Deer and winter

[Bigfoot 870]

We had an old fashioned winter, here in NS.......lots of snowfall, up and down temps, crusty snow and a few stints of "extra" cold. I don't know about winter kill, but I expect the coyotes made an impact in the areas where they flourish. Just about everyone I know, who burns wood, said they burned more this year, than they have in a long time.

 

[track]

Pretty hard to kill off a lot of deer up here this year, there's none left from the last few winters so the majority of the bush is empty. Other than in town I have not seen a deer in the bush country for 2 months, almost no tracks either, but it was like that last year to. The farm land and bush within 5 miles of farm fields still has quite a few deer. We didn't get to many -40 stretches this year which was good, just lots of -20 to -30 stuff and more snow than normal.

Geez, that's not good news. When late April arrives I will be contacting the Game Wardens in the Slave Lake/Athabasca area for a winter report. Last autumn I noted a decline in deer populations in that area, my guess would be about 30%; maybe another 30% this year.......might have to just go bird hunting this year and leave the deer alone.

 

[kennymo]

There will not be a deer season in Manitoba 2014....

Unfortunately I would not be surprised by this. Numbers in all my hunting spots were way down already this past season, I wound up without a deer because I refused to shoot anything but a buck or barren doe. It was already slim pickings with the does and calves.
I fully expect area closures or the return of buck only zones to take place. I was out on snowshoes a few weeks ago, only cut one set of deer tracks in several miles, still a fair number of coyote trails though. Half a dozen deer were hanging around the farm yard, eating apple trees and such, but they've stopped showing up there too, snow is simply unnavigable.
They had to stop clearing both my parents and grandparents roads as well, too deep for the graders. They've opened narrow paths with a bulldozer back to the nearest main roads, but it means an extra twenty or thirty minutes for an ambulance, fire truck or cop to go around. When a CAT starts having trouble with the snow, it doesn't bode well for the animal life. Snowbanks are fifteen feet on the roadsides in many places, any deer on those sections are fairly trapped until things thaw out.

 

[Plinky]

Speaking of deer, so my first deer in the area north-east of Toronto (between Stouffville and Claremont) after being in the area for almost 2 years. It was running across a major road (80km/h max speed) with farm land on both sides of the road. Only saw it from a distance so can't report on its health, but it was a rather large/tall deer.

Funny thing is, I used to see deer all the time when I lived in North York. However, that was only because the property backed onto a power corridor and some park/forest area. But I used to see just passed my backyard regularly, and now that I'm way further out from the city, not nearly as much. I definitely see more turkey in the fall than I do deer anytime of the year. Bucket loads of raccoon carcasses lately though (likely from the spring like weather we had recently).

 

[rookie wildcat]

Deer were not doing well here this winter although I have only found one winter kill. Still lots of eating by the roads for yotes. Those deer I have seen looked pretty bad, but we had 2 weeks of warm weather that took a LOT of snow away and they are beginning to rebound and are looking pretty good. Last night I saw 2 separate herds of 12 and 16 deer making their way down the north side of a couple of cut lines (snow mostly gone in that area). Shot half a dozen yotes this year, but mostly early winter. Far too far for me to go through 3 feet of snow and 4ft drifts to set up calls.

 

[atr]

Very deep snow and extended cold in the Thunder Bay area . I could easily spot wolves and coyotes up until about the end of Feb , and now nothing , not even tracks on the logging roads and sides of the highways . The MNR wants the deer dead as a very recent study in northern Minnesota is finding dead moose everywhere from brain worm , transmitted by deer and our moose population is already being decimated by the spring bear kill . Next to impossible to find a calf moose in this area for the last 5 years as the bears kill them all and now brain worm in the adults 40 to 50 miles south of us . Because one biologist did one study on one pack of eight wolves in Algonquin Park we now have to purchase coyote/wolf tags and are limited to two tags per year so just about everyone except the occasional American has given up coyote and wolf hunting and there is certainly no shortage of them .

 

[titch--]

IM seeing healthy deer where I go for walks. Its only around 30-40, but they look good.

Feb and March were bad here this year. It was around 0 - +2C for two weeks here, so Im sure that helped out some