61°f, 16°C, supposed to warm up to 88. Ugh. Too hot, too early. Bright and sunny, heavy dew this morning.
The mulberry are getting ripe! Is there anything to compare with picking a handful and eating them outright? Purple tongue and fingers are a given, but worth it.
The cedar waxwings are here too, flying in droves from tree to tree. It is so exciting to see them again, one of my favorite birds.
Lisa at Appalachian Ground wrote about deer in her latest post, and has a lovely photo of deer in her yard. I love seeing them in the wild, but
here, we have a serious problem with deer over-population. West Virginia has the highest rate of deer-automobile collisions in the country, and no wonder. We come home from Ravenswood or other points north by a road called Trace Fork. It's about 9 miles of one-lane road through farmland, with quite a few houses along the way. We have seen over 100 deer along that road, and just imagine how many others there are back in the hills.
Before we got Buddy, we had a real battle to keep deer out of our gardens and away from our young fruit trees. If you have been a reader here for a few years you might remember my frustration! We tried fishing line and videotape strung above the electric fences, several different repellant sprays, and all sorts of other tricks that were supposed to work. None worked for long though. That fall we allowed several friends to hunt here, and they harvested nine deer, which seems to have brought the local population down to a more reasonable number. But in a few years, if not already, the problem is likely to return. Having Buddy, a lively, barking dog, has been a godsend. Our other 2 dogs were just too old to care.
I remember, though, when I saw my first deer in the wild. It was breath-taking. I was walking along an abandoned road through the woods, and two deer stood watching me, about 50 feet away. I stopped and watched, mesmerized, until they finally meandered off.
Deer had been hunted out in most of West Virginia by the 1950s, and had to be restocked. By the 70's there were a few around but not many, and hunting season was only a few days in only certain counties. Now we have many seasons, with even antlerless being offered several times a year, but the deerherds continue to increase in the state. And now elk are being introduced in the southern part of West Virginia. Just what we don't need. I know elk once roamed this land, and I know the meat is excellent, but it seems to be poor management to bring in elk when the deer population is out of control. Even the coyotes don't seem to impact the explosive growth of the deer herd.
Still, there is nothing like seeing a doe with her fawn, grazing in tall grass or standing motionless in a forest, those large soft eyes looking back at me. If only we could afford 8-foot fencing around our garden areas!
... deer are beautiful critters, but between loss of habitat, fewer hunters and adapting to their surroundings their populations are exploding. Road kills litter the roads. My grandmother had two mulberries in her front yard and the birds would eat the fruit and poop all over the place. I was glad that cows didn't fly! Be well.
ReplyDeleteHabitat has actually improved in my area, Tom, as many people no longer farm and the land returns to forest. In the 50s these hills were literally deluded, with very few forested areas in my county. Today we are tree-covered again , at least 70% i would say, and WV as a whole is 93% forested. This is a good thing, given our rugged terrain. And it's good for wildlife too--maybe too good! It's a conundrum for sure. We want the wild, but we need some space too.
DeleteI am with you 110% on everything you talked about. The Waxwing is one of my favorite birds too. I remember the first time I saw one when I was maybe 10 or 11. We only see them in our area during migration.
ReplyDeleteI have been a deer hunter for all of my life, love seeing them, love hunting them and feel remorse every time I get one. Such a beautiful animal. We only take one for meat purposes. We have offered people to hunt here as well as they are way too overpopulated. It is nothing to have 20+ in our yard at one time.
WmThat is incredible! 20 at a time! But we see places like that. Usually though those people are feeding the deer, increasing the problem because the deer lose their fear of humans.
DeleteWe have them roaming around town here, but not nearly as many as where you are. My sister-in-law calls them “forest rats”.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know that I would call them rats, lol! But they do roam around towns here too. In fact, 2 years ago there was a beautiful albino buck in our closest town.
DeleteWe used to see Pronghorns here virtually every day but they had to be relocated because of development on "their" land. Now it's rare to see one or two and we miss them.
ReplyDeleteThat is the conflict, isn't it? I would hate to never see the deer. Heck, I am even willing to share a little with them but they don't play fair! They can mow an entire garden in a few hours. We have 50 acres and are surrounded by acres and acres of forest, so the deer have plenty of space. We just want our small 2 acres of homestead space. But of course how are the deer to understand that.
DeleteI miss helping in my late friend's walled garden in south Wales...grapes, mulberries a quince and pears....and the rest!!
ReplyDeleteNo deer in this garden yet, but they do visit those over the road that back.onto rough ground.
They will probably find my garden soon enough!
South Wales is so beautiful. I left a big chunk of my heart in Wales. The Lost Gardens, what a delight. Here's hoping your gardens stay safe!
DeleteI don't see mulberries over here...about deer, I wish I could see some in the wild...absolutely none here.
ReplyDeleteOh, they are a nuisance, aren't they? We do our duty and eat a couple of them every year. I planted raspberries one year, and they all 'took'. I was so pleased with them! When we returned to the property the following weekend, they had all been nibbled to the dirt. With all the tender grass around, I never could understand why they chose those thorny raspberries.
ReplyDeleteOh, but I forgot to say, when you come upon a newborn fawn curled up completely motionless, waiting for its mother to return, it never fails to take my breath away. They are so exquisitely tiny and perfect.
ReplyDeleteAchieving an ecological balance is not easy. We have your temperatures here today, or just about. You're right -- too hot too early.
ReplyDeleteDeer are unbelievably beautiful and very appealing to humans, but now that we have removed their natural predators, their numbers can quickly get out of control.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that some areas were dealing with deer overpopulation. I know hitting them on the road happens a good bit, and a lot of people out here do hunt them for food. I am guessing my neighbors with the big gardens have high enough fences (like you mentioned) to keep them out. We've tried the fishing line trick around our best patch of wild raspberries (sorta works, but I think they still get in; fortunately it's a big patch), and our blueberries have been eaten down so hard and so many times we've had to cage them. We also cage our two young apple trees and 3 young pawpaws. And I would LOVE to have mulberries!! Yum!
ReplyDelete