Visiting Herds

It seems that 2020 was very good to our visiting herds of wildlife. We have seen an uptick of delicate foot prints from the deer that like to hang out in the forest and we are seeing the three different herd of elk, that were noticeable last year, have an increases in their numbers.

Where we saw the small herd of only 5 or 6 roaming around the edges of the hillside last year, we now see 8 or 9 each time they show up. The medium sized herd seems to have split or merged with the larger herd because we haven’t seen them as often, but when we do, it seems that there are at least 20 that hang out together. The large herd is where we see the most difference.

The other morning we counted about 50 in our small 6 acre field (it is tougher to count them then you would think even though they were scattered out, they do not stand in one place and never in a straight line!). They were eating all the fresh grass that had newly emerged from the thick covering of snow we had a couple of weeks ago and leaving gouge marks and huge footy prints from scuffling around.

When Mike attempted to shoo them out of the field and up into the forest by chasing them, 20 more critters came scrambling out of the riparian brush, crossed behind the Gator, ran to the far, far field and over to the neighboring forest. 70-some elk can wipe out all the new growth of a six acre field in just a few hours.

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