ESPN  

From my office window I look down a hillside through some trees to a house about 100 yards away. As I start this article, a forkhorn blacktail buck is rubbing his antlers against a pine tree about 8 feet tall. This tree has lots of branches, so he may break off one or two, like a buck already has done to a small oak tree in my yard. His purpose is to deposit secretions from his pre-orbital and forehead glands. Territory marking time.

A pine tree in my yard, about six feet tall, has no lower branches and the lower bark has been stripped off from a foot to three feet above the ground. This is a true buck rub. More territory marking time.

Nearby are several scrapes, where leaves have been pawed back, and there are droppings and a musky odor associated with scents from the tarsal and metatarsal glands. Even more territory marking time.

Normally all the deer that we see in broad daylight are does. These days we are seeing several bucks a day in broad daylight, showing little regard for being secretive. Some of these deer are seen at no other time of the year.

Two days ago we filmed a standoff between a buck and a neighbor's dog that was taking place almost on the neighbor's front porch. We got within 20 feet of the buck, and he was not about to turn and run. We did not try to get any closer. More people are attacked by deer than any other species of big game.

Yes, the rut is on. Every buck thinks he is Godzilla, and does are strutting their stuff.

All across the U.S. male deer (and elk) are suddenly showing up in broad daylight, jousting with trees and each other, mating, and doing crazy things. People have been sending me video links to a deer crashing through a Michigan restaurant.

In Estes Park, Colo., they have elk wandering through the main streets, bulls bugling, jousting and mating next to cars, buildings and people.

And, of course, if you are hunting deer or elk, it's magic time where your chances of seeing and bagging a buck are better than any other time of the year.

Set up your blind or tree stand near a rub or a scrape, for these are territorial marks and bucks do come back to revisit them. Scrapes are usually along the edges of wooded areas. Rubs can be out in the open, but more often they in heavy cover.

All ruminants — deer, elk, moose, sheep, pronghorns, mountain goat, etc. — have a 1-3 month period during the fall when females are in estrus. Some people say that the timing is associated with lunar periods, but that theory is not supported by recent research that shows that length of daylight is a more important stimulus.

The rut periods are generally predictable. Texas wildlife biologists, for example, have them mapped out for the state according to region and herd.

A typical doe comes into estrus for 72 hours during the rut. If she does not get pregnant during that period, she will continue to come into estrus several weeks later, as many as seven times.

The gestation period of deer is 201 days; not quite seven months. This means that fawns will be born in April-May, which in most places sets them up with lots of cover and more than ample food for the does, initially, and the fawns later on.

In the San Francisco Bay area, however, our deer are blacktails, smaller than whitetails, both in body and antlers. The biggest rack and deer I have seen in 10 years in this house, which is located a quarter of a mile from the expansive Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is a 2x3 that maybe weighed 140 pounds.

I know you whitetail hunters will laugh at that animal, but the size of a buck's antlers and his body is associated to his age and diet. Minnesota has produced a 500-pound whitetail. In Mexico, if they get to be a 100 pounds, it's a big deer.

The west coast of California has a Mediterranean climate with very dry summers, and scant few oak trees for food, thanks to sudden oak death disease. Winter and its rains bring greenery out, and our deer stuff themselves when white-tails in the Midwest are struggling through snowbanks and freezing temperatures.

The abundance of food during the winter in these parts means that does often will have twin fawns, but many times, especially if the spring is dry, at least one will die in the summer from starvation. All summer long deer around here are trying to get into the garden, even dig up the compost pile. They seem to be especially drawn to banana peels.

I'd love to help control the population in my neighborhood, but in California you cannot hunt within 150 yards of another dwelling without the written permission of those people.

So, wherever you are, there are deer in the rut right now, so get out your grunt tube, doe urine scents and rattles and put them into action. And if you happen to see a herd of does in an area, set up shop nearby. Love is in the air.

James Swan — who has appeared in more than a dozen feature films, including "Murder in the First" and "Star Trek: First Contact," as well as the television series "Nash Bridges," "Midnight Caller" and "Modern Marvels" — is the author of the book "In Defense of Hunting." Click to purchase a copy. To learn more about Swan, visit his Web site.