[Comments in brackets are by Jeannine and Duane]
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From the Northern Crew:
Greetings from the North!
When it rains, it pours. Our good fortune has continued, and we were able to capture nine deer this week and collar four. We’ve been moving our trapping operations to the northern part of the Study Area, while keeping traps in the south that continue to attract deer.
The weather has been very good for trapping. We’ve had cold nights with an occasional flurry and reasonably cool days. Some days when the temperature reaches the upper 50’s–low 60’s, deer sit tight.
But when we have cold nights and cool days, it’s not unusual to see deer moving throughout the daylight hours. Those tend to be extra busy days.
Our plan is to continue to set out new traps in new places as the deer find our bait sites. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch a bunch more deer and deploy our final 4 collars over the next couple of weeks.
Until next time.
-Tom
Northern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
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From the Southern Crew:
Hello all!
Winter has briefly reemerged for an encore after spring-like weather last week. And despite the 60-65 degree temperatures, we somehow managed to capture another 3 deer! All were fawns (so regrettably no collars were able to be put out) but it was great having an uptick in captures again.
We continue to have some deer interest in our Clover traps, along with the omnipresent non-target species (such as porcupines and raccoons). That’s more or less part of the cost of doing business while trapping in this region.
We’ve noticed some more amphibian movement as days have continued to trend up in terms of temperature. While finding rocks to help keep racoon damage at bay, a few salamanders have been revealed!
After a few pictures the rocks are always put back into place and we safely return them back to their habitat. We may briefly visit a vernal pool or two between traps and see if there are any eggs being laid (‘tis the season after all).
Rocket nets have seen a fair number of deer, but they’ve been selective and wary about coming out. These deer certainly didn’t get old by being naïve! I’m still optimistic that with time, patience, and a healthy dose of luck that we can have a few more opportunities in this region. There’s certainly no shortage of deer. We just need all our stars to align so we can have a successful and safe capture event.
Fingers crossed for the last few weeks of trapping for the 2025 season!
-Michaela
Southern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
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