brokinhrt2 / CC
I know I have said I am a fan of the mowing along the edges of the highway. It gives you better sight lines and lets you see what might be sneaking up on you.
But are we encouraging things to sneak up on us?
When it was first done, I will admit it was a bit unsightly. The fresh mulch along the side of the highway didn’t look the best. But now that the new growth of shrubs and bushes has started, it looks pretty good. The problem is, it also looks pretty tasty, if you happen to be a deer.
Driving in the morning, I happened to notice a deer along the side of the 103. It was munching away on something. I’m not sure what it was, but it was probably pretty good. The deer did raise it’s head for a quick peak over it’s shoulder. I could see the look in it’s eye and had a pretty good idea what it was trying to say. “You should try this. It’s really good.”
Since I had just finished a bagel not long before, I did not feel the need to stop and graze alongside the deer. But it truly seemed to be enjoying it’s breakfast. It gave the passing traffic only a brief glance before putting it’s head back down and continuing to eat.
But it does make me wonder if all that tender, tasty new growth is maybe attracting deer to the sides of the road.
Sure, they tend to be a bit further back, since the freshly mowed areas are fairly wide. And since there was plenty of fresh growth right where it was standing, this deer showed no desire to suddenly dash across the road.
Really, there are quite a few deer around. I like seeing them. I just don’t want them hanging off my bumper. And it’s not like they didn;t hang out along the edges of the highway before it was mowed.
I guess the advantage now is, at least we can see them.
