Food. I hunted a large tract of land in Tenn that was managed by a timber concern. They would clear cut an area. The next year it would look like a golf course with grasses and small trees. Deer aswarming. As the tree got larger and shaded out the understory, the deer thinned out. Once the woods became mature, any deer you saw would be passing thru.
Also, short term food supply. Acorns. When they mature and fall, the woods look like a war zone with stirred up leaves. Two weeks later, nothing. Sometimes you'll have a good crop of acorns, sometimes not.
In Tenn, we learned to "follow the chain saws". In winter, the deer will eat the leaf buds and limb tips from the brush piles.
Find where they're eating and find where they are laying up. I don't like to hunt the feeding areas especially after first day because the deer will be long gone by first light and won't come back until after dark. But find where they are laying up and set up between the two. Closer to the bedding area if possible (but not in it).
