"Our winters lack the cold and snow typically to cause deer to yard," the biologist explained. "We don't have the type of vegetation either that produces a classic deer yard. But at this time of year, where hunters do often find Virginia deer is in an area with very thick cover. And often our deer do seem to gather in fairly large numbers in very specific places.

"Now (this time of year), deer move less so as to reduce their energy output. There is not an abundance of food out in the woods and fields, nor is the food of the high quality that it was earlier, so it does not pay for the deer to move a great deal in search of that scarce food. So the metabolic rate of deer reduces and they need less food to survive, which, of course, cuts down on deer movement. Our deer are definitely less active now."

I asked if this lower metabolic rate is one of the reasons that many hunters, including this writer, observe far fewer deer now, and Steffen said yes. Because deer do gravitate toward very dense cover (which is often lacking and progressively decreasing as the winter progresses), that is the reason that when we do glimpse whitetails, many times it is five or six, the biologist continued.

Of course, he said, Virginia can also have 70-degree days at this time of year -- another reason why our whitetails don't typically yard in the textbook sense.

Steffen also pointed out that certain places will attract more deer during inclement weather conditions. These places usually fall into a few categories:

1) Sunny slopes. Look for the sides of mountains and hills that receive goodly amounts of the sun's rays. Also, many days, deer will move to where they can receive the fullest benefits of those warming rays. For example, on my little parcel of Botetourt County land, only one ridge receives much deer traffic during the late muzzleloader season. And that ridge has the afternoon sun beaming down on it.

2) Lee sides of slopes. When brisk and particularly fierce winds slam an area, look for the whitetails to be in sheltered hollows or coves. If dense cover exists within those features, expect for the deer to be there.

3) Quality food source abutting cover. This food source might be a honeysuckle thicket near a white pine grove, a series of blowdowns next to a green field, or a smattering of red oak acorns in a protected hollow.

4) Quality cover. In Virginia, that might mean hemlock, white pine, or Virginia pine groves or great rhododendron or mountain laurel copses.