Bear steam

Well last weeks trip turned into a health and welfare check of one of the three deer yards at the farm. Seems that so far I haven't lost any of the mature bucks in that yard,but no antlers for they must be under some the 3 and a half odd feet of white and not so fluffy snow.



The deer seemed to be eating the fir, cedar and hemlock buds and not so much the bark. Found a few south facing edges on an oak ridge that the deer had scraped up acorns. My brother is doing some forest management where his sugar-bush abuts the drainage that connects two of the deer yards and is having the logging outfit leave the tops of the sugar maples down for the deer.This seems to be working as the deer are flocking to the site and even bedding down in and around the cut. The other two yards are primarily does and small bucks and fawns, one of which has access to the topped maples. That other yard unfortunately will be where the winter-kills will be more than likely, not to mention they will be tougher to get into because of geography.



I will wait about two more weeks before I attempt them. As far as for the next trip ,I will probably go to Wilmot and try to get into some traditional deer-yards that are in along rte.4a, or I may attempt the moose yard in and around Fowlers Town. It will all depend on snow conditions, some places are accessible by snowshoes and the crust is enough to hold you up and then there are the places you just bust through to your waist. and that my friends makes for a long miserable day.



Here's a picture of the bear den I found. The snow edges are all "melty" and when I put my head to the hole, I could hear the bear softly breathing in it's sleep!

Finally out again

Well its that time of year again when our winter weary souls start itching to get out and find bone.





I can say that the moose are bald now to the most part in our Granite State, antlers in the upper valley falling like rain somewhere around Jan. 19 or so around a full moon. Deer though are being a bit more stubborn. Some are still sporting crowns according to some local game cams but I have it on good authority that some tines are poking out of the 3 odd feet of snow.





I have going out regularly since Dec 24 keeping an eye on the ground and on a large moose-yard that holds about 7 or 8 moose, at least 4 are bulls, one is a brute with big wide palms, then another good one about 45-48 inches wide, I found his left side in Jan.

Since then conditions have gotten absolutely miserable almost impassable in the woods, I have broken snow shoes twice because of the inconsistent but heavy crust, and its just too damn deep to slog through. Mark my words we will have extreme winter kill this year. Not only can the coyotes run quite effortlessly over the the crust BUT the conditions alone will be deadly, and not just to the deer. So far this year I have heard of many owls and hawks being found dead. Seems with this crust mice and other prey can stay under the snow in tunnels. Even the mighty moose will fall victim. Even though 3 feet of snow is manageable for them ,the crust is tough even on their movement. But despite conditions I may venture out today on this presidents day and evoke the adventurous spirit of Teddy Roosevelt and do a little low impact scouting in Stoddard N.H.

I'll let you all know how that works out. .