Grouse tracks and deer signs

Even though snow on the ground has played tricks on our eyes telling us winter is still here, the wildlife seem to be telling us differently. Wildlife are on the move. We found lots of wildlife tracks in the wet, slippery snow yesterday, including deer and grouse tracks.

Grouse tracks. Easy to tell because grouse have three distinct front digits. They really are funny tracks to find in the snow

A deer bed

Look Who’s Back

It’s been an almost-daily occurance. I sit at my desk to write. I glance out my window and it appears, eating the leftover seeds beneath the bird feeders. I don’t know how long its been there, but it always startles me. One minute I look out the window there’s nothing, the next minute the deer appears. I can see its tracks around our earth home – they mark a well-worn trail. It makes its way along Spearhead Lake, walks up the hill to the bird feeders, crosses our front yard and makes it way back down to the lake.

I wonder if this is the fawn our neighbor called about two weeks ago. Two weekends ago we received a voice message from a neighbor who had been snowshoeing the trails around our home. He said he saw an injured fawn near our earth home so he called a local conservation officer. I looked around for signs of an injured deer – blood, fur, tracks, anything, but found nothing. Judging by the among of deer tracks near our place, we knew there had been deer in the area, but it’s hard to tell the tracks of an injured deer among hundreds of other deer tracks.

This young deer visits the earth home almost on a daily basis. I'm curious to know its story.

The more I watch this young deer visit my feeders, the more I wonder if this is the deer our neighbor spoke of. It walks at a very slow pace and it’s always alone. The more I watch it, the more I convince myself it has a slight limp to its step. Could it be my mind is playing tricks on me? My guess is it is the deer my neighbor saw. Maybe it was inujred and now it’s healing. Who knows. Whatever it may be, I know it’s hungry. It was -2 degrees this morning and snowing – winter continues to exist.

A new visitor

Sitting at my desk in our guest bedroom, I saw this young deer look for food by the feeders. I've seen this deer three times now in the past two weeks and it never seems bothered by my presence glued to the window. I noticed it has really thick fur and is more "scruffy" than any deer I've ever seen. Then again, I've never been able to see a wild deer so frequently and close up!