3 ms·

Love finding deer in the city! Druid Hill Park is great for it, especially in the early morning.

throwanem 9y ago
Wyman Park, too, although perhaps not so much and not so friendly, I think because people let their dogs run loose. I was out there this last weekend and ran across a fox who'd fallen lethally foul of something, at any rate, and a dog seems by far the likeliest candidate - I keep hearing about coyotes, but it doesn't seem likely they would be much more difficult to observe than foxes, of which I've seen a goodly number. In any case, it's not as though whitetail are hard to find around here in general! In spring and fall, I often cross paths with them during my commute, and it's a rare peregrination on which I don't see at least one or two. If you really want to see wildlife, don't go to a park - put on your sturdy shoes and go find you some woods that don't look like they have people in them often, and it won't be long before you start finding deer trails to follow. (I know some very good places, but I hesitate somewhat to mention them publicly, because we have a fair number of fellow Baltimoreans here - while the local whitetail don't much care about people, foxes most certainly do, and they're hard enough to spot and photograph as it is! If you're interested enough, hit me up at the email in my profile, and we can talk about it some more.)
rb808 9y ago
Dont you have Lyme disease in MD yet? Deer look pretty until you see people end up crippled by tick borne diseases. We need a serious cull in the NE.
- cafard 9y ago
  Lyme disease has been around Maryland for years. I have known people to get it in the DC suburbs, one in his own back yard, one in a park. The US Park Service has culled deer in Rock Creek Park (Washington, DC) the last two or three winters. The neighborhood email list gets an invitation to join a candlelight vigil against this each fall. (No, I don't join.)
  - throwanem 9y ago
    > The neighborhood email list gets an invitation to join a candlelight vigil against this each fall. The venison from deer so culled goes to feed homeless folks in their town. From [1]: After reduction operations, the National Park Service tests the deer to make sure they don't have Chronic Wasting Disease before the venison is donated to local food banks. The NPS has donated approximately 7,300 pounds of venison to DC Central Kitchen since beginning deer management in 2013. I wonder if the vigileers know that. Or whether they care. Or whether they'd even approve. [1] https://www.nps.gov/rocr/learn/management/white-tailed-deer-management.htm https://www.nps.gov/rocr/learn/management/white-tailed-deer-...
    - cafard 9y ago
      Yes, they know. I doubt they approve. Are those at the vigils all vegetarians? I have no idea.
- throwanem 9y ago
  We do, and I've heard rumors of Rocky Mountain spotted fever as well. Don't get me wrong - I'm not in favor of letting whitetail breed explosively, unmolested by hunters; quite aside from the issue of tick-borne zoonoses, it's a waste of good venison.

Wyman Park, too, although perhaps not so much and not so friendly, I think because people let their dogs run loose. I was out there this last weekend and ran across a fox who'd fallen lethally foul of something, at any rate, and a dog seems by far the likeliest candidate - I keep hearing about coyotes, but it doesn't seem likely they would be much more difficult to observe than foxes, of which I've seen a goodly number. In any case, it's not as though whitetail are hard to find around here in general! In spring and fall, I often cross paths with them during my commute, and it's a rare peregrination on which I don't see at least one or two. If you really want to see wildlife, don't go to a park - put on your sturdy shoes and go find you some woods that don't look like they have people in them often, and it won't be long before you start finding deer trails to follow. (I know some very good places, but I hesitate somewhat to mention them publicly, because we have a fair number of fellow Baltimoreans here - while the local whitetail don't much care about people, foxes most certainly do, and they're hard enough to spot and photograph as it is! If you're interested enough, hit me up at the email in my profile, and we can talk about it some more.)

rb808 9y ago

Dont you have Lyme disease in MD yet? Deer look pretty until you see people end up crippled by tick borne diseases. We need a serious cull in the NE.

cafard 9y ago
Lyme disease has been around Maryland for years. I have known people to get it in the DC suburbs, one in his own back yard, one in a park. The US Park Service has culled deer in Rock Creek Park (Washington, DC) the last two or three winters. The neighborhood email list gets an invitation to join a candlelight vigil against this each fall. (No, I don't join.)
- throwanem 9y ago
  > The neighborhood email list gets an invitation to join a candlelight vigil against this each fall. The venison from deer so culled goes to feed homeless folks in their town. From [1]: After reduction operations, the National Park Service tests the deer to make sure they don't have Chronic Wasting Disease before the venison is donated to local food banks. The NPS has donated approximately 7,300 pounds of venison to DC Central Kitchen since beginning deer management in 2013. I wonder if the vigileers know that. Or whether they care. Or whether they'd even approve. [1] https://www.nps.gov/rocr/learn/management/white-tailed-deer-management.htm https://www.nps.gov/rocr/learn/management/white-tailed-deer-...
  - cafard 9y ago
    Yes, they know. I doubt they approve. Are those at the vigils all vegetarians? I have no idea.
throwanem 9y ago
We do, and I've heard rumors of Rocky Mountain spotted fever as well. Don't get me wrong - I'm not in favor of letting whitetail breed explosively, unmolested by hunters; quite aside from the issue of tick-borne zoonoses, it's a waste of good venison.