THE Random Chat Thread - AKA "The RCT" - No shirt or shoes required - Open 24 / 7

releventchair said:
Mornin all.

Pirate flag awaits pickup at the auction house. On the way to or from an Uncles place. He and another Uncle await some venison.
With Dad gone it's my turn to bring them a taste.

Bit of a mess to clean up yet but would like to sneak out this evening to spy on deer. Or try to anyways. Maybe heat something to snack on on the stove in the blind.
Click to expand...
I miss deer. I never hunted them as there were not many around when I used to hunt and only in the high country. Now they are everywhere, even where we are on the edge of the Wimmera. Last place we were, Tarnagulla, there was quite a few. One morning I had to slam the breaks on as a dozen or so ran out from the bush crossing the road. Mostly fallow deer there. Lots of larger ones elsewhere. My sister and her husband yrs ago had a deer farm so we used to get some now and then from them. Loved it. I still buy some when they have it in the shops. I used to make venison jerky and kangaroo jerky.
The main reason for the sudden rise here was after the deer farm industry collapse. During its peak huge numbers were brought here from New Zealand. I used to know a helicopter pilot from there who used to catch them for the Aussie market. Anyway, too many people jumped on board with the farming, in the 1990s, and over supplied. To the point the prices crashed and people were losing money hand over fist just feeding them. That resulted in thousands and thousands across Victoria being just set free. It wasn't legal to do so but people couldn't afford to run the farms with hundreds of deer and nobody to buy them. My sister sold what they could for ridiculous low prices just to get rid of them. I don't know for sure but suspect some too were released. They are now becoming a huge problem here as they have no predators and still hunting is restricted.
 

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I just don't do well shut up in the house, so cold wind and rain be damned, I hit the dez!
Nevada Artifacts

IMG_8129.JPG
 

Oregon Viking said:
Very cool! My dad was an avid photographer and did photos and research for the the Audubon society . I inherited about 200 bird painting/identification/classification books.
Good luck!
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Wow Vike, I think that's cool. I love taking pics but not a photographer pro by no means... thanks
 

Chilli said:
I miss deer. I never hunted them as there were not many around when I used to hunt and only in the high country. Now they are everywhere, even where we are on the edge of the Wimmera. Last place we were, Tarnagulla, there was quite a few. One morning I had to slam the breaks on as a dozen or so ran out from the bush crossing the road. Mostly fallow deer there. Lots of larger ones elsewhere. My sister and her husband yrs ago had a deer farm so we used to get some now and then from them. Loved it. I still buy some when they have it in the shops. I used to make venison jerky and kangaroo jerky.
The main reason for the sudden rise here was after the deer farm industry collapse. During its peak huge numbers were brought here from New Zealand. I used to know a helicopter pilot from there who used to catch them for the Aussie market. Anyway, too many people jumped on board with the farming, in the 1990s, and over supplied. To the point the prices crashed and people were losing money hand over fist just feeding them. That resulted in thousands and thousands across Victoria being just set free. It wasn't legal to do so but people couldn't afford to run the farms with hundreds of deer and nobody to buy them. My sister sold what they could for ridiculous low prices just to get rid of them. I don't know for sure but suspect some too were released. They are now becoming a huge problem here as they have no predators and still hunting is restricted.
Click to expand...
Oooo Red Stag in N.Z..

Cousins used to raise some Whtetailed deer.
A friend had a fallow deer a couple houses down.
He must have sold it as I wasn't summoned with knives..

Our deer are susceptible to C.W.D. now.
E.H.D. has raised Cain here and there again but isn't as bad.
T.B. in the N.E, of the state still. Cattle related allegedly.

But... I'm more interested in balance with the habitat.
Easy enough trillium flowers aren't seen where many deer exist. No I'm no fan of trilliums but the list grows from there. And winter groceries matter most. With certain browse in deer best evolved related interests.
To say, deer often need reduced for their and their habitats own good.
Here hunters come in.
Yes there are professional culls here and there. Mostly a waste of resources.

I've stood on winterkilled deer bones. From where a very definite browse line existed to above the heads standing on hind legs reach.
I'd rather reduce them with a rifle.
Then I've seen stunted deer where winter maple browse was gnawed to pencil diameter.
Being deer don't have upper teeth in front , the indication they were in trouble wasn't hard to argue.

Nature will deal with it. Not cheerfully.
Dead deer feed the ecosystem.
But before starving or putting a long term hurting on the habitat deer try to survive.
Nearly a third of their weight in severe or extended winters. Dropping metabolisms in the worst cold. Auto cannibalism after fat is gone shows in marrow. Becoming more colored and jellylike as irreversible condition exists.
A success in survival. Yet vulnerable due to their own success.
It takes a surprising number of deer to see deer regular. By which time balance should already be being measured. More than deer utilize a habitat.

My annual informal goal is for a doe to fawn on my hunting property.
She'll run all other deer including last years fawn(s) off.
Later when the fawn is well mobile and learning to browse she'll be less aggressive. Then in the early fall a/the matriarchal group will form. Depending who's around.
And some doe or stray fawns might join. Or ghost along near.
And I'll spy at them.
Coyote take their share. Bears will to though the bear sign I've seen on site wasn't long term. Or specific fawning timed.

You can see two grape vines I wire tied to saplings in this picture. Deer communicate with licking branches ect.
To the left of the deer pictured are scrapes and rubs and looking branches and deer traffic .
Deer is 220 yards from blind. No that's not metric.
Swamp is about 240.
View is through a machine cut lane through alder "jungle".
Path in rear goes left. To another cut.
And if you see enough of it it becomes a halfmoon circle along swamp with a circular course within it.
But there's more to it than that.
 

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releventchair said:
Oooo Red Stag in N.Z..

Cousins used to raise some Whtetailed deer.
A friend had a fallow deer a couple houses down.
He must have sold it as I wasn't summoned with knives..

Our deer are susceptible to C.W.D. now.
E.H.D. has raised Cain here and there again but isn't as bad.
T.B. in the N.E, of the state still. Cattle related allegedly.

But... I'm more interested in balance with the habitat.
Easy enough trillium flowers aren't seen where many deer exist. No I'm no fan of trilliums but the list grows from there. And winter groceries matter most. With certain browse in deer best evolved related interests.
To say, deer often need reduced for their and their habitats own good.
Here hunters come in.
Yes there are professional culls here and there. Mostly a waste of resources.

I've stood on winterkilled deer bones. From where a very definite browse line existed to above the heads standing on hind legs reach.
I'd rather reduce them with a rifle.
Then I've seen stunted deer where winter maple browse was gnawed to pencil diameter.
Being deer don't have upper teeth in front , the indication they were in trouble wasn't hard to argue.

Nature will deal with it. Not cheerfully.
Dead deer feed the ecosystem.
But before starving or putting a long term hurting on the habitat deer try to survive.
Nearly a third of their weight in severe or extended winters. Dropping metabolisms in the worst cold. Auto cannibalism after fat is gone shows in marrow. Becoming more colored and jellylike as irreversible condition exists.
A success in survival. Yet vulnerable due to their own success.
It takes a surprising number of deer to see deer regular. By which time balance should already be being measured. More than deer utilize a habitat.

My annual informal goal is for a doe to fawn on my hunting property.
She'll run all other deer including last years fawn(s) off.
Later when the fawn is well mobile and learning to browse she'll be less aggressive. Then in the early fall a/the matriarchal group will form. Depending who's around.
And some doe or stray fawns might join. Or ghost along near.
And I'll spy at them.
Coyote take their share. Bears will to though the bear sign I've seen on site wasn't long term. Or specific fawning timed.

You can see two grape vines I wire tied to saplings in this picture. Deer communicate with licking branches ect.
To the left of the deer pictured are scrapes and rubs and looking branches and deer traffic .
Deer is 220 yards from blind. No that's not metric.
Swamp is about 240.
View is through a machine cut lane through alder "jungle".
Path in rear goes left. To another cut.
And if you see enough of it it becomes a halfmoon circle along swamp with a circular course within it.
But there's more to it than that.
Click to expand...
That's very interesting stuff you shared there.
When you say this "it takes a surprising number of deer to see deer regular"
Would that mean in the area I was seeing them very regularly, often a few, to several more at a time and road killed now n then, in the hundreds?
 

Chilli said:
That's very interesting stuff you shared there.
When you say this "it takes a surprising number of deer to see deer regular"
Would that mean in the area I was seeing them very regularly, often a few, to several more at a time and road killed now n then, in the hundreds?
Click to expand...
More along the lines of if they are being pressured/harassed and trying to avoid humans , 6-8 deer per square mile and you'll not be encountering then often by pursuing them on foot during daylight.
Around me you'd want to be where they want to be . While elsewhere no one is seeing them.

16-18 p.s.m. and I start seeing them without going all out in the effort.
But like fish , times when 100% of the fish seem to occupy 10% of the water, deer can make themselves scarce. Part of their adaptation as eternal prey.
The dew claws on the backs of their feet testify to a much earlier time and habits.
Somewhere behind horses for sure. But still much evolved.

And human suburbs with watered fancy plantings are magnets. As are irrigated crops.
What is a nonhunting vegetarian to do when peeking out the window of their concrete footprint where nothing can grow, to see a favorite shrub being reduced?
The deer isn't conflicting. It's just eating. And the world a deer used to just be able to shuffle off away from humans in , has become finite.

I like seeing the odd deer around my yard on the once in a great while occasions I get a visit. Despite the vast forest adjacent. (Too mature and leaf ceiling canopied in summer to offer much browse.) .
Across the dirt road where my nonhunting neighbor has thousands into landscaping yummy treats for deer , he isn't fond of seeing deer there.
 

releventchair said:
More along the lines of if they are being pressured/harassed and trying to avoid humans , 6-8 deer per square mile and you'll not be encountering then often by pursuing them on foot during daylight.
Around me you'd want to be where they want to be . While elsewhere no one is seeing them.

16-18 p.s.m. and I start seeing them without going all out in the effort.
But like fish , times when 100% of the fish seem to occupy 10% of the water, deer can make themselves scarce. Part of their adaptation as eternal prey.
The dew claws on the backs of their feet testify to a much earlier time and habits.
Somewhere behind horses for sure. But still much evolved.

And human suburbs with watered fancy plantings are magnets. As are irrigated crops.
What is a nonhunting vegetarian to do when peeking out the window of their concrete footprint where nothing can grow, to see a favorite shrub being reduced?
The deer isn't conflicting. It's just eating. And the world a deer used to just be able to shuffle off away from humans in , has become finite.

I like seeing the odd deer around my yard on the once in a great while occasions I get a visit. Despite the vast forest adjacent. (Too mature and leaf ceiling canopied in summer to offer much browse.) .
Across the dirt road where my nonhunting neighbor has thousands into landscaping yummy treats for deer , he isn't fond of seeing deer there.
Click to expand...
I found a short, bit shaky, video I got of one when I was detecting for gold a few yrs ago. Keep your eye on the left side of the frame. That was Dunolly Victoria. Was a really warm day, about 33. The sound you hear are the Cicadas.
 

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