Deer are wonderfully adaptable -
and "bad winters" are all relative - even to deer.

I too think this will be the worst winter in a decade - but mostly because I think most places in CNY were underharvested for a "bad winter". Some deer will eat OK - and DEEP snows can help deer reach branches for browse that otherwise they never could. The telling time will be March/April - does "greenup" come in time to save the deer in areas where we still have 40deer per square mile?..............probably not for a lot of them. - not this year.

In some areas - I see deer pawing right now in open hayfields - with 12-24" of snow - to me - that means adequate browse is lacking - and those deer will be in trouble come March.

Also I'm already seeing deer in the "village limits" - lawn browsing where they wouldn't otherwise until March if need be. I notice these movements from year to year because I look for shed antlers - and I'm ALWAYS looking for concentrations of deer before the antlers drop. Last year - the deer were pretty spread out in CNY in January - this year - not so much.

FH