By DENNIS APRILL
This should come as no surprise, but so far it has been a relatively easy winter for both humans and deer.
With the snows and freeze-up in the mountains coming, according to my calculations, two weeks later than 2008, a major January thaw, and little snow depth, the deer, according to Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist Ed Reed, are moving about freely in the wintering areas and in places where the crust supports them.
With half the winter about over, and the DEC formula of 60 days with snow depth of 15 inches or more being one of the yardsticks to measure how stressed the deer are, it seems that barring a lot of storms with snow lingering into late April, our deer should be in pretty good shape.
Reed also speculated on the lower-than-expected fall deer take, estimated to be down 15 to 20 percent in the Northern Zone.
While the southern Adirondacks did lose deer in 2008-09 due to heavy snow, Reed doesn't see that as a factor up here.
"Last fall," he says, "November temperatures were 10 degrees above normal, so the deer didn't move during the daylight hours, but waited until the cooler weather at night."
I can't argue with that. The day before Thanksgiving with the temperature at 52 degrees, I watched a white snowshoe rabbit jump into brown underbrush in a vain attempt to conceal itself.
Another factor besides the warm weather could be the accompanying lack of snow for tracking and abundant food supply available.
For those hunters who have not heard about it, there was a very large buck shot by a bow hunter on Long Island last fall; it could be the No. 2 non-typical whitetail ever taken by bow, according to NYSBBC. The whitetail, killed by Bjorn Holubar, has 20 points and was measured by Boone & Crockett Club scorer Dick Johndrow from Ticonderoga; it came in at 202 5/8. The buck weighed 210 pounds.
