…from wherever they’ve been. I stopped seeing deer sign well over a year ago when the cattlemen fixed the watering station and drove a bunch of cattle into my part of the desert, far from the county road. Last summer I saw one small doe which apparently wanted to get to the watering station badly enough to risk proximity to the Jeep and the herd of cattle that was there at the moment but otherwise no tracks, no scat, no fleeting glimpses of gray butts disappearing into the brush.
But the cattle were rounded up a couple of months ago. No doubt more will come but I’ve been enjoying this cow-free period and then maybe a week ago I saw strange tracks in the wash. Small cloven hoofprints. Deer! A bunch of them, too. Since then there have been more tracks, always fresh, but I hadn’t caught sight of any actual deer.
Yesterday on his evening walkie Little Bear showed great interest in something off to the left and slightly behind us. LB’s a very attentive watchdog but unfortunately rabbits are what he finds most interesting in all life so his alerting and pointing is usually not as useful as he seems to believe. Still he was being unusually persistent about it: Stop and point, walk forward five steps at my urging, stop and point. I glanced (Some day he’ll try to tell me about a herd of hungry zombies and I’ll cuss him out for it. His last words to me as he gallops from my convulsing body will be “Told you so!” So I at least glance.) but saw nothing. At this halting pace we finally made it to the top of the path and I pulled up to have a good look for whatever it was LB considered worth such study. Down the slope: Nothing. Across the wash: Nothing. Brush at the foot of the cliff: Nothing. Top of the cliff: Holy shit, there was an antlered herd! With my Browning and an intact shoulder I could have filled every freezer of every TUAK commenter, except they seemed to have been paying more attention to me than I had to them: As soon as I spotted them and showed interest, they faded into the junipers.
So there are still deer in these here precincts, which I knew intellectually (I mean they didn’t all dissolve) but wouldn’t have been able to prove for a long time. Which is good news because even though I don’t usually hunt for anything bigger than varmints I always thought of the deer as a sort of larder-in-waiting in case of emergency. I was sorry when they went away and I’m glad to see they’ll return when the cattle leave.
ETA: Went on the morning walkie, somewhat longer, and found new elk sign! Yay! And also coyote, possibly following the elk, rather closer to my Lair than I hope they find comfortable.
Nice living in the big lonesome, isn’t it?
Yup. Some folks complain about the isolation and move away. My only complaint is that sometimes it isn’t isolated enough.
An apocryphal story has it that the great Daniel Boone would settle into a place, clear ground, build a cabin, put in crops, and all the other necessities of life. Once he saw smoke from another man’s fire, he would declare the neighborhood too crowded & push on for a more remote area.
I look at the deer around here the same way you do those in your locale. I used to hunt (purely for meat; I can’t eat antlers, & don’t care about trophies), but after the wreck that crippled me up, it’s a harder & more painful endeavor than I care to undertake. Nevertheless, I find it comforting to know that they are there, & I can take them if times get hard. Until then, let ’em think my property is a safe area (and anybody who thinks they don’t know the difference is a fool–I’ve seen deer move for a good distance, just the other side of the fence separating a shoot from a no-shoot zon).
We’re on an inholding surrounded by various ‘public’ and state lands – so between the seasonal change and the hunters – the deer drift into this area during the fall. I too consider them a walking larder if needed and keep standing water and a salt block out on the back end of the property. If I didn’t do this they’d (be even more likely to) come in closer and be after the fruit trees.
The owner of the cattle will probably re-introduce them next spring – so you and the deer may get a respite til then. I also suspect the deer are coming back into your area as much for winter grounds as they are for the absence of the cattle.
Stay warm – we’ve got a forecast for the mid 20s within a few nights which would probably put you in the teens with a few inches of frozen precipitation.
During hunting season, I fed the deer at the forest house on the shooting bench. Here in town, I put crappy apples out the living room window and I swear the deer would stick their heads in to join us if I let them. It’d really have to be a total SHTF scenario before I could consider killing and eating any of them(aside from the fact that I don’t care for venison). The does here in town had a boatload of fawns this year, making it kind of a Bambi year. I wish we could post occaisional pictures.
Any signs of feral hog in your area ? Their ‘varmint’ status gives us year round hunting opportunities (by any means necessary in many cases), do much damage to crops and cattle fencing and hurt wildlife populations too. They are smart too (smarter than deer I’m sure) so many simply use steel cage traps to gather them up.
Their track are very similar to deer, only more ’rounder’, rather than heart shaped. Also love wallows.
“not as useful as he seems to believe” Useful to him.
“I could have filled every freezer of every TUAK commenter”
Yes, please. I just ordered the replacement dehydrator. Thank you. When can I expect receipt? 🙂