Here I am in northeast PA and I am trying to put together a mystery puzzle. I have over 200 acres of mountainous land with four food plots (ladino clover, alfalfa & rye). I have been scouting with the use of two deer cams. It seems almost exactly to the day that my cameras are getting much less deer activity during the period of 9/20 to early October. The cameras are set up on food plot areas with mineral piles. I normally get around 24-40 trips of each camera per week. Starting the third week in September my camera trips go down to 6-10 for each camera per week, and it seems to continue like this the next two to three weeks. This is my second year of this type of research.

These cameras seldom record the same bucks, so I think I have two independent survey areas. I am trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together. Are the deer going to different food sources? This could be, but the dominant mast crop is beech and cherry and the cherry is good this year but the beech is spotty. Are their social structures changing so rapidly with the upcoming rut that they have abandoned there patterns? This I am not sure of. I have photos of 4-6 dominant 3.5+ year old bucks on each camera. Maybe their territorial clashes have forced some of these bucks out, but what about the does? Have the food plots lured in many bucks and does from other areas, who are now going back to the areas in which they breed?

I sure would appreciate any ideas anyone has to offer. I am not a professional researcher and would value any interested replies.

Kevin C.