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New year's musings
Jan. 5th, 2022 07:24 pmThough I moved to my new location almost 2 months ago, I only began to feel this new place as my home in the run up to the new year. This move to a completely unfamiliar place proved to be more of an adjustment than I thought. Every other place that I'd dwelled in for a long duration was familiar in some way - the western suburbs were where I had spent much of my life, and living up north was familiar enough because I had been visiting that area since I was a kid. This area however, though at the same latitude as my home in the western suburbs, is totally unfamiliar. Settling into this area has meant getting accustomed to a new biome and landscape, a new routine, and so forth. What follows is the first nature journal of the new year, in a place I am coming to feel as my home for the first time.
The unglaciated landscape with its hills and valleys is not unlike the River valleys in the Southwest of Minnesota, but in character very unlike the glaciated mixed forests of the western suburbs. As such, there are subtle differences in both the plant and animal kingdoms here. Some have already been mentioned here, but I will add more presently. First of all, we have the screech owl. It is heard in the hills to the north every night. Many birds of prey live in the area besides. There is a great horned owl living in the neighbor's yard, a barred owl near the entrance of the neighborhood, numerous eagles living in the hills and valleys of the surrounding area, and a red-tailed hawk living on top of the hills to the north. Anytime you see this many predators it means that the hunting opportunities are quite fertile, and that by and large the ecosystem is healthy and flourishing.
A thought came to me the other day, as I watched deer come down to the feeder as they often do at dusk. Right now, we have a number of does along with a formerly 8-point buck coming regularly. I say formerly because one of his antlers has gone missing in the last few days so now he has only four points on the right side of his head. These deer are very skittish and reluctant to descend the hill very far. Wisconsin is full of hunters and they have been shot at many times this year. But somehow these proud specimens have survived. The thought I had was that these deer are very different from the ones that I remember from the 1990s. This calls for a trip down memory lane to clarify what I mean for readers who may be unfamiliar.
In the 1990s, when I was still quite young, there were deer in enormous numbers in the western suburbs. As a matter of fact, one time when I was driving with my father at night we had an unfortunate collision with one that could easily have been fatal for us, had things gone differently. It was not uncommon on the long winter nights to see hundreds of deer outside in the parks not far from where I lived. I always got the impression of a gigantic deer council meeting in the frozen marshes and snowy groves out there. This was in a time of expanding suburbia, and eventually there was a loud clamor to get rid of all the deer. So eventually they were culled in a multi-city initiative, and their numbers never even approached the prodigious quantity of the 1990s ever again.
From that point onward in fact I never recall having seen those numbers of deer anywhere in my region. The deer that did show up in the 2000s and beyond were much cagier and often came at night. Sometimes you could see bucks of impressive size, real Kings of the woods, but all in all it was a rare occurrence. They continue to be hunted in calling programs, despite there being no real need for it any longer, and also the western suburbs had by this time a viable breeding population of coyotes, who also hunted the deer. I should note for a moment that coyotes were very rare in my area though not unheard of when I was young. They only became a common sight in the later 2000s, at the same time that large flocks of turkeys were seen as well. As a child, the only turkeys I would ever see were in far southwestern Minnesota, where we would sometimes go camping. These anecdotes will make it clear that major changes have occurred in the cycles of wildlife population just in my lifetime.
My theory is that the deer of today have been subjected to very strong selective pressure in the last few decades. Hunting and culling pressures have led to a populace that is more careful and elusive. I often hear hunters complain that deer are harder to catch nowadays, and the rifle hunting season is rather short, meaning that many go away disappointed. Meanwhile our neighbors up north were successful at catching one deer during the bow-hunting season. Either in the western suburbs or here on the fringes of one of the hunting capitals of the United States, the deer are adapting to what they have come to understand is a dangerous world for them, that is, the expanding ring of civilization. Though given all that is going on in the world today, it is debatable just how long that expansion will continue. Furthermore, the deer are just one of the tales of adaptation that I've seen during years of watching the world go by. That is why I also mentioned the turkeys and coyotes, though these are two triumphant success stories that serve as a counterpoint.
When observing the natural world, it is important to remember that the original phrase for what we're doing here was "natural history.". So you can expect digressions like the ones above in my writings. I like to take an historical and retrospective look at all this stuff, as without the accrued knowledge that comes with repeated observation, experience and reflection, solid learning is hard to come by. To my knowledge, this is the first time that I have set down any of these recollections in a public form. I only pass on information that is true to the best of my knowledge. If any of it does not match your experience, do not hesitate to share your opinions. Correspondence is encouraged. And I expect to continue these nature journals for as long as I am able. I see it as part of my life's work.
The unglaciated landscape with its hills and valleys is not unlike the River valleys in the Southwest of Minnesota, but in character very unlike the glaciated mixed forests of the western suburbs. As such, there are subtle differences in both the plant and animal kingdoms here. Some have already been mentioned here, but I will add more presently. First of all, we have the screech owl. It is heard in the hills to the north every night. Many birds of prey live in the area besides. There is a great horned owl living in the neighbor's yard, a barred owl near the entrance of the neighborhood, numerous eagles living in the hills and valleys of the surrounding area, and a red-tailed hawk living on top of the hills to the north. Anytime you see this many predators it means that the hunting opportunities are quite fertile, and that by and large the ecosystem is healthy and flourishing.
A thought came to me the other day, as I watched deer come down to the feeder as they often do at dusk. Right now, we have a number of does along with a formerly 8-point buck coming regularly. I say formerly because one of his antlers has gone missing in the last few days so now he has only four points on the right side of his head. These deer are very skittish and reluctant to descend the hill very far. Wisconsin is full of hunters and they have been shot at many times this year. But somehow these proud specimens have survived. The thought I had was that these deer are very different from the ones that I remember from the 1990s. This calls for a trip down memory lane to clarify what I mean for readers who may be unfamiliar.
In the 1990s, when I was still quite young, there were deer in enormous numbers in the western suburbs. As a matter of fact, one time when I was driving with my father at night we had an unfortunate collision with one that could easily have been fatal for us, had things gone differently. It was not uncommon on the long winter nights to see hundreds of deer outside in the parks not far from where I lived. I always got the impression of a gigantic deer council meeting in the frozen marshes and snowy groves out there. This was in a time of expanding suburbia, and eventually there was a loud clamor to get rid of all the deer. So eventually they were culled in a multi-city initiative, and their numbers never even approached the prodigious quantity of the 1990s ever again.
From that point onward in fact I never recall having seen those numbers of deer anywhere in my region. The deer that did show up in the 2000s and beyond were much cagier and often came at night. Sometimes you could see bucks of impressive size, real Kings of the woods, but all in all it was a rare occurrence. They continue to be hunted in calling programs, despite there being no real need for it any longer, and also the western suburbs had by this time a viable breeding population of coyotes, who also hunted the deer. I should note for a moment that coyotes were very rare in my area though not unheard of when I was young. They only became a common sight in the later 2000s, at the same time that large flocks of turkeys were seen as well. As a child, the only turkeys I would ever see were in far southwestern Minnesota, where we would sometimes go camping. These anecdotes will make it clear that major changes have occurred in the cycles of wildlife population just in my lifetime.
My theory is that the deer of today have been subjected to very strong selective pressure in the last few decades. Hunting and culling pressures have led to a populace that is more careful and elusive. I often hear hunters complain that deer are harder to catch nowadays, and the rifle hunting season is rather short, meaning that many go away disappointed. Meanwhile our neighbors up north were successful at catching one deer during the bow-hunting season. Either in the western suburbs or here on the fringes of one of the hunting capitals of the United States, the deer are adapting to what they have come to understand is a dangerous world for them, that is, the expanding ring of civilization. Though given all that is going on in the world today, it is debatable just how long that expansion will continue. Furthermore, the deer are just one of the tales of adaptation that I've seen during years of watching the world go by. That is why I also mentioned the turkeys and coyotes, though these are two triumphant success stories that serve as a counterpoint.
When observing the natural world, it is important to remember that the original phrase for what we're doing here was "natural history.". So you can expect digressions like the ones above in my writings. I like to take an historical and retrospective look at all this stuff, as without the accrued knowledge that comes with repeated observation, experience and reflection, solid learning is hard to come by. To my knowledge, this is the first time that I have set down any of these recollections in a public form. I only pass on information that is true to the best of my knowledge. If any of it does not match your experience, do not hesitate to share your opinions. Correspondence is encouraged. And I expect to continue these nature journals for as long as I am able. I see it as part of my life's work.
