Wt and rain

[Mattule]

I hear it may rain Thusday and mt hunt starts Friday so I was curios about your thoughts on wether (no pun intended), wether, Coues visit their normal water supply after it rains. Do they say "great its raining so I can drink from any puddle around and not have to walk all the way to that water hole". Or do they just have a routine like, "look its 10 am we better go to the water hole".

I know both examples sound corny but I could not think of a better way to explain the question. And I think most people would take the first example because people are lazy. But I have no idea how deer react to rain.

[CouesWhitetail]

My answer to your question is "it depends". In general all wildlife, be it birds, deer, wolves, or whatever, will take the simplest way to get food and water. They need to maximize the energy received in relation to the amount of energy expended toget it. So if they can get water without going 1/2 mile to their usual waterhole, they will. Whether we should call that laziness or just plain smart is another matter... But there are all kinds of examples of animals taking the easy way out if given the choice (bears at dumps, deer in cornfields, turkeys at manure piles, etc).

 

However, deer may go to their usual waterhole even after a rain, if there happens to be good feed there too. So although they may be able to get a drink somewhere else, they may frequent a meadow at the edge of their usual waterhole if the timing is right for good forage there.

 

Safety from predators is another issue. If the deer feel safer watering at a recent puddle rather than their usual waterhole, then they will.

 

But in general I would say that deer won't be frequenting their usual waterholes after a rain. Having new watersources allows them to exploit some forage that they might not have been able to utilize before.

 

Amanda

[Manamal]

After a heavy rain can also be a great time to hunt the coues. They will definately be out a little more than normal.

 

Mattule, are you planning on hunting the water sources in your area? If it rains, your chances of success will probably be a bit lower than if you were up high glassing.