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Dec 07, 2006  Home On The Winter Range I live in a house situated near the base of a high ridge. The ridge contains layers of volcanic rock laid down thousands of years ago, and the face of the slope has loose ‘clinkers’ of volcanic material mixed with tawny coloured gritty gravel eroded from the solid face. Fir trees grow on the dry, south-facing incline leading to the top of the ridge. The trees are well spaced and at their feet crouch clumps and spikes of rocky mountain junipers. Saskatoon Bush, Grasses, and Wild Rose, make up a patchy groundcover. In wintertime the suns meager rays are enough to melt most of the snow that falls, and the rather snow-free slopes of the ridge, and ample feed, encourage Mule Deer to gravitate there in winter. Since all human habitations and the road to town are on the apron of this ridge, it is not surprising to see one or six deer in the yard in winter. When I arose (rather late this morning,) and looked out the side window, I wasn’t surprised to see the fresh tracks of three deer. Two of the deer passed below the window, and the other ambled up the driveway in front of the woodshed. Given that two neighborhood dogs patrol the yard at all times of the night and day weaving a tapestry of trails, one might wonder how I knew that I was looking at Mule Deer tracks. However, Mule Deer tracks in the snow are easy to identify from a distance. Mule Deer always drag their toes while walking. If the snow is only an inch deep they drag their toes! If the snow is two feet deep and they have to high-step, they drag their toes! This reminded me of an incident from a few years ago. Once, I lived about 20 miles from 100 Mile House. I decided to walk one day, sure that someone I knew would come along and pick me up on the road. A few inches of new snow covered the ground and after I’d gone about two miles someone came along in a car and stopped. The person who picked me up said they never would have guessed it was me by my tracks because the tips of my shoes dragged as if I was unenthusiastic or weary. I told them I was walking like a Mule Deer. …But back to the other Mule Deer tracks. Another telltale trait of a Mule Deer track is that the individual prints are not aligned in a single row like a dog’s track, they are more like a railroad track, parallel to each other and about 6 inches apart. I took my eyes off of the Deer tracks for a moment and studied the male Pileated Woodpecker on the suet log. It pecked and peered at a male Hairy Woodpecker on a smaller nearby suet feeder. There was little in the way of other bird activity but it looked so mild outside that, by the time the coffee had finished perking, I was dressed and on my way out the door. With a coffee cup in one hand and my bright orange vintage deck chair in the other, I looked for a good spot from which to watch the morning activity. I chose the front of the woodshed. It was a little too close to the main suet feeder, a fact that didn’t deter visits by all the smaller Woodpeckers but yesterday seemed to upset a Steller’s Jay. At first all was quiet. Not a Chickadee stirred. Perhaps this was because the morning started out rather dark, a situation which favours the Pygmy Owl. Soon, however, a small female Hairy Woodpecker arrived. It showed no fear of me, and began hammering away at the fat. It was nice not having a pane of glass separating me from the birds. I was close enough that it was easy to note her particular markings though this bird was well known to me. She is so small for a Hairy Woodpecker that at times I study her outer tail feathers to make sure that she is not indeed a Downy. Downy Woodpeckers have black dots on their white tail feathers whereas Hairy Woodpeckers are plain white. Suddenly, as if they had just escaped containment, Chickadees dropped from the treetops to the feeder compound. I turned to the right to investigate a squirrel sneaking up from behind and was startled to see three Mule Deer eighty feet away just behind the house. They had already spotted me but continued browsing, unalarmed, on Saskatoon twigs. I kept still and tried to watch them from the corner of my eye. Two began walking casually in my direction and stood only twenty feet away. I imagined them sniffing the air trying to detect my scent which, if the wind was as still as it was a moment ago, blew away from them to the south. Soon my left leg, which crossed the other, began falling asleep. I didn’t want to scare the deer with sudden movements so I waited until they moved out of sight behind the woodshed before slowly turning. I stared at the fresh tracks and marveled at how close they had come. I also noticed that the third deer was still in plain sight. I half expected the two deer behind the woodshed to circle around and appear to my left. The deer had other plans though. They reappeared behind me on the same path where they were earlier. Then they disappeared behind the house with the smallest deer bringing up the rear. I felt honored to have mingled with their small herd for a few minutes. As entertaining as the coffee shops in town can be, this is one crowd with which I rarely get to hang. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
