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Spring for the deer
Tisdale - Friday, May 3, 2013
by:Timothy W. Shire

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Awe yes there has been some complaining by humans about the long long winter of 2013 but in actual fact it was just long, not particularly harsh. We were not subjected to prolonged periods of below -30ºC weather but instead we had relatively moderate temperatures with very little sunlight accompanied by snow and more snow. Now for humans with houses and nice warm vehicles that isn’t so bad, we can cope. But how about if you are a skinny deer out there in the bush?

This has been a very difficult winter for deer. Deep snow means it is very hard to find nourishment while most of the predators are ideally suited to dealing with deep snow. They are designed to hunt and deep snow makes moving about in the forest difficult for animals like deer.

On Saturday, April 27 we took these pictures on our way out to Weekes. The deer population is concentrated very heavily between Crooked River and Hudson Bay so it was no wonder we encountered significant numbers between Porcupine Plain and Weekes. The first group of about eight were in the fitch both north and south of the highway with one bold one standing in the middle of the road. The dashcam wasn’t operating or I would have pictures of this one but we slowed down and soon came across many more. Some of them were grazing in the fields and others on the move. We even came upon three Wapati east of Bjorkdale in the late afternoon.

All of them were definitely on the skinny side. Those closest to us showed that they were underweight and their coats did not have the ouster that one normally associates with the species in that part of Saskatchewan where there is abundance of food and the perfect habitat.

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On Saturday the fields between Tisdale and Porcupine Plain were pretty much snow covered with only a few patches of ground peeking through. These patches shown here on the right were close to Crooked River and with the brilliant sun and relatively low temperature that afternoon ghosts of the winter past were climbing from the black soil into the atmosphere. This is an interesting sight and is caused by the low temperature of the air immediately above the surface of the damp snow which, because of its colour warms up in the sunlight and water flashes off into a gas only to be immediately condensed by the cold air only a foot or so above the ground.

From Porcupine Plain east the snow cover thinned out considerably to inches in what you see at the top of the page until between Somme and Weekes most of the fields by Saturday were already snow free.

North east of Weekes the roads were dry and only the ditches were carrying much water. The Shand Creek which is a meandering stream that flows from North of Porcupine Plain to the Hudson Bay area can really cause serious flooding issues. The creek flows through flat land and with only moderate flow spreads out cover the countryside. Most of the people in the area expected that to happen once again this spring but alas, just as the Doghide has behaved itself the Shand also is running along well within its banks in most areas. The reason is clear, the low temperatures each night are slowing the rapid release of water and thus reduces the surge we associate with spring run off.

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This farm yard clearly has the signs of what was a winter with lots of snow but it is slowly melting down and the exposed areas are drying out quickly. Farmers in the area expect not to be able to work their fields for planting for about three weeks time which would be two weeks from now, around May 15th.

In the picture below, some three miles north of Weekes on the Weekes grid we see that melt water has been flowing over the east west grid road but you can also see that it is flowing and will soon have made its way into the Shand and then on to the Etomani. All are good signs that soon a new crop will be in the ground.
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