I can see this.....OR...she was putting her nose in the air to try to wind you. If she does this....she's looking up by default.

Teach me, then. I'm all ears!

One year I was hunting a nice buck that was bedding in a small cattail swamp. I had two stands set up in two different fence rows to try to intercept him. One morning I was in one of the stands and was going to stand up and I stumbled. I caught myself but had made a big motion. [&:] When I looked out to where I thought the buck might be coming from I saw him sprinting for the cattails.[:@]I hoped that he was just late going to bed and that he hadn't seen me. Later that afternoon I set up in the other stand and waited for him to come out of his bed. About 20 minutes before dark I saw antlers coming out of the cattails. The buck got to the edge of the field and the cattails and stopped and looked around before heading in my direction. He walked about 15 yards, stopped and looked directly up at the stand I was in that morning!! He took about three more steps and carefully examined the empty stand once more before proceeding my way. He got to within 12 yards of me when the wind switched, hitting the back of my neck. That was the last time I ever saw that buck. [&o]

That buck learned to look up!

Greg...I'm not doubting that scenario one bit. What I'd ask, though....is if you think he'd "learned" to look in places where he got no visual or olfactory stimulus to do so.

Do you think deer go through the woods .....in places they've never seen or smelled a hunter close by.....and just "look up" for them?

No wrong answer (of course).

There's a good article in one of (I think it was) Lee Rue III's books that talks about a study that was done on a small tract of enclosed land (I believe it was about 5 acres). There were 10 free roaming bucks darted and then put into the enclosure and then one hunter for each buck entered simultaneously attempting to harvest a book. What was witnessed was unbelievable. Bucks did things such as get on their knees and crawl backwards in order to avoid the hunters. If they can learn to do things like this, I'd venture to say that do in fact they "learn" to look up. Call it a conditioned response or whatever else you want, its learning.

Well I think that many times they don't have to look up to see you. From a small distance you are just in their natural vision range, as they get closer they may look up toanalyze what they saw from farther away (if lacking a secondary sensory verification). I spotted a hunter in a tree stand just tonight, I was glassing a back corner and saw a blob in a tree. Once I zoomed in sure enough a hunter, (obviously not wearing UC ).

Well when they are scent checking they are putting their nose as high in the air as possible as if they were trying to reach for an apple above their head. When they spot your scan the trees they look directly at you and wonder what that blob is. I've figured GMMAT you've spent enough time in the woods you could tell the difference.

You're entitled to believe anything you want. From 40 yds....even if you're 25' up....you'r estill in their sight line. I've had PLENTY of deer "look up" and see my outline. Do I think they're going through the woods doing this a lot? Nope.

I just don't give them these analytical powers a lot of you do. I don't think they're capable of such. Seems like they'd learn that the two movinglights 6' apart on a horizontal plane near that black, hard trail means a quick death. But....they sure seem to forget it as fast as they learnit ....if that's true.

Read this, everyone. Wahoo.... .really makes some good points, in this post. I think his post is right because its has science in it..... giving it validity.

Good, job wahoo

Did anyone research pavlov/classical conditioning[&:]