Yep. Deer (Killing) Season

Normally when we're out and about we see zero deer. Around sunset they grow in numbers to maybe one or two. Maybe still zero. On the occasional day trip there might be a bloated one off in the ditch, victim of road kill. Or as Steve likes to put it, they learn the lesson of what it means to be Minnesota attack deer. Or Wisconsin attack deer, depending. We're close to the border and find no real difference. They may succeed in killing the cars they attack, but always at a price.

On what I consider a really, really lucky day, one can even see a bald eagle, picking at the rotting carcass along the ditch. I do mean lucky for both the person and the eagle, though luckier for the person if they'd remembered to bring their camera along. Possibly also for the highway clean-up crew, with less stinky weight to toss up on the back of their truck, but I suppose that depends on how together the remaining hide is keeping the remains, or whether they have to scrounge around collecting pieces scattered across the landscape, by then no doubt a very sloped and slippery landscape. One would hope they have cleats or similar on their footwear. Imagine slipping, sliding down that bank, and then sitting back in the truck!

If my nose still worked I'd try to describe the olfactory ramifications as well. But lucky you, not today.

Last weekend we had occasion to do a bit of traveling out on country roads. It coincided with deer hunting opener, which always coincides with the rut. The result even for non-hunters is the chance to see lots of deer. A few will be in remote fields, cleaning the stubble from harvest for some last minute fattening up for winter. For some reason these invariably are does. Perhaps young bud bucks too, but either way, not currently being bothered by the rut. Most of them will be much closer to the road however. Permanently so, at least until the cleaning crew makes its rounds. Inevitably they are very bloated as well. Those stomach contents are trying their hardest to digest themselves, as the stomachs' owners have given up the ghost. Just not the gas... yet. A couple more days, if warm enough, and it will no longer be a problem except for people who still have noses.   My sympathies to you all.  

(You notice a recurring theme here?)

Now if these were freeways, there'd be much less bloat visible and lots more highway hamburger, perhaps even the occasional limb stuck in some unlucky trucker's grill. Yep, I've seen that, on a truck with too busy a schedule to stop and clear it off. Maybe it just wasn't his personal rig.

Of all those deer, we saw perhaps a dozen that one trip up. It was dark on the return and, luckily, we saw none, not in fields, in ditches, or in the road.

 We had started seeing deer crossing the roads about a week ago. Amazingly, vehicles were stopping to let them cross. I guess a  small percentage of folks around here have finally learned that the attack deer can be expensive, especially with prices of grills, engines, windshields, bumpers, etc., skyrocketing recently from the weird bouncing tariffs.  My last attack deer cost me a new car when it killed the power steering on the one I was driving, as its age and mileage convinced the insurance company to total it out. That was long ago, fortunately.

We even saw a couple in a neighbor's yard last week. On one side of their house was a buck with a great rack. On the other side was a doe. Both stood so still as I drove very slowly past that I couldn't tell for sure if they were real or not. I mean, not even an ear twitching! When we returned later both had vanished, so we decided they weren't decoys. Besides, this was in town where no hunting is allowed.

(Note that the prohibition does not mean we never hear rifles going off around sunrise and sunset. We just hope those folks are out beyond city limits. This town isn't huge.)

We wondered why this particular yard had attracted the deer. It had nothing visible to offer aside from mowed grass. No bushes, no apple trees, nothing. Perhaps the owners had spread grain to lure them in, either just to watch them or to keep them away from hunters for a little while. I've driven past there since and haven't seen them again.

I was disappointed.

But they might have been the pair that stopped traffic on my way home from the store last night, including the ambulance with lights and siren going! Wise choice.