Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Deer friends

Now that the weather has settled down and some melt has taken place, the deer are coming out of the golf course behind my property.

These four browsed on the pine tree tips and paid much attention to a spot under an evergreen where the turf was exposed. They've been back there now for a couple of hours and we gaze at each other through the kitchen window.

I enjoy watching them this time of year, but I do not encourage them. I've had summer's where most all of my veg plants were eaten to nubs by these tawny beasts.

Still, they are beautiful, graceful creatures so I cannot feel ill toward them (unlike groundhogs - honestly, don't even get me started! ;-D )

7 comments:

  1. Kris, they are beautiful, but I know they do a lot of damage.

    My sis in Iowa has a herd of them come right up to the back of the house and eat dropped birdseeds. The send their dog out to chase them away.

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  2. Most of my neighbours in this rural area that I live in like to shoot them. Which makes me sad, because they're already dwindling in population because of the rise in housing development. It sucks if they eat the tops of my veggies, but I still like them :)

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  3. Glenda - I've been bringing in the bird feeder at night because they can lick them empty in no time.

    Kyna - I hear you. It's not like I have to actually depend on my garden for 'real' food. I usually use nets over the vegs and they really help.

    I always think how great that something that large can still run and hide and live wildly in developed areas these days.

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  4. They've started roaming around our yard as well. Brett was up at 3am the other morning, yelling and "barking" out the back door because the dog wanted to go out to the bathroom and there were three deer standing in our yard, nibbling on my plants!!!

    After that, I decided to try the fishing line trick - so I strung a fishing line between various trees, shrubs and posts around the perimeter of the backyard. Now I'm just waiting for a fresh snowfall so I can then see if new deer tracks appear in the backyard! ;-)

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  5. Hi Jeph. Please be careful with the fishing line. I tried that once and it strangled 2 robins and when once a deer did walk through it it tore my plants and I'm sure to this day some poor deer has nylon line wrapped around itself somewhere and won't ever break or degrade.

    Since then I decided I'd rather have some 'natural' pruning on my shrubs than to think I've made some 4-footed life miserable. How could I enjoy my garden otherwise? Once the shrubbery in the golf course and nearby woods leaf out, the deer will leave my yard alone. Too many dogs around for them to make a real habit of coming through my place anyway.

    Hope you are enjoying our warmer weather! :-D

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  6. Oh no! How did it strangle robins? Like they flew into it and dropped dead? I have it tight enough between trees/posts and then cut short at the ends, so I don't have enough spare dangling to wrap around any bird necks (I HOPE!).

    And I DO worry that a deer could just keep going and pull/break the trees/shrubs...

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  7. Jeph, I had stretched some of the string about 6" off the ground and when the robins came to try and pull the string for nesting, they must've gotten tangled. It was years ago but I still regret it. Haven't used string (nor the more deadly mono-filament) since then.

    Hopefully you'll find effective deer repellent for the upcoming season. I've lived here 7 years and only 1 year really suffered from deer in the veg garden. Luckily they don't like tomatoes at all! :-D

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