Lots of truth on taking note where you see a whitetail but you can take this a step farther. A lot of times the new locations I hunt I don’t physically see a whitetail to start and may not have seen one for miles. Paying attention to the the habitat and how the game trails run you can often have a good guess if the area is dominated by WT or MD. From there it’s a matter of confirming your guess by random sits or better yet trail cams. At times I will set cams in bush that is basically unhuntable but holds really good sign just to get gauge the population. If the area holds promise I will dissect the bush looking for small( 20 yards is enough) openings that I can hunt from a stand. In many case visibility from the ground is just not going to happen

It’s really a game of reading the bush on possible travel locations and looking at it from a distance trying to predict where the bush may thin enough to hunt

There is a lot of WT that never really come into large openings they brows in small natural openings, in mixed timber, the edge of waterways or semi open timber. There is lots of WT populations that are not noticed because they inhabit areas hunters just drive past

One tip I pay attention to every river, lake, swamp, and pond