Winterkill in Northern Region 8

[nyantler]

I find it funny how we as hunters have different points of view on many things.  I believe perspective takes a big part in our views. 

 

I understand the circle of life but seeing a deer die in front of you is a little different under these circumstances.  Mother Nature can be cruel and hard but you get use to it after seeing death so often.  Does not mean one of those will not tug at your heart. 

 

Your hard core Joe, like that was unexpected, lol. 

 

Actually I have softened a bit as I've gotten older... lol  The funny thing is I do have a soft spot for domestic animals, but not so much for wild animals... not sure why that is... I'm pretty sure I'm a little messed up.

[wolc123]

I have long considered deer to be gifts from God, and there is no better place for them than "deer heaven", or us hunter's food supply.  Certainly that is the  best place for them to end up and involves considerably less suffering than any other way they could check out.   It's pretty much a win-win deal if there ever was one.                  

Edited March 16, 2015 by wolc123

[Lawdwaz]

I believe that was in the mid to late 80's. But then you can imagine how my memory for dates gets more and more messed up as each year goes by.... lol.

 

Hmm, I was thinking early to mid 70's but I sure don't know.  By saying "Honeoye yard", you mean the area around Emil Mueller's home and Wild Rose Ranch?

 

Regardless, I found an interesting piece on Muller, his life and donations:

 

http://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/articles.php?view=article&id=92

[Doc]

Hmm, I was thinking early to mid 70's but I sure don't know.  By saying "Honeoye yard", you mean the area around Emil Mueller's home and Wild Rose Ranch?

 

Regardless, I found an interesting piece on Muller, his life and donations:

 

http://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/articles.php?view=article&id=92

It could have been in the mid 70's. Like I said, me and dates don't get along well anymore (brain-rot ..... lol). And yes, that was the area. Old Emil was quite the trouble-maker back in those days and along with his illegal modifications of Honeoye wetlands, always seemed to be involved in problems with the DEC over those kinds of activities. 

 

I had taken some pictures of it all but They seem to have become casualties of time and disorganization. The search goes on, and if I find any of them, perhaps they will have a date-stamp on them. I'll keep looking.

 

I have tried to find any mention of the "yard" on the internet, and am really surprised that there is nothing. It was a huge event that was a crazy enormous and ugly thing to see.

[gjs4]

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[WNY Bowhunter]

My wife and I went driving around this afternoon doing a little turkey scouting and saw 150+ deer.  We saw plenty of really small deer that made it through the winter.  I'm optimistic that in my area the winterkill wasn't overly severe.

[Paula]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427153863.677704.jpg

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now that is some deep snow and a determined deer!!

[Lawdwaz]

It could have been in the mid 70's. Like I said, me and dates don't get along well anymore (brain-rot ..... lol). And yes, that was the area. Old Emil was quite the trouble-maker back in those days and along with his illegal modifications of Honeoye wetlands, always seemed to be involved in problems with the DEC over those kinds of activities. 

 

I had taken some pictures of it all but They seem to have become casualties of time and disorganization. The search goes on, and if I find any of them, perhaps they will have a date-stamp on them. I'll keep looking.

 

I have tried to find any mention of the "yard" on the internet, and am really surprised that there is nothing. It was a huge event that was a crazy enormous and ugly thing to see.

 

Cool, I'd love to see pics!

 

[Lawdwaz]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427153863.677704.jpg

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Your camera?  Any other particulars?

[Doc]

Cool, I'd love to see pics!

 

I am still looking. I have found a few, on slides and I am having them transferred over to digital. But I have stacks of photographs that I have to go through yet. Pictures are totally disorganized. of course it doesn't make it too easy when the formats keep changing. I started off taking only photos. Then I went to slides. Now we are into digital..

[growalot]

Geez Mr B spotted one in my lower feild...

[gjs4]

Your camera? Any other particulars?

Yes my cam.

Couldn't get near the cam until some of snow melted. It's afield corner they use to cross from bedding A to bedding area B. The particular buck is a fairly good sized 3 yo. This was the last pic I had for three weeks. Not sure why he was so determined.... I sure wouldn't be. Lol

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[martinhunter12]

There is a nice patch of pine trees that come right up to my road, and when driving you can see deer all the time bedded under the pines and walking around etc. and today I could see from the road a crow on top of a deer chewing away.... second deer I have found dead in my area this year. 

[Lawdwaz]

There is a nice patch of pine trees that come right up to my road, and when driving you can see deer all the time bedded under the pines and walking around etc. and today I could see from the road a crow on top of a deer chewing away.... second deer I have found dead in my area this year. 

 

Hit by a car.

[Doc]

I believe that was in the mid to late 80's. But then you can imagine how my memory for dates gets more and more messed up as each year goes by.... lol.

Lawdwaz-

 

*UPDATE*

 

Ok ...... I didn't forget about getting this answer for you on the date of the Honeoye deer yard. I found some of the slides, and they had a development date stamped on them of April 1989.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I drove the thruway yesterday and I'm not exaggerating when I say I saw AT LEAST 300 deer between Utica and Montezuma. I couldn't believe it, every field held 15+

[stoneam2006]

I drove the thruway yesterday and I'm not exaggerating when I say I saw AT LEAST 300 deer between Utica and Montezuma. I couldn't believe it, every field held 15+

Yea the fields down from my house have anywhere from 5 to 100 deer in them all day...seriously there are points of day where I think every deer in the valley is in the fields....only nice big bare spot around....probably 100 acres total 3 different fields within 1/3 mile of eachother....kids love it deer hang out right next to roads and I stop and roll down windows so they can see them nice....deer just stand there......did I see a nice sized turkey flock sat about 7am with 3 in full strut...time to be driving around back roads with a camera

[wooly]

Kinda funny all the road sightings being reported here.

The electric company came down my road and mowed down a mess of tree tops and trunks about 30ft off the shoulder just about two weeks ago to clear the power lines.

Everything that didn't land in someones front yard was left to lay and the deer are hammering the leftovers.

Within the last week or so, there have been 5 fresh roadkills within a mile of my driveway.

 

I took a walk down the road yesterday to reach one of my access spots to the creek and on my way home found another fresh roadkill that happened within a couple hour hike. Even those deer that were strong enough to make it through this winter aren't "out of the woods" yet when it comes to finding chow to survive.

[WNY Bowhunter]

I pulled this pic off of one of my cams today...you wouldn't think that such a tiny little buttonbuck would have made it trough February!!!

[Lawdwaz]

Lawdwaz-

 

*UPDATE*

 

Ok ...... I didn't forget about getting this answer for you on the date of the Honeoye deer yard. I found some of the slides, and they had a development date stamped on them of April 1989.

 

Hmm......1989.  I didn't realize there was that kind of trouble back then.  Must have been quite a winter that year?

 

Thanks for the effort.

[Doc]

Hmm......1989.  I didn't realize there was that kind of trouble back then.  Must have been quite a winter that year?

 

Thanks for the effort.

I believe that it was more of a crazy high population than anything too weird about the weather. However, I do remember that the first day that I went over to see the mess, the wind was howling, and the snow was coming down pretty good. I don't recall any huge snow depths (perhaps a foot to a foot and a half of snow on the ground at the time. But judging from the fact that it was April '89 marked on the slides tells me that the winter was reaching into that month without any breaks. I have always heard that more than the actual severity of the winter, starvation rates are influenced more by the length of duration. Between that and the fact that there were so many deer everywhere in that valley (the entire length of the lake and beyond), it was kind of a perfect storm sort of event where several things were going bad at once.

[martinhunter12]

Hit by a car.

The deer was 50 yards off the road, I know it may seem like it was hit by a car by the way I described the area. But, this deer died in its bed. 

[gjs4]

Up to 8 dead (two dropped bucks) and a hen found on 320 acres..... Bad times ahead

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[growalot]

WNYBH...I see some large pine(Norway spruce?) In the back ground. Is there Platations there? We had some real small ones survive because of the planting that were done around us.

[Doc]

None of these are from this year, but are the results of similar winters.

 

And then there is this one that is just plain weird