#2231 "Deer Browse"

The spring migration was starting even though it still looked very much like winter. Flocks of Canada geese flew overhead and were honking with excitement. The wood peckers were drumming out their territories and perhaps soliciting mates. The turkeys came over to see what I was doing too. But there were no biting insects.

These two red cedars were heavily browsed by the white tailed deer. There are enough nutrients in the red cedar tips to keep them alive through a long winter. They do not taste very good. I have tried them. The deer can only comfortably reach so high and above that line the cedars are doing quite well indeed. The deer prefer white cedar over red. We offer both varieties of cedars at Singleton. The dry winter grasses surrounded the cedar trunks. Snow was caught by the thick cedar boughs before it could reach the ground. The grasses provided something different for the deer menu.

The tracks of deer and turkey in the old and sodden snow were no longer distinguishable. The tracks were just indentations in the saturated snow that was more than ready to melt.

The winter had been a classic polar vortex dominated event with a split upper flow and lots of freezing rain and ice pellets. The lane had been a frozen sheet of ice since early January. A thaw was on the way with this approaching storm which would place Singleton Lake in the warm sector with rain for a couple of days. It looked like I would be able to take the cleats off my boots. The classic altostratus sky allowed me to view the dim sun as I painted. The rain was still a couple of hours away which was plenty of time to finish the painting.

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