Maine Outdoor Journal

Central and southern Maine support 25 to 30 deer per square mile, which is dense compared with our north-country herd. But in states south of Kittery, two dozen or so whitetails per square mile strike hunters as a paltry herd.

Even in the bottom third of Maine, hunting can prove darned slow when we compare the success ratio there with states in the deep South, where mild winters result in 50 or more whitetails per square mile.

As I said here not long ago, Leonard Lee Rue III, one of the world's most famous wildlife photographers and also a well-known hunter, once wrote that he didn't bother with deer hunting unless an area held at least 50 per square mile. This has become an often-quoted statistic ever since.

Because of our scarce whitetail herd, most veteran Maine hunters learn that their odds improve greatly when two weather patterns prevail:

• If a 10 mph or less wind holds steady from one direction, deer feel more secure about detecting approaching predators, so they move a lot more, feeding (and breeding in season) rather than bedding in thickets until darkness falls.

• Unseasonably low temperatures also influence deer to wander far and wide rather than lying in cool lowlands all day.

A steady wind and below-normal temperatures create huge pluses for the hunter-orange legion, because walking deer are vulnerable deer. For success in these conditions, a wise hunter takes a stand on a well-traveled game trail or carefully still-hunts around a tracked-up area.

This thought always reminds me of opening morning of the firearms deer season back in 1982. Long before daylight, I was drinking tea with my uncle, the late Ray Barrows of Windsor. While we sat in his kitchen, I had predicted that good things would happen that very morning.

Sure enough, shortly after sunrise, Ray bumped a buck onto me. The brute pounded down a gully before swinging through an opening on a knoll 39 yards away, giving me a good shot and ending my season then and there.

This buck had the largest eight-point rack I had seen at the time. A few years later, a hunting organization displayed the world-record eight-point mount at the State of Maine Sportsman's Show at the Augusta Civic Center. That rack dwarfed my buck's antlers.

My 1982 rack pleased me a lot, though, certainly a pleasant surprise and a beauty by Maine standards. However, getting a deer that morning struck me as business as usual, thanks to the steady west breeze and unseasonably cool temperature.

That opening day, I knew the wind would not shift until a storm approached, and three meteorological features promised fair weather for at least 12 to 24 straight hours.

First, the west wind itself foretold good weather; second, dew had drenched the ground; and third, a soft pink beneath a spreading arc of gold edged the eastern horizon at sunrise. (Of course, I wouldn't know about the color of the sunrise until sunup.)

Ancient, accurate ditties describe what these weather signs predict:

• "When wind blows from the west,

"The weather proves the very best."

• "When dew covers the grass,

"Rain will never come to pass."

• "A blood red sky at morning,

"Sailors take warning."

An air thermometer measured yet another plus that opening day in 1982. The unseasonably cool temperature really gave whitetails a lust for wandering.

Granted, though, "unseasonably" is relative. In Louisiana, 70 degrees might be unseasonably cool in early November, but for Maine deer, that reading would be too hot, forcing them to lie in cool thickets.

This week in central Maine, 40 degrees would start deer hiking. That changes by Thanksgiving week, when the temperature must drop at least to a little below freezing to move these ungulates.

In the early 1990s, writer David Morris conducted an impressive study at a Georgia hunting plantation and described the results in his highly acclaimed "Hunting Trophy Whitetails" (Venture Press, Bigfork, Montana), beginning on page 174.

He compared the lodge's deer-harvest records with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather data going back decades. His research revealed that a 10 mph or less wind from one direction and unseasonably cool to normal temperatures led to huge deer kills.

In short, savvy deer hunters keep an eye on weather forecasts and take a vacation or sick day when key meteoro-logical patterns prevail. The harvest surely jumps a notch when steady wind and cool temps move deer.

Ken Allen of Belgrade Lakes is a writer, editor and photographer. Contact him at:

KAllyn800@aol.com