic blasts, and food supplies that become increasingly limited. With the unpredictable calamities caused by climate change and the effects on the jetstream that impact all of us, the periods of extended cold and snow cover potentially affect the development of the White-tails’ fetus. Other animals surviving the winter in the Midwest require food and habitat to get them through those hard times. Nature restoration programs and land left undeveloped provide year-round safe places for nature. It is easy for humans to go indoors by a fire to warm up during the coldest of times, but wildlife of the Midwest endures some unimaginable bitter conditions during the winter. Let’s not forget to leave them some habitat.

A wary Coyote in its new winter coat crosses a recently harvested bean field.

The Rut

Posted on by
A big White-tailed buck stands at the edge of a road in Iroquois County in pursuit of a doe.

December 3, 2020 – The Midwestern autumn brings shorter days, colder temperatures, and behavior changes to those majestic whitetail bucks. The new growth of antlers that began in the spring has hardened and reached its’ maximum growth for the year. The bachelor groups of spring and summer have disbanded and the males are now on their own. Standing and showing little concern while in plain sight at the edge of a woods, or in the corn stubble of a harvested field, with his mouth open and head tilted up into the wind, the buck is clearly focused on something else. White-tailed deer have very keen senses and along with the bucks very sensitive nose, he also has a special sensory organ in the roof of his mouth that can detect females that are approaching estrous. The strong desire to breed is why, at this time of the year, we see those seemingly out of place whitetail bucks that are in pursuit of a mate. Standing with their nose in the air and with their mouth open and lip curled up blocking their nostrils they are tasting the air for that special signal, and during this time that buck has only one thing on his mind. The male deer can actually locate a doe nearing estrus by tasting the airborne chemical signals from quite a distance. Seeing the normally shy, overly cautious, and sometimes totally nocturnal whitetail buck out during the middle of the day can mean only one thing, it is the breeding season, also known as the rut. The breeding season for White-tailed deer is where caution is truly thrown to the wind and love is literally in the air. The peak of rut takes place from late October through November, but breeding will continue through January as the rut heats and cools and finally ends for another mating season for the whitetails of Illinois.

With lip curled up and mouth open a small buck chases a doe through the prairie grasses.

Bucks And Toms

Posted on by
A rare look at a giant White-tailed buck out in late morning with a doe during the rut this past November in Iroquois county.

January 9, 2020 – Here in Northeastern Illinois it has been a warmer, more forgiving winter leading up to the new year, and the relatively mild conditions that we have been enjoying have also continued into early January. Open water, and mostly snow-free fields means that there is easy foraging for both migratory and resident wildlife such as birds, waterfowl, turkey, and deer. Large flocks of wild turkeys can be seen feeding on plant material and the spilled grains from the last harvest in the snow-free agricultural fields, the cautious birds usually not far from the safety of their wooded escape. Much like White-tailed deer, wild turkeys separate into groups depending on the time of year. Young male turkeys, in late fall, form jake flocks after leaving their brood flock. The hens also group up after brooding their young. The adult male turkeys stay in bachelor groups until the breeding season arrives in the spring. March and April is the time that the male and female turkeys are joined together in large flocks and then eventually into smaller breeding flocks that are made up of a few toms with ten or fifteen hens. White-tailed deer also form bachelor groups. The bucks group together throughout the spring and summer months and unlike the turkey bachelors that are made up of mostly adult birds, the deer bachelors are made up of many different ages of males. During the warm summer months the White-tailed bucks are growing their antlers back after losing or shedding them during the winter and after the rut (active breeding time). The new growth of antlers starts in the spring and noticeably start out as velvety nubs. During the time of the bucks antler regrowth, the females or does, are giving birth during the spring and summer. By fall the antlers of the White-tailed buck are fully developed. Some antlers are small and are called spikes. While most are average in size there are a few that are huge and impressive but rarely seen. The White-tailed deer in late fall begin another breeding season. The bachelor groups break up and the bucks go their own way in search of does. The wild turkeys, the toms, the hens, and the jakes are still in their groups waiting for spring and another nesting season.

A flock of Wild turkeys that came out of their tall tree roost landing in bean stubble this past week east of Kankakee.

Hawks And Deer

Posted on by
A Red-tailed hawk, one of the most recognized birds of prey in North America

January 14, 2019 – A Red-tailed hawk, one of the most recognized birds of prey in North America, seen perched in a dead tree watching for movement in a nearby field. The Red-tailed hawk is most often seen hunting along rural highways and busy interstates perched on fence posts and in trees with an intense focus on the grassy areas where a prey animal, like a vole, a mouse or even a Cottontail rabbit might make a fatal mistake and show itself. It is not unusual to see a pair of Red-tailed hawks perched side-by-side during the winter months prior to the nesting season.

The buck was running in obvious fear with its’ mouth wide open and its’ tail straight up

A beautiful fast moving White-tailed buck that was spooked by hunters who were removing their deer stands for the season from a woods east of Kankakee. The buck was running in obvious fear with its’ mouth wide open and its’ tail straight up, a doe not far behind the buck followed in the same direction. In a matter of seconds the two scared deer were across a harvested bean field through a hedge into another field before vanishing into another woods.

The Boss

Posted on by

Large 12 point White-tailed Buck with swollen neck.

Large 12 point White-tailed Buck with swollen neck.

November 12, 2018 – A large 12 point buck, photographed just west of Kankakee recently, displays those tell tale signs that the breeding season for White-tailed deer is occurring in our area. Also known as the “rut”, the mating season for the White-tails really gets in gear by the end of October and lasts through January. This burly buck with his huge swollen neck stands like a stone fence between the doe and the intruder. The explanation for the enlarged necks on White-tailed bucks this time of the year during rut is widely believed by wildlife biologists to be the affects of a surge of the testosterone hormone. The increase in hormones is also believed to cause the aggression and the lack of fear that is a well known behavior of the White-tailed buck during the rut.

Bachelor Groups

Posted on by

White-tailed Bucks

White-tailed Bucks

July 30, 2018 – Small herds of White-tailed bucks called bachelor groups are being seen throughout the area most often near a good food source. The photo shows three of the four mature deer that were spotted east of Momence recently, the forth buck had moved farther out in the beans and is out of the frame. These late summer bucks have antlers that are still growing and still covered in velvet. Soon their growing season will end, the velvet that is covering the antlers will dry up and wear away and the antlers will become hardened and fully developed. The bucks will become more aggressive trying to establish dominance, the group will quickly dis-band and the bucks will go their own way as the days grow shorter, temperatures drop and the rut, the mating season, grows near.

Backlight Buck

Posted on by

White-tailed Buck

Backlight Buck on the run

January 19, 2018 – Almost silhouetted in the backlight of the morning sun, a spooked White-tailed buck does not waste any time increasing the distance between itself and possible danger. White-tailed deer can reach speeds of 40 mile per hour and easily jump barriers that are 9 feet tall. They have the ability to take to the air and leap an amazing distance of 30 feet while running to escape a threat that is in hot pursuit. In a matter of seconds that buck along with another was across the field, through a small woodlot, down a hillside and into a field of corn stubble well over a half mile away and then like a snowflake in the spring they were gone.