I leave my trail cameras out all year long. Photos of coyotes, deer, porcupines and racoons show up on my phone. But in the spring, those first trail camera photos of babies, cast off yearlings and bucks bring early season excitement to all of us. There is a fun uncertainty of what animals will show up in the photos. You don't have to be a hunter to enjoy getting a sneak peak into the woods around us. I think we can all enjoy the start of new life and new adventures.
I just hit a deer, do you want it? My neighbor sent me this text during her morning commute to work. Had there been room in my freezer, I might have taken her up on it. I had done it before when I watched another driver hit another doe within 50 feet of where my neighbor was. It was the third deer hit that week in the same stretch of road. Why? A landowner is feeding them. A few years ago, I spoke with Maine IF&W’s then deer biologist about the impacts of feeding deer. We talked about the risk of diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease getting into the herd and spreading so rapidly, because of the unnaturally large population being pulled into a small area. We talked about the biological make-up of a deer’s stomach and how the...
