Sep 25, 2020 4 min read

So far, I haven’t heard of anyone downing a big buck, but the cooler weather sure has increased deer movement. I have noticed quite an uptick in the number of deer particularly the number of fawns. It is normal for deer to have twins but there are a lot of little late fawns this year. My guess would be the conditions are ideal for deer this year.

The garden was excellent this year and we had a good wet spring. There seems to be a lot of mast on the forest floor all of which leads me to believe the food was plentiful. The winter was not too cold or snowy and not overly long. I am not sure why the late fawns are in such high numbers, but the doe numbers must be higher than Mr. Buck can breed in the spring.

So, in the interest of science I went on a fact-finding mission with a friend just before dark last week. The first night Jake McEwen and I counted 100 deer in 45 minutes. The following night we made a repeat trip and counted 89. In a field containing 38 deer, we counted 4 bucks. Far and away most of the deer were fawns. Some of the fawns still had spots and would hardly top the scale at 30 pounds. Out of the two days, we glassed one nice buck in the 140 class but to protect the landowner I won’t divulge his whereabouts.

Sometimes things occur that are desirable that happen from doing something undesirable and sometimes the reverse is true. For instance, in medicine chemotherapy stops cancer but at a heavy price to the user. I remember when this occurred at Cross Creek Lake. The lake was lowered to install necessary fire hydrants. The cause was good and, in an emergency, water could be drawn from the lake and utilized. So, it was done, and they moved on.

Problem was they lowered the lake to allow the work to proceed only to do it in the middle of spawning season. When one fished the lake in the days and weeks after, all you saw along the shoreline was this cobweb like stuff hanging from the willow branches. The lowering of the water level had left the spawn high and dry. Was this done deliberately? I would say it probably was done because of a lack of communication between agencies. After all, if the agencies involved had spoken, they could have done the work a few weeks later preserving the spawning of the panfish. In other words, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

In the last couple of weeks, I have heard a similar tale from a few residents of southern Washington County. This time unlike what happened at Cross Creek it was the Game Commission that was the culprit. According to my witnesses, the commission inadvertently burned a few acres of Game lands 232. Burning is one of several ways man improves the quality of the grasses that feed wildlife.

Once again, the timing was wrong and this time for the Monarch Butterflies filling that field. It is not East Finley that they are heading for on there annual migration but somewhere near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The way they fly that trip should take forever but they get there every year. Of course, the ones who stopped for a layover in that game lands will not ever get there. The burning on that week was unfortunate and not an evil act by the Game Commission. Maybe next year the Commission will try to check with other agencies or monitor the field before burning during the Monarch migration.

Just another example of a good thing causing a bad thing to happen; the environment is like that. It’s a balancing act.