While going out in search of peenting woodcock last night, I came across three does grazing the frost-bitten grass.
They must have been pretty hungry, because they didn’t run when I approached. I was able to get within 30 feet of them, while the lead doe just glared at me!
I love whitetail deer. My daughter spotted some from the car a few days ago on the side of the highway. We still have a lot of snow here and it was very cold that day. I suspect they were trying to warm up as they were facing South and it was 10am.
Unlike our two previous cold winters this past one was mild with no ice or snow at all here in the south of England and so the grass seems to have kept growing just slightly and is now, as at 19th March, growing lushly. So the three most common deer species here in the chilterns: roe fallow and muntjac, have all come through looking pretty good.
However, it seems we can expect anything from now on after seeing low lying areas under water for months and coastal cliffs destroyed by lashing waves!
We’ve only seen whitetails on two visits to Yosemite, once when a few of them were panicking to get away from an advancing fire.
My cousins in California are suffering from their worst drought ever they tell me. Where will future water come from when the once vast underground reservoir dries up?