Not sure on other parts of NY State but up here in Northern NY , ,Its been VERY COLD .
Past week hasent even seen the teens ay all .
Last 3 night lows were -16 , -26 , and -17 below with 2 degrees for a high .
Late today it finaly hit 22 degrees .
Also weve been getting snow abought every 3 days or so .
Luckly its not to deep yet .
I,m sure the deer are herded up and eating any browse they can find .
I,ve had my camera out for a while , but no pics yet ???

I agree. I live in south central New York state not far from Cayuga Lake and we have had a lot of snow this year and below zero with daytime highs in the single digits. However, this has been great for the "yotes" because they are feeding well. Took this picture a couple of days ago.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg113/fgarnold/IM002545.jpg

Here in NC Pa, the turkeys are having it pretty rough to. There's a flock of 50-60 birds up the road from me that haven't been out of the roost trees for the last 4 days. I have 300 pounds of cracked corn setting in my garage that I'd love to put out for them. Unfortunately, these turkeys are on SGL where feeding is prohibited.

Call you local WCO and that situation might work out well for all.

It is illegal to enter into a feeding program on the game lands but I have turkeys on bait right now that are getting their food supplemented while I prepare to trap the turkeys to band the gobblers. I will not trap them though until conditions improve some so they have a higher chance of surviving after I trap them. If your turkeys are in a place where he can trap them and there are gobbler he might be interested and you might be able to get involvedin the trapping. It is interesting when you get involved in the turkey research.

You are correct that conditions are pretty harsh right now for the turkeys and even the deer. Both the turkeys and deer have been in the process of moving into the wintering grounds habitats over the past few days. Saturday it was getting difficult to find deer or turkey tracks on the ridges or plateau but once I got around the wintering grounds I was finding lots of deer sign and some turkey sign.

I agree that many of the turkeys are still up in the trees, but we know they can stay up there for up to two weeks without food and still survive if they aren’t disturbed. Just don’t make them fly and expend that valued energy if you can avoid it. If they fly they have to be able to find enough food to replace that lost energy.

R.S. Bodenhorn

Thanks for the info RSB. I'll be in touch with a WCO here shortly.

Yep! I live in northern NY and the snow is really starting to pile up. Unless something changes they will have a tough one.

Even down here in Central PA, the deer are having a rough time. We had about 6" of snow, than an inch of ice, then a couple more inches of snow, then ice again. It's layered up and nasty. Combine that with single digit temps and they're having a rough time out there.


We're already seeing deer in places you normally dont see them. I think they're having a tough time finding food.

Wicked cold here in the Boonville area with lots of snow.Tug Hill is getting creamed.They broke 100" a while ago.

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

Like farmhunter says, deer are adaptable. I think many see the harsh wintery weather, and get concerned deer can't survive it. In colder temps the main concern is not having access to water from freeze over. Deer find ways to get around in deep snow, and find browse. I have 5 ft easily here in Northern NY, and seen cow paths they're traveling to food sources. Also like farmhunter says its March/April we need to be concerned with. When the temps rise, deer use more energy, the browse is used up. If spring comes late, then we need to start worrying.