Oh Deer!

As most of you know, I love the outdoors and all that it has to offer.  I love going hiking and if I get to see some deer, antelope or elk that's always a bonus.

   Come late winter and into spring, the deer and elk start dropping their antlers in preparation to grow new ones.  Lots of things factor into a deers antlers as far as size and points go-genetics is a huge one but nutrition, age and even trauma while they are still in velvet can affect how they grow.

  Trying to find antlers can be harder then trying to find deer; deer move around and leave signs-antlers don't but if you can find where the deer have been then there is a chance of finding antlers.  Coyotes and rodents like to find the antlers too as there is some nutritional value to them.

   Here are a couple of antlers that I found; one of them is a shed from at least a year ago and has been chewed on quite a bit; the other one is a 2 point from this year still in good shape.

   The most important thing to remember when out 'hunting' for sheds is to not disturb or stress the deer!!  They are coming out of winter and especially this year are showing the affects of a severe drought from last year and a very cold winter-the last thing they need is to waist energy getting away from you. This poor doe was definitely suffering from the 'long haul' of winter and was quite depressed when we came up on her.  She was in no hurry to get with the rest of the herd which was quite a ways off so we went the other way.

   Here is the rest of the group that we sat back and watched for a while. There was still one large buck in here that we could see that hadn't dropped his antlers yet. Over all this herd looked pretty good despite the one doe.

  Here, my dad, Jessie and I went out to another place later that week to look for more.  We didn't see any deer this time but lots of sign that the elk had been there recently.  Dad found a nice 4 point shed that was sticking out of the snow.
   So, you may be wondering at this point, why?  I like it!  I like hiking and I like the wildlife.  I am thinking about making some table center pieces with the antlers in my 'free' time though.