re: Rut Timing?

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300 yds away across the Chattahoochie was Barbour County , Al.
Rut was first wk of Jan. there.

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Not knowing that area, is one side of the river a bluff and the other side lower and historically susceptible to spring floods?

Certain subspecies of white-tails evolved such that their rut is earlier so the fawns would be old enough and big enough to travel with momma to flee when the floods came. That's the reason peak rut in some areas of Iberia and Vermilion Parishes begin in September.

estimate for 2014 - little dated

Yup. My buddies with leases in Ga right across the river have theirs in November. Ours starts right around the MLK holiday weekend or later.

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is one side of the river a bluff and the other side lower and historically susceptible to spring floods?

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Not noticably. Bit steeper probably on Ga side.

But very interesting info. Will have to maybe research it a bit when I get a chance. ;)

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Certain subspecies of white-tails evolved

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I doubt that would exemplify a subspecies. A sub species should take more than that to create. Like “key deer””, that is a subspecies or a “coues deer”. Now some deer might have evolved to adapt to a flood, but a bluff on one side of a river shouldn’t create a subspecies.

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but a bluff on one side of a river shouldn’t create a subspecies.

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Any geographical "divide" that keeps a species from readily breeding with other portions of the population can cause subspecies to evolve. IIRC there were 27 subspecies of white-tails in North America when man arrived. Now they're pretty much all mixed up after restocking programs in the 1950's and 60's. Before the Mississippi River was channelized and leveed the deer on the east and west sides in La and Ms were different subspecies for example.

One other answer to why the deer AUTimbo was talking about have such a difference in breeding timing is, maybe the deer on opposite sides of the river were restocked from different parts of the country.