Category Archive for ‘deer herd’ at Beside the Stream

Archive for the 'deer herd' Category

Breatharians: Mule Deer in Winter

Published on February 20, 2008 in deer herd and what they eat. 0 Comments

Breatharians, who claim to live on sunlight and water, seemed like an absurd impossibility until I see mule deer in winter. With so much snow on the ground there is nothing for these mule deer to eat except twigs. I looked up research papers on mule deer diet, and found that in the winter the deer live on a starvation diet of twigs and lichen, and lose 20% of their body weight. One of the species whose twigs they enjoy is gambel oak, and the mountain behind us is covered in it. So these deer really do live on almost nothing for the season… on twigs.

For Christmas this year, I put out the old pumpkins and gourds we grew for Halloween mistakenly thinking that since deer eat pumpkins in the garden if they can, it’d make a nice holiday treat for the herd.

It took more than a week for ten deer to eat four old pumpkins. The deer didn’t seem hungry, and clearly weren’t thinking of Christmas.

It’s not that the deer didn’t like the pumpkins; it’s that they didn’t really want them. And they didn’t need them.

The winter continues, and our little local band of mule deer continues to eat almost nothing.

The neighbors feed the birds a few cups of seeds and cracked corn each day, and the deer path across our property went to their feeding station.

For a few days last week nearly a dozen deer started moving obsessively back and forth along the path, back and forth. There was a frantic note to the herd’s restlessness. Bob put out about 4 cups of alfalfa pellets at the start of the path, and the whole scene immediately calmed down. We didn’t add very many calories to the landscape to change the tone.

This is the same buck with the uneven antlers as the one eating pumpkin at Christmas, but this is after nearly two months of winter starvation. The snow is deep and has been deep all along, and it’s crusted so he’s still confined to paths. The herd has been living on twigs up the hill and a little birdseed and cracked corn put out by the neighbor, and just a little of the cracked corn I put out for the turkeys. Two months of a starvation diet, and they’re not starving. We’re living with Breatharians in our midst.

Mule Deer: a guy can change his mind

Published on February 19, 2008 in deer herd. 0 Comments

A young male pauses at the edge of the field before going down the deer path. He doesn’t see that another male has started down the same path going the other way.

Once they see each other, it’s too late to back down.

They can’t resist a good antler shove, seeing as they’re guys and all. The loser goes around

stepping high through the deep snow and continues on his way. And the larger male reconsiders and follows the smaller guy out.

I whistle: Hey you guys, give me a better shot than your hind ends

And the deer says, Just ignore her; she’s been taking pictures for months. Sorry for making you jump into the snow and all… did you notice how big my antlers are getting? Wish I could find some shrubbery.

Deer Paths

Published on February 9, 2008 in deer herd. 0 Comments

This is a shot from the road of two deer on their path across our field. These aren’t yearlings, they are adult mule deer. On the left side of this field, the snow comes to the top of the deer’s back.

Towards the middle of the field, the snow is still well above their belly. The deer have been working on this path all winter, and now the snow is deep it’s pretty impressive.

Here’s the same path from the other side of the field.. The three spots to the left is where a deer took three leaps through the snow. Here’s the same path closer up

The only difference between the walkways Sam makes and the paths the deer make is that they don’t use shovels.

Deer in a snow storm

Published on January 29, 2008 in Snow storm and deer herd. 0 Comments

When the snow is so deep, the deer hide under the trees.

Time: two weeks

Published on January 26, 2008 in deer herd, roadkill and time. 0 Comments

Here is a span of exactly 14 days.

On January 10, a mule deer didn’t look before crossing the road

By January 24, it has become a pile of hair and bleaching bones.

Time: one week

Published on January 25, 2008 in deer herd and time. 0 Comments

In some ways, time is flexible: my week is like a month to a teen, or a year to a toddler. But photographs tell a different story. Each photo is marked with a date, and these pairs of photos show one week, two weeks, three weeks and four weeks. Today we start with a time span of one week.

One day, this deer had a horrible scrape. Seven days later,

the wound is healing well, and she is very alert. I thought she might be undermined by that scrape, but after a week it’s clear that she’s doing fine.

Roadkill, scavenging and recycling

Published on January 12, 2008 in birds, deer herd, roadkill and what they eat. 0 Comments

Two days later, there is so little is left of the mule deer that there aren’t any crows around it.

The body cavity is empty

and the antlers are sawn off.

Scavengers are the original recyclers.

Roadkill and a murder of crows

Published on January 10, 2008 in deer herd, roadkill and what they eat. 1 Comment

In the winter, the animals killed by traffic are covered with snow. You’d never see them at all except for the crows, which are a telltale flag. Whenever you see a group of crows jumping up and down by the side of the road, they’re sure to be tearing apart a big hunk of meat. I stopped for this group of crows, but as soon as I got out of the car

they got nervous and started to leave.

They all marched up to the railroad tracks

and took off.

This is what they left behind.

I’d heard of a storytelling of crows, and a murder of crows, but it turns out the list of collective nouns for crows goes on and on: a cauldron of crows, a caucus of crows, a congress, cowardice, hover, muster and parcel of crows.

After seeing them seething over the deer by the side of the road, I’m partial to a murder of crows for now.

Deer Sex

Published on January 7, 2008 in deer herd. 1 Comment

On any given day, a herd of ten does and fawns moves through the back yard. It’s hard to tell them apart. I can recognize a big lady with twins and a scar on her leg, but the rest are just brown, fleet and mostly female. I don’t see a set of antlers in the yard from one month to the next.

The biggest doe was a shy Miss Manners until one day in late November, when she started swishing her rump provocatively. That day she didn’t look shy at all. She stood under a ponderosa pine and looked at me, and I looked at her, and her needs were unmistakeable. She was feeling it.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed this doe had one thing on her mind. A big old male stepped out of the woods and started investigating her hind end. It must have smelled just right to him, because he kept after her.

But she kept moving along, grazing and shifting her rear, looking over her shoulder and wondering why he didn’t look more like the buck she had in mind.

He was no beauty queen. He would’ve been a twelve point buck except that one of his antlers was broken off. His face was scarred up, he had tattered ears, and if he was a man he’d have faded tattoos along with big ropy muscles. This male had the heft of age, but he was not her shining prince.

And he wasn’t her only choice, either. Out of the woods steps buck number two,

eager and young with five points total. He was a sweet young thing for certain, but in truth he’d barely be doing his own laundry if he were human. He grazed next to her and asked sort of conversationally if she was interested in his help,

but she said no.

And that was lucky because yet another buck stepped onto the grass, and he was most definitely what she had in mind. My Doris Day had morphed into Mae West, and when she told that buck to come up see her sometime, she was thinking “and now is a VERY good time” so loudly that even I could hear it.

Um hmmm, she said.

Did I count ten points, she said. It surely is extremely delightful to meet you.

Uh, huh, he said.

And my shy Doris Day of a doe had sex on one side of the wagon, and she had sex on the other side of the wagon. And then she switched her tail, and he trotted off to help out other women in need: the year is long, and the mating season is oh so short.

I haven’t seen any of these bucks since that day in late November. I think perhaps neither has she. According to Wikipedia, the gestation period is 190 to 200 days, so the fawn should be here in mid to late May. So far she has been looking sleek, Mazel Tov, but the snow is deep and the winter is long. I hope she makes it through.

Deer and Elk in the snow

Published on January 3, 2008 in deer herd and elk herd. 0 Comments

When the snow gets deep in the mountains, the elk herds move into the valley and the deer stick close together.

In the backyard, the deer herd concentrates on the grass that is left uncovered.

Downstream, an elk herd crowds together and climbs on boulders

they graze in the trees

and in the fields.

Beside the Stream