At this writing, there is but one week remaining in the Maine muzzleloader season for deer. I hunted often during November, sitting in a tree stand every afternoon, and still- hunting in the mornings. My boot prints were left in deer covers in Waldo, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Franklin Counties.

As Week 1 of the black-powder season winds down today, I find myself hunkered down inside close to the wood stove. Why am I not out there today in the deer woods? Is it the 20 degrees and biting north wind? Or is it simply a case of hunter fatigue? Weather never used to keep me at home. As much as I hate to give in to those inscrutable whitetails, it is beginning to look like that – for the first time in many years – there will be no winter venison in the Reynolds freezer.

Of course, it ain’t over till it’s over. There is one final day’s hunt left in me. It’s being saved for Tuesday or Wednesday after the predicted snowstorm. Check back.

Meantime, some thoughts about deerless Novembers and deer themselves.

Deer or no deer, I always put my rifle back on the rack with a thankful heart. I thank Him for the deer, for a safe hunt, for the wonderful peaceful days afield in the Maine woods and for the physical capacity to trek for hours over blow downs and through fir thickets. Most of us can also appreciate the fact that a deerless larder is not a matter of life and death, as it may have been to other gatherers that came before us.

Above all, we can be thankful for the hunter’s gift, the whitetail deer, that marvelous elusive critter that keeps us so preoccupied in November. Although we deerless hunters sometimes find ourselves frustrated or exasperated by the long, uneventful hours we invest in hunting, would we have it any other way? The inscrutable whitetail deer remains the huntsman’s ultimate challenge. That’s what brings me back year after year. And every year is different.

For example, this year the deer were moving late in the season. No, I can’t prove it. Deer biologists say that the rut peaks Nov. 15 come hell or high water. Theory or no theory, if you spend enough time chasing deer in the woods, you know when something is going on out there. Is it the unseasonably warmer November days?

Others share my view: Outdoor writer and deer guide Stu Bristol: “The 2007 season is a perfect example of what I mean. The early season was way too warm. Most of the first couple of weeks we (especially in southern Maine) hunted in shirtsleeves. Even my contacts in mid-Maine and the western mountains agreed that very few buck rubs and scrapes were found early, and it was nearly into the muzzleloader season before rutting activity was noticed.”

New Brunswick outdoor writer and outfitter-guide Ray Dillon: “November 15 is supposedly the “peak” of the annual white tail rut, and that may very well be, but I have lived long enough in this province on Canada’s East coast to know that our deer are stimulated by cold weather rather than a calendar date.”

Maine wildlife biologist Mark Caron: “Many a hunter I have spoken with over the past week or so have felt that the bucks were only now really starting to move.”

Deer behaviorist Charles Alsheimer: “Unseasonably warm temperatures shut down deer activity in a heartbeat. Of all activity suppressers, air temperature is perhaps the most powerful influence on daytime deer activity.”

Alsheimer’s line graph in his book, “Strategies for Whitetails” indicates a direct relationship to dropping temperatures and high deer activity. Alsheimer also claims that his studies in New York state indicate that when winds or wind gusts are in excess of 12 to 15 miles per hour, deer get spooky and are apt to bed down during daytime.

Next November will be here before we know it, and deer hunters will once again head for the woods to match wits against this most formidable prey. By the way, if my last black powder day brings good things after Monday’s snow storm, you’ll be the first to know.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].