Phil from Maine

I have a question that hopefully some one can give me an answer to. I have been scouting for turkeys and have seen a doe with 2 yearlings with her. One of them is a piebald (somewhat) and the other is a normal colored deer. Now I have been watching them when ever I can get the chance to drive back there. It has been over a week now. My question has to do with their habits. My understanding that does and fawns/yearlings normally stay within a mile radius. These deer are traveling 5 miles one way and then back to where I first saw them. That is 10 miles going back and forth?? Why? I have been trying to find out where they are hanging around at and this is what I have found out!!! When I first saw them 5 miles from where they had started I thought they were leaving a deer yard. But when you see them back there again?? Couldn't be leaving a deer yard I do not think anyways..

Phil from Maine

Any ideas as of why they are traveling so far?

I mean I was always taught up here that a doe and her fawns/yearlings will travel in a 1 mile radius unless being pushed out of there. For the most part that has always been a pretty good thing to go by. For a buck during rut they always travel some pretty good distances. So to say the least I am puzzled by this behavior..

Krypt Keeper

I was always taught growing up that deer will travel 5 miles a day pretty easy for food water and bedding. Have read of bucks traveling up to 20 miles in a day. Being caught on multiple trail cams.

Where I hunt a few deer hang around it but not many. The property I hunt is basically a travel route. The deer cross my property to get to food and water. So I sit and wait to catch them heading to the kitchen for a snack.

Do you have any food or streams close by to where you see them?

Phil from Maine

They cross 2 streams to go where they went to.. Down in back is another stream as well as a lake with in a mile on each side of the road.. Their food source is either getting what clover grows out on the pipeline or from cuttings which is every where.. Also plenty of cedar swamps in this area.. All of which can hold a decent deer population.. I have always known that the bucks travel but not so much when hot weather hits us. They tend to go back in the swamps to lay around and feed on the young cedar in there.. This is mainly woods up here and not much of anything else.. They also love the mushrooms when they start growing in those older cuttings..

Thanks for the reply.