does it take.....?

Kidding. I count 6 biologists on here fairly regularly. Are there more, now that BSK is back?
We have it made having a resource that can help us manage properties and answer our questions.
This place should go national.

Maybe one day we will have 7. I just started my degree in Fish and Wildlife science but, have a ways to go.

Yea, i love having them around, and trust what they say, but you've always got them good ole boys that will disagree with anything they say.

I don't think BSK is a biologist. Could be wrong but I think I remember his degree in something else. With that said I've always enjoyed reading what he has to say. Think I've even bought a book by him but will have to look to see if was him.

Paper on the wall doesn't mean much. Jack Nicklaus didn't have a degree in golf.

Correct. I'm a wildlife manager, not a wildlife biologist. My degrees are in Meteorology and Earth Science.

I just conduct deer research for a living!

I agree 100%. Just because you do NOT have that piece of paper doesn't mean you don't know what you are talking about. And from what I've learned from some engineers, that piece of paper does NOT mean you do know what you are talking about.

I would be interested in what your degree has done for you in your field such as a correlation between deer movement and different weather patterns.

With respect to Earth Science, how far is that from Geology or Geological Sciences?

I got a degree in biology in 1975 but never used it. Do I count?

My interest in meteorology was HIGHLY influential in my ultimate move into deer research. In fact, my first deer research was conducted simply as a scientifically minded obsessed deer hunter interested in whether weather conditions had an influence in deer movement and subsequently hunter observations of deer. Basically, what are the best weather conditions to hunt in?

The more I've studied that question, the more I've come to a couple of conclusions. First, how weather effects deer activity is very site specific. What weather conditions are "good" for increased deer sightings in one part of the country may be just the opposite in another. For example, in northern climes, where hunting season temperatures are naturally quite cold, a further cold snap may shut down daylight deer movement. Yet anyone in the Southeast knows a sudden cold snap in fall really gets the deer moving. In the far north, a warming trend can actually increase deer movement, yet in the South, a sudden heat wave can absolutely shut movement down, even during the rut. The second thing I've learned is that looking at particular conditions, such as temperature, wind direction, etc. doesn't tell the real story. I believe what deer react most to is changes in weather conditions. For example, they often become more active just before a storm system arrives. The key is not focusing on a specific temperature, or wind direction, or atmospheric pressure, but focusing on the combination of weather patterns that typically occur as a storm system approaches.

In addition, any discussion of weather and daylight observations of deer by hunters also has to look at how those weather conditions effect hunters' ability to observe deer. In essence, is a particular trend in weather that produces a distinct trend in observations actually a cause and effect with the deer, or with a hunters ability to see deer? Another consideration is whether a particular trend in deer activity is due to the weather influencing deer activity, or the weather influencing the ability of deer to avoid human predators? For instance, does a particular weather trend influence a deer's olfactory senses, hence their ability to smell a hunter before they are within visual range?

It's a "Big Picture" discipline involving all of the physical earth sciences: physical geography, geology, geophysics, hydrology, hydrogeology, climatology, paleoclimatology, geomorphology, etc. basically, all of the factors that influence the landscape, both today and in the distant past.

Cool. I'm a geologist with a focus on paleoclimate.

For some reason I keep expecting someone to say "I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express" last night.

Which reminds me of Ike Turner, who would say, "They don't call it the HO-liday Inn for nuthin'!!"

But I digress....

BSK, have you experimented with hooking an ACURITE 5 in 1 to a trail cam? Site specific weather and movement correlations would be really accurate with that set up.

I have a weather system at my own property, so I link pictures with data. But that's still just one small window into deer activity. The best data is weather linked to GPS-collar data. A few have done so. But even then, rarely do I see anyone really looking at what I believe are the right things.

Wow...BSK is back!!!

Hell froze over, so I had to...

Maybe biologists can tell me it a couple of my general deer/weather observations are off. Seems to me that big snow shuts down movement for these Southern deer. Also seems a light misting rain is good for hunting but not a pouring rain. Just 2 broad observations I've made. I've killed a few deer midday on full moon but most of my kills have been mid morning or last 15 minutes of daylight.

BSK: a business idea for you. I've always thought it would be great to find a way to sync up trail cam pictures with historic weather info for that day. For example, you pull your card, download the pics and then a program processes those pics with historical data from that zip code based on the and date stamp. The user selects the information they are interested in (rising barometer at that moment, hours of daylight, rate of change in temperature per hour in last two hours, % cloud cover the previous night, etc etc etc) and then hovering over some sort of imbedded icon would pop up a window with your data of interest.

Whatcha think?