A long reach...

Deep snow can make winter survival difficult for white-tailed deer.  Getting around is difficult and requires more energy.  Most of the food sources are inaccessible, especially if the snow is combined with a layer of ice that prevents deer from digging down to the ground.

Because foods such as grasses, forbs, and nuts are often unavailable, deer survive mostly on a diet of browse (buds, leaves, branch tips) during the winter months.  Where deer populations are heavy, all the food that is easy to reach is already gone by this time of winter.  Sometimes the only food left available in area is high overhead.  It is not unusual to see where deer have browsed as high as eight feet off the ground by standing on their hind legs.

I retrieved my trail cameras this afternoon and was lucky enough that one of the cameras had recorded this behavior.  The deer in this series of images is reaching up to eat needles from an Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis).

Normally I just change out the memory cards in my trail cameras and leave the cameras in the woods, but I decided to remove the cameras completely for now.  Even though its in a public park, the area that I place the cameras is quite secluded when the ground is not frozen - it's in the middle of a swamp.  However, right now its easy to access because everything is frozen over.  I also left a trail of footprints directly to the camera sites.  I also recorded a person on one of the cameras.  This is not the first time I have ever seen a person on one of the cameras, but it was the first time I could tell that they knew the camera was there.  Fortunately, they only smiled at the camera and left it in place.

If this you - Thank you for being an honest person!

There's a hole, there's a hole...

The photo above shows a small section of our yard.  The grass is starting to become green and grow, but what is really interesting to me are the hundreds of holes spaced every few inches throughout the entire lawn.

Here's a closer look.

So what's making these holes?

Northern White Cedar - An important winter food source for White-tailed Deer

On two recent occasions I have visited locations with Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) trees.  This tree is typical found in wet, mucky soils in swamps, floodplains, and along the edges of lakes. The picture above (and the following two pictures) show Northern White Cedars growing in the Chippewa River floodplain at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve.  The Cedars at Sylvan Solace are restricted to this narrow band of muck soil along the edge of the river.

The next two photographs were taken at Mission Creek Woodland Park in Mt. Pleasant.  Mission Creek Park is a mixture of upland and wetland habitats.  Along Mission Creek itself is a section of swamp filled with Norther White Cedars.  Because these trees grow in habitats with a high water table, they often have very shallow root systems and are prone to toppling over in high winds or even when snow or ice builds up in their branches.  On a walk through the park last week I noticed several trees that had recently fallen over.

Northern White Cedar is a preferred winter food source for White-tailed Deer.  Often deer will eat every needle from a tree that is within their reach to a height of 6-8 feet off the ground.  In areas with a large deer population, cedars can have a difficult time reaching adulthood, they are often consumed before they have the chance to grow out of the reach of deer. 

When a mature tree such as this one falls deer are quick to discover this easy source of food.  Many of the needles on this tree have already been stripped by hungry deer.  I expect that before winter is over, the deer will eat every needle that they can physically reach.

Drip. Drip. Drip. (The sap is running.)

The current warm daytime temperature and cold nights means that the sap is running in maple trees.  Even though it is a little earlier than most years, local syrup producers have begun tapping trees.

Sap buckets hanging on a maple tree

To Anishinaabe people in Michigan the maple sap is known as ziisbaakdwaaboo and the month of March is known as Ziisbaakdoke-Giizis (Sugaring Moon).  March is traditionally when the people would gather at sugar camp.  Today, people usually boil the sap until it becomes a thick syrup, but Anishinaabe people of the past continued boiling the syrup down until it began to granulize as maple sugar.  Sugar was one of the staple foods of the Anishinaabe people as it could packed into birch bark containers and stored for many months.

Sap drips from a spile into a sap bucket

Eat Seasonal. Eat Local.

Certain foods are best eaten fresh.  The best way to eat food that tastes the best (and is most nutritious) is to eat foods that are local and in season.  In Mid-Michigan, this means that tomatoes are best in late summer and early fall when they are ripe locally.  Strawberries are best when they are fresh picked in June.

Right now is apple season.  An apple can be stored for 16 months (but that doesn't mean they should be).  A stored apple loses its flavor, dries out, and becomes "mealy".  Fresh, local apples can be found in Mid-Michigan from late-July through late-October.  They are fresh, juicy, crisp, and perfect.

Go to the store and get some apples.

Better yet.  Go to the farmers market.

Even better, visit the orchard and pick some up.

Best of all, pick your own.  It's too late to plant apple trees now, but if you plant them in the Spring you can be enjoying your own apples within two year.

Try a variety that you are not familiar with.  There are so many apple varieties beyond Red Delicious, Macintosh, and Honey Crisp.  I like Braeburn, Matsu, Pink Lady, and Ginger Gold.

My favorite apples are from trees that I find growing along roadsides or in the woods.  Trees that were self-seeded or planted in orchards long ago and then abandoned.  The best apples that I have ever eaten were from an abandoned farm near Sleeping Bear Dunes.  My second favorite apples grow on a tree in a local park.  I don't have any idea what kind they are, but they are crisp, sweet and tart, and juicy.

Apples on a tree in an abandoned orchard in Sleeping Bear Dunes - my favorite apples of all time