Rainlessness In The Deer World

The south side of the area where I live is bordered on a river that takes a sharp bend that turns the thousand acre place into an L-Shaped property. So, generally, the natural water supply is ok. But this year the flowing water in the river came to a stand still causing the river to dry up in many places. And the 100 plus heat wave we’ve experienced made most of the man-made stock ponds dry up — or get seriously low.

The picture below is taken from my front yard looking across a sun-dried crop field. The distant tree line is 800 yards away.

Normally there would be weeds and native grasses growing. Deer would browse around and pick up tid-bits to eat. Amazingly enough, those tid bits managed to grow and deer, like the one below, are  professional tid-bit finders.

Below is a doe and her 2 fawns and they are nursing actively.

The drought, besides creating a water shortage situation, has made a surprising effect on the deer movement. I see deer out during all hours of the day. The 100 degree heat has scorched the ground level plants that would ordinarily be natural browse.

So the deer are moving much more than is customary.

This year the ribs of plenty of deer are showing. And some deer are like the dow below, skinny and underweight.

TWO WEEKS AGO IT FINALLY RAINED. And we had daily showers and even rain storms for a week. The changes the wet weather brought came on fast. In the picture below you can see some natural green grasses taking hold and starting to grow.

Our area quickly began turning green. More Coming …