The non-party's over

Moki with injured left ear.

We are declaring the rut or mating season officially over. The bucks have returned to a more calm daily routine of grazing and resting while chewing cud. Most of the in-fighting has subsided. Mike and Dandy who had some prolonged and frequent skirmishes are now cohabiting in the shelter without fuss.

Casualties of the rut include many small trees and bushes that have lost bark caused by the bucks' regular thrashing with their antlers. And, Moki lost part of his left ear after a fight with Spike just this past week. At first we thought he might have ripped his ear on the fenceposts (think kids' rite of passage, tongue on cold metal), but then we saw some fresh blood on Spike's antlers. Mystery solved.

We have started feeding hay but as yet the bucks seem interested only in the hay's best parts (dried flowers, etc.) and push the hay around with their noses on the look-out for these succulent pieces.

Recently the herd has started to follow us whenever we walk around the 2700 foot fence line checking for damage, holes or obstructions. When we start out, Max usually walks quietly alongside or just behind us, followed by Mike and one or two others. Soon almost the entire herd is following along in single file except for KoKo. He finds it difficult to leave behind his beloved mineral lick and always choses it over the 1/2 mile hike.

Ice capades

We received these innovative ways to keep the water buckets from freezing this winter from Susie who lives on Florida Road. We have great neighbours! Your ideas are very welcome, too. Remember we do not have electricity.

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I doubt that I've thought of or explored anything that you two haven't, but I've been looking for ideas for solar heating of water for animals. So far I haven't come across the perfect solution (!), but, for what they're worth, here are a couple of suggestions I've found which might be better than nothing.

(Both from a website for feeding feral cats)

Get an old tire off the rim [we could get you one - someone dumped a few beside the road at the top of Wildlife Hill!], and stuff it with rocks. Wedge a container (like a large bucket) in the hole in the tire and put the water in there. The black tire will absorb the light from the sun during the day and heat the rocks within the tire The rocks will radiate the warmth enough to keep the water from freezing.

This suggestion comes from a horse magazine, to keep water for the horses in the fields in winter. The barn manager piled a few rock-filled tires on top of each other and then inserted a water bucket in the center of them. She said this actually prevented the water from freezing for a period of time.

"Snuggle Safe." It's a disk about the size of a frisbee intended to keep pets' bedding warm. Under normal indoor conditions, you put it in the microwave for 5 minutes and it stays hot for 12 hours. For outdoor use, it has been reported that the discs can be safely heated up to 8 minutes in a 1,000 watt microwave to last as long as possible outdoors. Depending on the microwave, the discs can conceivably melt so you have to do a little trial and error to see how hot you can go.

The discs are just the right size to fit inside the under rim of some large dinner plates and water bowls. In the frigid outdoors their heat lasts 2-3 hours. If you can afford it, it's convenient to have two sets of discs - that way you can heat and bring one set to the colony, and pickup and bring back the set used the last time you were feeding. Available through PETsMART (Item No. 451284; $19.99).
http://www.petsmart.com

New shelter

Here's the new shelter we put up this weekend as an experiment. It offers an additional place from which to feed the deer hay, keeping it dry and possible shelter from the winds. It's 20 feet long we left south and north ends open. The north end faces the barn which provides some protection from the north wind. So far, the bucks seem to appreciate it and haven't shown any signs of tearing at the sides. We shall see.

We are trying to find a solar or wind solution to keeping the water troughs from freezing this winter. If you have any suggestions, please make some.

Calendars for 2008

We have designed and sent this year's desktop calendar to the printer so it's time to let us know if you want one or two. This year's cover boy is Bash under the apple tree at the Florida Road site. The calendars feature a coil top and measure 8 inches width by 4 inches height. There are 13 recent photos in full colour showing all the bucks.

Cost is $25 ($10 for the calendar and $15 donation with income tax receipt) and we must receive your cheque by December 5, 2007 to ensure delivery for Christmas gifts. Please make cheque payable to FALLOW DEER RESERVE and send to 204 Simmons Road RR2 Odessa ON K0H 2H0.

Good news

Today we learned that The Community Foundation of Greater Kingston has approved our application for funding and we are going to be receiving $1000 on November 29, 2007 at 10am at a cheque presentation at the Kingston Yacht Club. We are very, very grateful for this generous support.

This is EGee a few weeks ago looking forward to a secure future thanks to his sponsors, Marian and David, and The Community Foundation of Greater Kingston.