With a bumper crop of acorns available, deer in Harford County and across Maryland are hunkering down and staying close to a plentiful food source, making it harder for hunters to find them.
"Whenever we have a good acorn year, our deer harvest drops because deer do not move as much in search of food," Brian Eyler, deer project leader for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, wrote in an email Thursday. "This makes them more difficult to hunt."
Deer were out and about in October and November, during the annual rut, or mating season. That's when they typically pose the greatest hazard for Harford County motorists.
Fawns conceived during the fall will be born in June.
Statewide, the number of deer being killed by hunters is down about 12 percent this year compared to prior years, according to Eyler.
"We have heard across the state that hunters aren't seeing as many deer, and the harvest is down about 12 percent right now," Eyler wrote. "However, in most areas the deer are still there at similar levels to recent years."
Natural resources officials estimated a deer population of 227,000 when the 2014 deer hunting season began in September.
Eyler stated that 15,000 would be a good population estimate for Harford County "based on the harvest."
The seasons for hunting white-tailed deer are broken into segments of several days or several weeks, depending on the weapon. Hunters can use bows and arrows, muzzleloading firearms, which are single-shot weapons loaded through the end of the barrel, and standard rifles and shotguns classified as firearms.
The archery season for Management Region B, which includes Harford County and all counties east of western Washington County, ends Friday, and bow hunters can go out again beginning Jan. 5, 2015, according to the DNR website. The firearm season ended Dec. 13, and the muzzleloader season begins Saturday. That season lasts through Jan. 3.
Firearms hunters can go out again in Harford from Jan. 9 through Jan. 11.
Harford County hunter and fisherman David Meadows, of Street, also blames the smaller deer harvest on recent weather patterns, with one day being cold and the next day being mild.
"The way we've been going from hot to cold, it messes everything up," he said.
Meadows, who hunts deer with a bow and arrow and 12-gague shotgun, said deer like to stay put when the weather is warm.
"You get days when they just don't move at all," he said.
Meadows said hunters are then less likely to go out and waste their time waiting to see deer that are not moving in daytime.
"If the deer aren't moving, you're not apt to go back," he said.
His co-worker, Chuck Hines, who lives in Wicomico County on the Eastern Shore, even skipped the last day of firearm season.
Hines said the phases of the moon can also be a factor, and the deer will move about when the moon is up and bright during the night "as opposed to the edge of dark in the evening and the sunrise in the morning," which are typical times for hunters.
DNR's Eyler stressed the acorn crop is the main reason for the decrease in deer kills, although sudden changes in weather also have a significant impact.
He stressed that "there's just so much natural food out there," so the deer do not have to move much to find it.
"They're just cycling," he said of the acorns growing on local oak trees. "Some years you'll have really good production, other years you won't."
Frank Marsden, naturalist and program director for the Eden Mill Nature Center in Pylesville, agrees there is a bumper crop of acorns this year.
"They're just so thick in the woods and everything now, it's like walking on ball bearings," he said.
Marsden also said that helps keep the deer in one place.
"One reason they move is to find ample food, but if they don't have to, they're just going to hunker down," he explained.
Eyler said the state's deer population was about 300,000 a decade ago, and the species is still overpopulated in Maryland because of a lack of natural predators and plentiful refuge areas.
He said black bears and coyotes will attack fawns, but they are "opportunistic" hunters and do not specialize in eating deer.
"Basically, hunters are the only effective predators for deer control anymore," Eyler said.