Visitors

Recently, with the snow, we have noticed quite a bit of traffic in our back yard. We could tell that there had been some pretty good sized whitetail, based on the prints, roaming in the back. This is nothing new. We have often had deer as well as turkeys, a fox and even a fisher cat. It is a bit ironic that we tend to see more wildlife here than we do in either of our other places, both vastly more rural and given that here we live in town and not twenty miles away from the city of Boston.

Last night I went out to put the cover on the grill and I saw the full extent of the visitation. There was a small herd of six very healthy looking deer roaming along the perimeter of the lot munching away on my bushes. I'm not sure that I really like where this is heading. I actually have some fresh venison in the freezer right now from the deer that my brother got this fall. I may need a bigger freezer.

This afternoon, during the snowstorm, a subset of the herd was back. I grabbed a few shots of them, though the heavy snow didn't make for a great shot. Anyhow, here they are. Will see what I have left when they are done.

We've never had them graving the land before so I'm guessing either it has been a couple good years so the population is up or it is a particularly hard winter and food is scarce. My guess is that it is a combination of both. I'm waiting to see the big uptick in medium sized predators to compensate. They won't be far behind. Watch your small children :)