Feeding Deer in Winter (My February column in Maine Woodlands) Feeding deer in winter is tricky. We mean well but we can kill deer with kindness if we aren’t careful. Farmer’s Almanac said we’d have a lot of snow this winter, and they were right. We had more snow on…
Routine Change Routine change seems to happen quickly even though fall creeps in slowly, particularly this year. Last week we had daytime temperatures in the high 70’s and nighttime temps in the low 50’s. This morning the hose was frozen because the temp dipped into the high 20’s. At 10…
Beaver Damage Beaver damage – a problem that creates beauty. Now what do we do? We had a surprise, unwelcome discovery in the woodlot late in the summer. Steve discovered a beaver lodge and bog a few hundred yards from the house. It looks like I need to spend more…
Young Bull Moose A young bull moose visits the food plot on his way to somewhere more interesting. He’s been here night and day, always coming into and leaving the food plot in the same directions. On Tuesday he swung a left at the Y and walked past another camera.…
Snowshoe Hare Kits Last week, in the midst of our quest to add beauty to the homestead, Steve backed the bush hog under a clump of wild apple, pine, spruce and black cherry trees. Ava and Zoey followed their noses to a young porcupine two days earlier, and Zoey came…
Preventing Nuisance Bear Problems There’s a rogue bear on the loose, being a pain in the backside, and scaring people. It’s probably a yearling that’s been through family separation and doesn’t quite know what to do with itself yet. Sows drive their yearlings away, sometimes violently, to prevent them from…
Hit a Bear? PSA. Attention please. :/ If you hit a bear please don’t assume it’s okay because it got up and ran. You seldom ever, or maybe never, have seen a dead bear on the side of the road in Maine. They have hard bones but their internal organs…
Wildlife Observation Tips I never, ever take the ability to see a tremendous amount of wildlife for granted. Steve and I went turkey hunting this morning. We didn’t see a single turkey but we did see four bears (more later!), a moose, a fox, three snowshoe hare, 100+ red stag…
Living With Coyotes on the Homestead Living with coyotes is a part of living in the woods. There were at least two coyotes on a game camera over the winter, far below the numbers we saw in our backyard 10 years ago. The population is under control now. In early…
Mink, Two Dogs and a Fire Pit What do you get when you combine a mink, two dogs and a fire pit? Chaos. Zoey barked like a maniac. “Poor Ava, she doesn’t get a break…” Ava barked but not in the “rip your head off” tone Zoey has when she’s…