’23 Deer Rut in Milwaukee County

The deer rut in the Milwaukee County was fairly good again this year. It seemed like it might have been shorter than normal, though. It’s possible that with the warmer weather here, into November, that it was a little bit shorter. That is just my opinion based on my observations. Last year, I saw more than 20 different bucks, while this year the number was down to 14. I was able to get photos of 10, so you can see my numbers were down. I also didn’t find some of the bigger ones from last year. I’m not sure if they didn’t make it through the mild winter, or if they were a causality of a traffic accident, or even worse being poached. Hopefully, I just missed them, and they are still around. I did find some nice young ones that have potential to be big in the future. That will be a couple years away though. When these deer are in rut, they sure do not pay attention to you! I find a lot of them standing by the tree line, with their nose in the air smelling. When they catch that scent though, they are off very quickly on the trail. Sometimes they are just moseying around and then catch a scent trail. They will run right in front of your car, so you always have to be on the lookout. I watched one just moving slowly, eating the ends of twigs, smelling things and whatnot, then all of a sudden take off running. It ran about 50 yards and took a hard right, slowed and smelled a tree, then darted straight across the road! Thankfully, no cars were coming. I still find it amazing seeing these big bucks, sometimes standing only 50′ from you! They truly are something special at that close range. Photos below are from the first two weeks in November. Enjoy!