Showing posts with label deer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deer. Show all posts

Monday, September 12, 2022

A Thought For the 'Velvet Friends'

We've been told by the media that deer are taking over city parks and gardens. If in contrast to this ungula-phobia you take Shakespeare's view of the "poor dappled fools ... native burghers of this desert city," you may want to help them out in the cruel months of drought and then winter, with a pile of greens left overnight in your garden. It's shocking to think some people see the creatures as mere meat, a walking free meal for humans (which brings to mind Oscar Wilde's jest: "nature -- that place where birds fly around uncooked").

Shakespeare's idea was different: in As You Like It Jacques comes across a hunted deer dying among his "velvet friends" beside a stream in the Forest of Arden:

"...... a poor sequestered stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting, and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose ...
... on th'extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears."

And with September, BC begins another bloody hunting season in the woods. Deer first, then moose, elk, cougar, bear, wolf, birds etc. are targeted later.

As we urban consumers browse from store to store hunting out blockbuster sales, should we also spare a thought for the "velvet friends" living in our urban neighbourhoods in summer drought (and then winter frost)? FILL YOUR BIRD BATHS EVERY DAY FOR BIRDS, DEER, SQUIRRELS AND RACCOONS - THEY CAN'T DRINK ICE. They wouldn't mind a few of those nuts and cranberries we've been feasting on either.


Sunday, December 27, 2009

A Christmas Thought For the Velvet Friends

Boxing Day: the ground is frozen, a hostile wind bites and the branches are bare of growth. Where are the urban deer hiding, what are they eating now, after we've been told so recently by the media that they are taking over all the parks and gardens?? If in contrast to this ungula-phobia you take Shakespeare's view of the "poor dappled fools ... native burghers of this desert city," you may want to help them out in the cruelest months of winter with a pile of greens left overnight in your garden. It's shocking to think some see the starving things as mere meat, a walking free meal for humans (which brings to mind Oscar Wilde: "nature -- that place where birds fly around uncooked").

But Shakespeare's idea is different; in As You Like It Jacques comes across a wounded deer dying beside a stream in the Forest of Arden:

"...... a poor sequestered stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting, and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose ...
... on th'extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears."

What seemed worse to Jacques was that the other deer browsing nearby ignored him as he died, "left and abandoned of his velvet friends". As we spring about and browse from store to store hunting out one Boxing Week sale after another, should we spare a thought for the "velvet friends" out there in the cold? FILL YOUR BIRD BATHS EVERY DAY FOR BIRDS, DEER, SQUIRRELS AND RACCOONS - THEY CAN'T DRINK ICE. They wouldn't mind a few of those nuts and cranberries you've been feasting on either.

(by B. Julian)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Discreetly dissuading deer from entering

It is not all that difficult to keep deer out of a garden -- here someone has hung soft thin reflective strips that (to a deer) sparkle threateningly, while others use motion-sensitive sprinklers that gently spray them. We have to leave enough space for them to withdraw to, however -- i.e. preserve plenty of urban woodland wildlife corridors.

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