Thinking of deer and predators.

Years ago, we'd hear the coyotes off to the west around Sam's Point and vicinity. Now, we hear them from all points of the compass. I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that I've seen far fewer fawns around, as well as deer in general here in the Pine Bush area. Though a neighbor refuses to stop feeding the damn things, the herd this winter was much smaller than years past.

It's about time I've seen my rhodies bloom.

I got up one foggy, still dark early morning and exited the tent from my buddy's back yard across from the Brown elementary school on Rt. 32. I was relieving myself when I noticed two pair of eyeballs in the brush line. I assumed deer, which often roam that corridor and snapped on the headlamp to see a very healthy pair of coyotes darting away. This is a neighborhood, very near to where Mim lives, and I am no longer surprised to find them anywhere one might expect to find a fox. Yorick knows far better than I do and has stated coyotes are not effective enough to control the deer, but if they can take down a fawn it can't hurt the situation. At least they aren't very likely to go after human food and got the groundhog terrorist in my buddy's garden!

Wait a minute Chip. If we allow the groundhog population to get killed off, will we never see the arrival of spring?

Rickster, surely you would enjoy deep pow in the tres and fat ice lines all year?

More the pow than the ice these past years, but even that gets old. Variety is the secret.

How come no one worries about climbing in the Needles, Eldo, City of Rocks, Zion, Tuolumne, Smith, etc teeming with cats?

And the threat is over-sensationalized: 22 deaths in 120 years. We're so far down that food chain, it's about as likely as being taken out by a chunk of meteor.

Cougars won't control the deer population (nothing short of a massive cull will do that now), they'll move 'em around enough to release browsing pressure and get regeneration going again,

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/osu-cpk102406.php

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2008/apr/loss-cougars-linked-disruption-yosemite-ecosystem

i told you a long time ago cougars were here.

Actually, the fact that eastern forests/ecosystems are collapsing is the ultimate evidence of their absence.

getting hit by a car in CT is hard evidence that they are here. but heck i have paw print photo from what 4 years ago. just bc you don't know how find them does not mean they don't exist here.

Heck, a well experienced cougar tracker was after our local fella for over six months at least 5-6 nights a week with the latest night vision goggles and only got two good looks at it. Both were through enough brush that he couldn't even get off a shot with the tranquilizer. If they don't want to be seen, they won't be.