The blacktail deer are thicker than rabbits around the Salmo homestead again this year. So many does and fawns this last spring and summer, I couldn't begin to keep track of 'em all. Seldom see males, but this year there was a sprinkling of little spikes here and there. My main yard nemesis is a doe that has dropped fawns at least twice now. I thought she'd found a weak spot in the backyard fence, but in fact she figured out how to squeeze underneath the gate on the north side. Anyhow, I built a new gate, and that seems to solve the problem. Haven't had a deer in the landscaped back yard in 2 months now. Of course the flower and shrub season is over for the year as well.

So what's this got to do with anything? Well I'm told there was either sex archery in September, including where I live. I told several hunters that they were welcome to sit on my deck and drink their morning coffee (beats a tree blind any day) and pop some of these nuisance critters. But they all want to go to the east side a bag a big muley or whitetail instead of one of my dinky blacktails. And it's true; they are comparatively dinky. But we have so darn many! There should be a limit of 4 or even 6.

Every now and again I see a fork horn or once a 3-point. The other day, as Mrs. Salmo was driving to work in the dark, she saw a 5-point (I'm thinking maybe 4-point with large eye tines) following a doe with its fawn, crossing the road. It's like we hardly ever see any bucks - maybe they're nocturnal as mentioned in posts above. Or it could be that the neighbors shoot them as fast as they appear - I always wonder about those isolated single shots that occasionally ring out in our semi-rural neighborhood.

Any way, I only saw 3 deer yesterday, but I didn't go out much in the rain, other than to get the morning paper and later, the mail. It probably wouldn't work out that way, but hunting a deer around here should be like shooting ducks in a barrel. But there's a buck with a nice rack of antlers out in these woods somewhere.