Whitetailed locavores

© harrington

Welcome. Thanks for dropping in. If you look really, really hard, you can see the bare beginning of leaf out on this dogwood twig. It's been in water in the 70 +/- degree temperatures in the house for several weeks now. The cuttings at the other end of the piano are further along, but, really, just starting to turn green. As much as our late Winter weather pattern has caused me (and you?) stress and inconvenience, I suspect it's affecting the deer even more. And I'm not carrying twin fawns. Do you remember the old saying about complaining about having no shoes until you met someone with no feet. Winter's Lazarus move this week had me complaining about cold and wind and snow until I noticed several deer trails on the way home today and stopped to think about what they're going through. I'm not sure what the local deer are browsing. I assume cedar or maybe something woody like the dogwood in the photo (sans any sign of leaves). New growth will benefit whitetails and humans for different reasons. This weekend, I'd expect the sap to start flowing again. Maybe late next week waterfowl and blackbirds will show up. Soon it will be time to bring in the bird feeders (or hang them out of reach). Ursus americanus will be waking up, feeling hungry and starting to shuffle around. Have you adjusted yet to the later sunsets? I find my internal clock still hasn't caught up with daylight savings. Maybe it will be Easter. Easter's early enough this year that the deer will still be in their dun Winter coats. I'd not look for signs of Summer's red pelage until later in April or early May. For those of you who have read this far, for a reward, here's a link to an interesting perspective on urban whitetails. Thanks for listening. Come back soon. Rants and raves served daily here in My Minnesota.