[Comments in brackets are by Jeannine and Duane]
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From the Northern Crew:
Greetings from the North.
Last week the Susquehannock crew captured 9 deer (4 in the northern half and 5 in the southern half). This included a recapture of a buck fawn and a recapture of an adult doe originally ear tagged as an adult in 2019. This makes her at least 7 years old. We were able to collar one adult female and one adult male. All captured animals seem to be in excellent health.
I want to give a shout out to my awesome crew! They have really come a long way in the past month, and they make my job very enjoyable. They work hard every day to maintain the traps and scout for new sites. Thank you, Andrew, Emily, and Liz.
Every day is made better by the other wildlife and sign that we see. Last week brought more fishers, grouse, snowshoe hare, coyotes, porcupines and of course cottontails, crows, squirrels, and many others.
Until next time, keep your stick on the ice!
-Tom
Northern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
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From the Southern Crew:
Hello all!
It’s an incredibly busy time of year. What a streak of weather for February! It’s been in the high 50’s-low 60’s here and we even had a thunderstorm this week. The deer are still present but between the acorn crop in the autumn and the warm temperatures/lack of snow, it’s been slow going in terms of trapping for us here in the south. But before this warm streak we actually had enough ice to require us to use chains for the first time this year. The crew did an amazing job at soldiering through the ice, rain, and long hours this week! I’m very proud of how they’ve handled these trying situations.
And our racoon escapades continue. One of our little masked friends tripped the door, ate the corn, chewed their way out, and then chewed their way back in (leaving almost a basketball sized hole in the back of the trap and a football sized hole in the door). If the racoons keep eating our corn, maybe they’ll be big enough for a collar by the end of the season (ha).
This week we’ve been baiting rocket net sites and continuing to monitor/trap Clovers. There are a few promising rocket net sites where deer are coming in so we have our fingers crossed for future endeavors. The weeks are ticking down but it’s not over until it’s over. We still have a few tricks up our sleeves.
-Michaela
Southern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
