Deer?

All of the conversation about deer (and the lack of them in the north country) including a press conference with the Governor (yes I attended as the Executive Director of the Maine Professional Guides Association) and news articles this weekend. All of this has me looking carefully for tracks whenever I am out and about. Argy and I walk almost every day the same two and a half miles.

I commented the other day that I have not seen a deer track since January on our regular route. In fact the last track I saw in the woods was on a snowshoe trip in February. This afternoon we went down to Dodges Point in Damariscotta and I saw a couple of tracks. I was surprised to see so few because the south facing slopes along the shore were free of snow and there were still lots of acorns on the ground left over from last fall. I assume that would be a ready food source.

Is there a chance that the population models are not giving us the right information? After all I live and work in a part of the state that is considered having a healthy population of deer. With all of the snow we had this winter I expect that the deer had a very hard time making it and we are looking at a reduced population even here along the coast. The conversation may get even more interesting in the next few months.