By Bob Riege

As the silver threads of early light fell upon the woods the birds started to awaken with first a light peep and then a soft song. Dawn was still more than 45 minutes away, but the forest was becoming active except for the deer. Their activities had been almost all nocturnal and now it is their time to move towards a resting area.

Some go to bedding grounds without loitering, but others are inclined to browse en route.

As I sat on the edge of the woods and looked out across the now plowed cornfield I caught a glimpse of a light aircraft lifting off the runway. The city airport is about one mile, as the crow flies, from my deer stand. Even in my small town the urban sprawl has taken over and people are moving to “the woods” to get rid of the trappings of city life.

This encroachment on the habitat of the whitetail has meant that more and more whitetails are entering into the towns and cities. In fact, in my neighborhood that borders a cornfield, cemetery, and a creek we now have a herd of about 15 deer every night. These newly adapted deer live out their lives within yards of major corporations and hundreds if not thousands of people. It wasn’t that long ago that you had to go “up north” to even see a deer. Now, these deer are as prolific as the most domestic pets and in many areas surpass the latter population.

With the change in habitat and hunting pressure, more whitetails are looking for sanctuary in urban and suburban areas. The hunter will also have to change their habits if they are going to score on opening day.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating hunting in a city or in your neighbor’s backyard. If the deer are located in these areas chances are they will move out of the urban areas for breeding purposes or to make a feeding circuit.

As the light plane flew over my woods, I heard a raucous call of the bluejay. This brought me back to reality and I noticed that a young six point buck was making his way to the far side of my woods. Just about the time I noticed this buck, I also noticed a car on the gravel road parallel to the woods stop. The buck was well over 300 yards from the car and about the same distance from my woods decided he would find another resting place and took off across the plowed field. It is true that deer become wary of cars because they have to be in order to survive in the urban and suburban areas.

Needless to say, I was disappointed and I decided to give it a couple of more hours in the stand to see if any other deer were being pushed towards my stand. My wife, Ginny was across the road in another woods. She sits on a small strip of woods that used to be an abandon railroad line. It actually is a natural funnel that allows deer to move from a larger woods to the smaller woods that I occupy.

With the change in habitat it is important for the hunter to down scale the hunting party as well. Our hunting party consists of just us two, we have limited movement, but we always seem to see deer and usually get our limit.

At 10 a.m. our prearranged time, I usually push my woods toward my wife. She moves out to the tip of her woods and waits for me to exit my woods. About halfway through my woods I jumped a nice doe and she crossed from my left to right. I swung on her with my scoped shotgun.

I can’t even remember checking the shotgun or seeing her in my sights but she quickly dispatched with a headshot. My commotion sent a nice 10 point buck out towards my wife. Within minutes of my shot my wife harvested the nice 10 pointer. When I asked her what happened she said; “this buck came right at me and for a minute I thought it looked like it was going to turn around and head back into your woods.” “Then it headed in my direction veering off at the last moment and I hit it high and down he went.”

The hunt was over for us for another year. But, I couldn’t help thinking that of all the people who drove hundreds of miles to have the same experience. If the modern day hunter would only look for deer in and around their urban and suburban areas they could sleep in their own beds, and be home shortly after dark.