[Comments in brackets are by Jeannine and Duane]
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From the Northern Crew:
Greetings from the North.
Last week the northern crew caught 7 deer, including two adult females that we collared. We set a couple new traps, and immediately caught a buck fawn in one of them. The weather turned out good. The big storm missed us, but we ended up getting a few inches later in the week. New snow brought new tracks, including fishers, porcupine, grouse, coyote, and squirrel.
On Friday we recovered a collar from a scheduled drop.
We are currently maintaining 19 traps, though 3 are tied open because there are collared deer visiting them frequently. This week we plan to get a few more traps out in areas with no collared deer. As I write this, we have one deer waiting for us in a trap.
Until next week.
-Tom
Northern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
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From the Southern Crew:
Hello all!
We started the week off a little on the warm side, but it certainly feels like winter right now! Of course, it’s calling for temperatures in the 60’s next week, but c’est la vie. With upwards of 6 inches of snow at the peak of our cold front, we’ve been seeing a fair amount of deer activity! Lots of footprints by the traps and the trail cameras have captured pictures of them investigating our Clovers and rockets. With any luck, several deer are getting close to taking the plunge, so to speak.
We’ve been “pedal to the metal” working our Clover trap lines and it paid off on a collar-able deer! We had a fairly easy and smooth restraint on the deer, and we were very excited to be able to deploy a collar in Bald Eagle.
With long weeks of prep work and trapping, we’ve been making sure to work hard but also stop and enjoy the views when we can. The state forests are beautiful at any time of year, but there’s something extra special about snow on the trees to make you appreciate where you are and what an amazing job this is.
We continue to bait sites and have started to prepare for rocket net captures. It’s been a tricky start to the season. We’ve engaged in the annual chess game with our Cervid friends and I’m sure we’ll be successful in the end!
Wish us luck,
-Michaela
Southern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
