Dear Steve and WeatherCat frustrated property owners, . . . .
Are those mule deer you've got out there?
. . . .
How should I know? Da' darn critters don't come with identification tags or nuthin' . . . .
In a situation like this, there is only thing to do, look up mule deer in Wikipedia . . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_deerAs soon as I looked - I was ever so sorry I did!
Some of the more disturbing quotes include:
"Mule deer readily adapt to agricultural products and landscape plantings."It goes on to list the following foods that Mule Deer eat:
The most common plant species consumed by mule deer are:
Among trees and shrubs: Artemisia tridentata (big sagebrush), Cercocarpus ledifolius (curlleaf mountain mahogany), Cercocarpus montanus (true mountain mahogany), Cowania mexicana (Mexican cliffrose), Populus tremuloides (quaking aspen), Purshia tridentata (antelope bitterbrush), Quercus gambelii (Gambel oak), and Rhus trilobata (skunkbush sumac).[15]
Among forbs: Achillea millefolium (western yarrow), Antennaria sp. (pussytoes), Artemisia frigida (fringed sagebrush), Artemisia ludoviciana (Louisiana sagewort), Aster spp., Astragalus sp. (milkvetch), Balsamorhiza sagittata (arrowleaf balsamroot), Cirsium sp. (thistle), Erigeron spp. (fleabane), Geranium sp., Lactuca serriola (prickly lettuce), Lupinus spp. (lupine), Medicago sativa (alfalfa), Penstemon spp., Phlox spp., Polygonum sp. (knotweed/smartweed), Potentilla spp. (cinquefoil), Taraxacum officinale (dandelion), Tragopogon dubius (western salsify), Trifolium sp. (clover), and Vicia americana (American vetch).[15]
Among grasses and grasslike species: Agropyron, Elymus (wheatgrasses), Elytrigia, Pascopyrum sp. (wheatgrasses), Pseudoroegneria spicatum (bluebunch wheatgrass), Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass), Carex spp. (sedge), Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue), Poa fendleriana (muttongrass), Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass), and other Poa spp. (bluegrass).[15]
Mule deer have also been known to eat ricegrass, gramagrass, bromegrass, and needlegrass, as well as antelope brush, bearberry, bitter cherry, bitterbrush, black oak, California buckeye, ceanothus, cedar, cliffrose, cottonwood, creek dogwood, creeping barberry, dogwood, Douglas fir, elderberry, fendlera, goldeneye, holly-leaf buckthrorn, jack pine, knotweed, kohleria, manzanita, mesquite, oak, pine, rabbitbrush, ragweed, redberry, scrub oak, serviceberry (including Pacific serviceberry), Sierra juniper, silktassel, snowberry, stonecrop, sunflower, tesota, thimbleberry, turbinella oak, velvet elder, western chokecherry, wild cherry, and wild oats.[19] Where available, mule deer also eat a variety of wild mushrooms, which are most abundant in late summer and fall in the southern Rocky Mountains; mushrooms provide moisture, protein, phosphorus, and potassium.[14][19]
And you know what's the worst part of it . . . the list is woefully incomplete!!
All we have here are whitetail deer. And the only other largish critters are the ever more common coyote, the rare black bear, and the even rarer bobcat (both more likely in the south and east portion of Ohio.) Anything else is groundhog sized or smaller.
Alas, the San Francisco Bay Area is rapidly becoming more like Los Angeles with what little open space either being made into parks, or built upon. So besides deer there is very little in the way of wild animals. Coyotes are sighted in the neighborhood, but that's about the only other large animal. There are Mountain lions in parks not to far away, but these are solidarity hunters who are very unlikely to stray into populated areas.
. . . .
Too bad though, those hairless apes of the quasi-human variety seem seriously overpopulated. There is a need for a new top predictor to thin the herds and a prolific one at that! . . . .
Edouard . . .