Deer vs Geese

[Jim Godden]

I noticed something last night and thought I'd spin a yarn here and see if anyone has noticed the same thing.

I was out for an evening deer hunt on the property here.  The wind wasn't right for most of my tree stands so I had spent a productive half hour building a good ground blind along a wood line.  I had good cover, a comfortable seat, and two wide shooting lanes out into the meadow.

As the light was fading I was watching two deer, a doe and a fork horn buck about 40 or 50 yards off to my left.  They had been out in the meadow for a while and were browsing away from me so I wasn't too excited.  Naturally I was keeping a close eye on them just the same.

Suddenly I hear beating hooves and see white tails heading for the far woodline.  My first thought was that I had spooked them.  The mosquitos were bad, and I was carefully swatting bugs, but my screen of brush was good and there was no way they could have seen me.  I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and slowly moved my head to the right and there he was.  Ten long points, a wide rack, and a huge body.

I had two thoughts at the same time; now I know what spooked the other deer and, I'm about to get a shot here!!

The buck was feeding head down, so I managed to get my bow off of the hook.  I shuffled a little to the right on my seat, no need to stand up for the shot, so I got the bow up and fingers on the string.  The buck was partially exposed, about 30 yards out, but screened by some small cedars.  The good news was that if he kept going staight ahead about 10 more yards he'd be broadside at about 17 yards in my right shooting lane.

My situation could not have been better.  The wind was just right, he'd looked right at me twice and hadn't seen me.  With my heart in my throat, I got my breathing under control and got ready to take the shot...

Then a noisy flock of geese came in low and landed about 300 yards away at the south end of the meadow.

I've never seen a deer spooked so badly.  He was snorting, stomping his forelegs and spinning around trying to look in eight directions at once.  After three or four false starts he finally put his tail up and took off.  He had bounced himself well out of range so all I could do was sit there at half draw and watch him run for the far woodline.

Once I could breathe again I got to thinking about what just happened.  It's not the first time I've seen this either, late last year I watched a doe thrown into an absolute tizzy one morning when a flock of geese flew low overhead. The deer here are rural deer and are conditioned to all kinds of noises.  I've often watched them hear voices, cars, ATVs, coyotes, chainsaws, dogs barking, even gunfire and they don't seem to be alarmed.  Why would geese, which they probably hear all the time, spook them so much?

JIM
Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt

[Dan Worden]

Purely a guess, but with 30 or 40 geese honking their heads off at one time it is porbably just way to noisy for deer to feel comfortable.

[Jim Godden]

I could see it if the geese where landing right on top of us, but as I said, they were a fair distance away and out of sight to both me and the buck.  

Besides, I'm not wondering about the noise, I'm wondering why the deer don't seem to mind my neigbour shotgunning grouse a hundred yards away, yet get spooked at the sound of geese?

JIM
Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt

[B.O.D.]

I'm guessing Jim that being in the evening with downward pushing thermals; a very slight swirling wind gave you away...( you may have not even felt it)

Been at this 20 years off and on, seen deer react the exact same way when all the sudden out of nowhere a slight whiff of us sends them off the deep end.
You can see it , looks like they are thinking" Holy crap, where did that smell come from...time to make like Scooby and split!"  

I really doubt it was geese, I have seen a hundred geese land in a field with deer in it AND turkeys, they never even looked at them  

In the am, thermals go up, in the pm they go down...pretty hard to beat their noses.
BD

[JDinPA]

I have seen geese, turkey, squirell, fox, coon, groundhog within a few feet of deer. They are all used to each other.

Each of those animals are not used to you...
I'd have to agree with Big Dog you were winded.

[whitebuffalo]

big dog nailed it,,even in flat terain thermals go down in the evening,,

[bowmofo]

Whenever geese get riled up it's cause for alarm, I see deer go haywire at the sound of a squirrel or rant from a blue jay.I would take extra precautions    to hide my sent one never knows. Mike  

[B.O.D.]

It probably reacted so abrubtly and violently because after testing the wind and feeling secure, suddenly you are THERE, inside his safety zone, over the blue-line and closing like Alfie on a loose puck with only one defenceman to beat    

Said in those terms Jim; you get the picture eh?  

[Jim Godden]

With regards to the wind, I don't think so.  I had a brisk breeze right in my face for the duration of the little drama I just described.

I'll accept that I may have been winded, but I'm not sure how.  I know about thermals and in the evening they would be moving from the meadow to the woods, hence the breeze in my face.  

Besides, the deer's body language and movement tells me he was reacting to the flock of geese.  Could be our local Lanark County deer have some inbred alarm to goose honks??  Just south of our property is a very popular duck and goose hunting lake??

I started this post to get a discussion going on how animals react to different noises in nature, (and to tell my little "close call" story!)but if it morphs into a discussion of thermals and air movement that's fine too...!!

JIM
Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt

[B.O.D.]

Could be Jim, but I'm betting my bows that the breeze in your beak wasn't the only swirly apparition in the woods that night.

As you know from being an avid sailor, slight fluctuations from any feature can make the wind do strange things; that along with the geese may have alerted him to your lurking presence.

There is also the maddening trait the big bucks have called "6TH SENSE"    

When all else fails, they have that back-up sense that we have long forgotten to use.

BD

[HARL]

Jim,Big Dog just get back to work now and then shoot a deer this week-end.
                  OBB

[Jim Godden]

Harl, long time no see, how goes the season so far?

BD, you've missed the point completely.  No need for the lectures.  I'm not some bewildered newbie hunter sitting there wondering "what just happened?"

I know what happened.  I was there, you were not. I believe I was not winded. Period. We all have opinions, that's mine.

Now, lets start this over.

Does anyone have examples of deer becoming conditioned to certain noises or sounds? Some sound in your hunting area that deer are sensitive or overly alert to?

JIM
Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt

[bearhair]

In the part of Lanark County I've hunted the past few years I've noticed a good correlation with honkers flying overhead in the evening and deer moving out to the fields.  Could very well be a coincidence but it seems I never see deer in the evening until after the honkers start flying around.  Almost to the point where you could let your guard down on stand until you heard the geese and then go on high alert.

Not quite what you described, just a different observation I noticed between deer and geese.

[Dan Worden]

It's funny I've been keeping up on this thread. Tonight I was sitting on a hill at the edge of a hayfield with a clear view of a small cut cornfield 1/8 of a mile upwind. Two does were feeding in the cut corn when a flock of about 30 geese came in low directly over the field and the deer. The deer didn't even lift their heads. Then the geese took a big circle and came in to land about 80-100 yds from the deer. The deer took off flags high full run away from the geese.

Now an hour later two different deer were feeding very close to the geese and didn't flinch when the whole flock took off for the night.

Bottom line -- I think some deer are scared of/by geese and some aren't.

[HARL]

Jim,
        Season has been too warm so far.Now that it has cooled down the wind and rain are ticking me off !!! As far as the geese I'm not sure.Seems to me sometimes that make more of a commotion when they are landing.
          OBB

[Jim Godden]

Harl, I've been out lots this year and seen deer almost every time.  A couple of times in T-shirt and covered with OFF.  Two close calls, the one I described above and another drama with a doe that came close but decided to change direction at about 40 yds out.  I eventually chased her out of the meadow after dark time so I could get home for supper. (and the baseball playoffs)

I'm watching a little more closely when the geese are overhead now.  Not that it's that important, just a pet theory or general interest.  I guess that's one of the joys of bowhunting is that we can observe and not necessarily "see the deer, shoot the deer".

Raining here right now, not sure if an evening hunt is in the cards or not.

JIM
Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt

[R.W.]

Jim,

It wasn't that you were scented.

It was that the deer picked up your evil thoughts about arrowing him! Like Zen, or telepathy!    

We has lots and lots of geese flying here, low, and right over the fields we are hunting (goodly sized lake to our SSE) the deer don't even look at them,or even really wiggle thier ears at the geese's noise.

Could it be that a coyote, wolf, cougar, or another hunter ended up up wind of your buck?

By the actions you describe, whatever he sensed, scared the poop out of him, so it must have been something that deer has an inate fear of.

Best of luck, tomorrow, or on your next hunt day.

[northern fisher]

Hi Jim
Glad to hear that your seeing deer.I guess you can't always figure out why deer do the things that they do,better luck next time.
Look forward to seeing some pics when it all goes right.
Gary

[Jim Godden]

Gary, Randy, good to hear from you.

Gary I don't suspect that we'll ever figure the deer out completely, but it sure is nice to sit out in the woods and try.

Randy, that's kind of what gave me the idea for this post in the first place.  I'm beginning to think the deer here do react to the geese.  I'm not trying to make a general statement about all deer, just that the ones I see on our property seem to get skittish when they hear geese up close.  Who knows why?  As Gary mentioned we'll never figure it out but it sure is fun to try...

JIM
Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt

PS no hunting today, stayed up late with the ALCS last night and slept in this morning.  This afternoon Dallas v. New England. I did move a tree stand in the middle of the day, so it was not a total loss.

[Killdeer]

You mentioned that the deer had looked at you twice, but had not seen you.

I have found that deer would make excellent poker players. If you see a deer's eye, you might as well take it as a given that they have seen you. They do not flinch, spook, muss their drawers nor scream. They have seen you, and continue their progress hoping to get away before your primitive chase instinct has been triggered. Cool, calm, and unfurturbed (sic), they meander on, but hair-triggered.

Enter the geese. Have you ever gotten on the bad side of an unafraid goose? They are the most ill-tempered and unforgiving of fowl, as many a farm child has learned. They are as capable of breaking an arm as a turkey, they hiss and fluff and spread flailing wings in a serious attempt to drive off what they may consider a threat. Deer, being the sensitive prey species that they are, likely retreat, unless an offspring is threatened.

I see your buck (not your buck, now, sorry.  :(  ) reacting to the sudden arrival of the flock in an already heightened state of anxiety, hurriedly assessing the dual threats, and choosing the most expedient exit. I also think that at the thump of the string, he would have "awakened" with startling alacrity and use of fast-twitch muscle tissue.

What a great hunt. You were able to observe a goodly bit of interactive behaviour (behavior, for the American audience), and create an effective new blind. Whether you will see that buck there again is a matter for speculation, but his older brother likely does not know of the blind's existence as yet.

Go get 'im!!    
Killdeer