Watching the snow melt
23/05/19 05:12
Tuesday afternoon, while it was still raining in town, the snow was starting to get deep at home. There were about 7 or 8 inches in our driveway, which made it impassible for our little car, which was in town with Susan. So I headed home and blew snow for about an hour. Then I walked to an intersection with the main highway and met Susan, armed with a scoop shovel, just in case. We got the car into the garage and returned to work in another vehicle with more ground clearance. As I was shoveling and walking, I noticed that the deer were a bit wound up. They were running through the neighborhood, mostly running in the streets, where cars had made paths through the deep snow. They seemed disoriented by the storm. Often when we have a storm, the deer hunker down below the big trees where less snow falls to the ground and wait it out. Something had stirred them up, perhaps a neighbor’ dog or the noise of the snow blower or some other thing that I hadn’t noticed.
The deer are looking scruffy at this time of the year. They’ve begun to shed their winter coats, and their fur is patchy. I suspect the lack of fur makes things a bit uncomfortable for them, especially in the wet snow. After I had finished shoveling and walking as the snow was still falling at a good rate, it felt really good to go inside and put on dry clothes for the rest of my evening’s activities. The deer can’t do that. When they are wet, they have to stay wet until the sunshine dries them out. And there was no place for them to go to dry out on Tuesday. We didn’t see much sun until yesterday afternoon.
I’ve been paying attention to the deer. They are within a month of the birth of fawns and I like to look to see which does are pregnant and observe where they are going. Sometimes I can get a general prediction of where the fawns will be born and have a chance to see the little ones early. They hid easily in the first weeks of their lives and you have to look carefully to get a glimpse. The little fawns can stand within minutes of being born, but it takes half a day before they can walk even a short distance, so if you know where they are born, you can get several glimpses of them if you are careful.
I’ve also been looking for a particular doe. There is one who has raised two sets of twins and a single fawn in our backyard over the past years. Whitetail deer only live 4 or 5 years in the wild around here, with many being lost to the winter or the highway. I’m guessing that this doe is at least 5 years old. At least I can remember 4 summers with her. She was injured, perhaps by a car, which left a visible scar on her flank so she was easy to pick out from the others. But I haven’t seen her since last fall and I suspect that she is no longer living.
Life has to be hard for the deer in our neighborhood. They’ve adjusted to semi-urban living quite well. They know where the grass isn’t mowed for cover and where it is for the tender green shoots of early spring. They know where there is shelter under the trees. They know which homes have dogs that occasionally are let out off leash and which ones have none. When my sister visits with her dog, even though he is not allowed off leash in our neighborhood, they are startled by his presence. Most interesting to me is that the deer have adjusted to yard lights. 20 years ago, if there were deer in our yard and I turned on the light, they would quickly run from the yard. Now, I watch them walk into the neighbor’s yard, where they have motion sensors on the lights and when the lights turn on it doesn’t startle them at all. They just go about their browsing almost as if they appreciate the light to see the best grass to eat.
15 inches of snow on May 22 is a record for us, if not for the hills. We’ve live here long enough to have seen plenty of spring blizzards but none with quite this much quite this late. Although the heavy snow caused some problems with the electrical system, we only lost power for a few minutes at a time. Neighbors up the road had longer power outages as crews struggled to keep up with the heavy snow. The pine trees handle the snow well, but some folks with deciduous trees may have some broken branches. I talked to one neighbor who went out several times during the storm to shake the snow off of his new willow trees to protect them.
As strange as this spring’s weather has been for us, we are lucky to be at the top of the hill where we no threat of major flooding. Our basement stays dry even in the wettest of conditions. The water runs off. Folks downstream don’t have it as lucky. There are flood warnings all across the state as the waters head towards the Missouri. And downstream in the Missouri and Mississippi there are severe floods. Add to that the tornadoes that swept across Missouri and Oklahoma and there are lots of folks who have weather far worse than ours. On the anniversary of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado there were fatalities just 40 miles away n Golden City yesterday. More severe storms are predicted for the next couple of days as a high pressure area with unseasonably hot temperatures is stalled in the southeastern corner of the US with the winds swirling around it.
We complain about the snow a little bit, but the moisture is great for the forest and we are safe and comfortable. And I can go inside and change into dry clothes when I get wet from working outside. Besides that, I can watch the deer without going outside. We really do have it good!
The deer are looking scruffy at this time of the year. They’ve begun to shed their winter coats, and their fur is patchy. I suspect the lack of fur makes things a bit uncomfortable for them, especially in the wet snow. After I had finished shoveling and walking as the snow was still falling at a good rate, it felt really good to go inside and put on dry clothes for the rest of my evening’s activities. The deer can’t do that. When they are wet, they have to stay wet until the sunshine dries them out. And there was no place for them to go to dry out on Tuesday. We didn’t see much sun until yesterday afternoon.
I’ve been paying attention to the deer. They are within a month of the birth of fawns and I like to look to see which does are pregnant and observe where they are going. Sometimes I can get a general prediction of where the fawns will be born and have a chance to see the little ones early. They hid easily in the first weeks of their lives and you have to look carefully to get a glimpse. The little fawns can stand within minutes of being born, but it takes half a day before they can walk even a short distance, so if you know where they are born, you can get several glimpses of them if you are careful.
I’ve also been looking for a particular doe. There is one who has raised two sets of twins and a single fawn in our backyard over the past years. Whitetail deer only live 4 or 5 years in the wild around here, with many being lost to the winter or the highway. I’m guessing that this doe is at least 5 years old. At least I can remember 4 summers with her. She was injured, perhaps by a car, which left a visible scar on her flank so she was easy to pick out from the others. But I haven’t seen her since last fall and I suspect that she is no longer living.
Life has to be hard for the deer in our neighborhood. They’ve adjusted to semi-urban living quite well. They know where the grass isn’t mowed for cover and where it is for the tender green shoots of early spring. They know where there is shelter under the trees. They know which homes have dogs that occasionally are let out off leash and which ones have none. When my sister visits with her dog, even though he is not allowed off leash in our neighborhood, they are startled by his presence. Most interesting to me is that the deer have adjusted to yard lights. 20 years ago, if there were deer in our yard and I turned on the light, they would quickly run from the yard. Now, I watch them walk into the neighbor’s yard, where they have motion sensors on the lights and when the lights turn on it doesn’t startle them at all. They just go about their browsing almost as if they appreciate the light to see the best grass to eat.
15 inches of snow on May 22 is a record for us, if not for the hills. We’ve live here long enough to have seen plenty of spring blizzards but none with quite this much quite this late. Although the heavy snow caused some problems with the electrical system, we only lost power for a few minutes at a time. Neighbors up the road had longer power outages as crews struggled to keep up with the heavy snow. The pine trees handle the snow well, but some folks with deciduous trees may have some broken branches. I talked to one neighbor who went out several times during the storm to shake the snow off of his new willow trees to protect them.
As strange as this spring’s weather has been for us, we are lucky to be at the top of the hill where we no threat of major flooding. Our basement stays dry even in the wettest of conditions. The water runs off. Folks downstream don’t have it as lucky. There are flood warnings all across the state as the waters head towards the Missouri. And downstream in the Missouri and Mississippi there are severe floods. Add to that the tornadoes that swept across Missouri and Oklahoma and there are lots of folks who have weather far worse than ours. On the anniversary of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado there were fatalities just 40 miles away n Golden City yesterday. More severe storms are predicted for the next couple of days as a high pressure area with unseasonably hot temperatures is stalled in the southeastern corner of the US with the winds swirling around it.
We complain about the snow a little bit, but the moisture is great for the forest and we are safe and comfortable. And I can go inside and change into dry clothes when I get wet from working outside. Besides that, I can watch the deer without going outside. We really do have it good!