November 28, 2023 • 17 mins
Marion County Naturalist James Anderson joined the podcast to talk about the deer population in and around Marion. He details how they react to you and your presence and why they do what they do. Plus, James talks about his program schedule for the month of December.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Joining me in studio from the MarionCounty Park District. It is James Anderson,
the naturalist for Marion County. James, how are you, man?
Oh? Wonderful are you? Iam well. Deer gun season began yesterday,
so a lot of folks talking aboutdeer, and some of them are
talking about them in different conversations andsome are saying great, these hunters hopefully
will be successful and I won't seehim running out in front of cars anymore.
(00:22):
But I'll tell you the deer populationhas certainly exploded, and we're seeing
a lot more talk about deer,whether it be the types of accidents that
run into or seeing them in differentareas, urban areas, things like that.
But there really has been a lotof chatter about deer. And you've
got a lot to talk about todayabout deer too. Yeah. Yeah,
(00:42):
and especially here locally with the newchronics waste disease sightings, which I know
you've talked with mister Chad Grody aboutin the past, and luckily I haven't
heard any more reports about that.And Marrion Windott at Harding County, I
did hear that that one checked inlast week in Hardin County. With CWD,
and it would have been last week, so it either came off the
(01:03):
youth season or from primitive one orthe other. But I did hear that
last week one was checked in inHardin County. All right, well,
thank you for loving me. Yeah, I just heard that yesterday. I
think last night it was I heardthat, so well, hopefully it doesn't
keep spreading. So yeah, absolutely, it's a it's a major thing.
You can read about it on ourwebsites. I have a couple of press
releases, including one that I gotjust about two weeks ago. They kind
(01:27):
of did an update about that,but obviously that might change a little bit
this week because hunters have to checkthose deer in yes, yep, yeah,
which is kind of where that camefrom. Anyway, your species is
deer, talk a little bit aboutit. Yeah, So the reason why
I want to talk about the deer, except you know, for the deer
gun season is you know, thisis a beautiful majestic animal that we have
here in the state of Ohio.It's actually our states animal. Actually was
(01:49):
adopted in nineteen eighty one. Andof course, you know we have the
cardinal as our state bird, andof course there's other state animals, there's
we have a state fraud all goingto stay aphibian and all that. But
yes, our actual state animalist againis the white tailed deer. And it's
kind of funny like you were mentioningat the beginning of this program that you
know how deer are everywhere. Well, what if I were to tell you
(02:12):
that one time in the state ofOhio that deer were considered an endangered species.
I'm sure a lot of people listento this would go no, yes,
yeah, it's very hard to believe. But if our older audience is
out there, especially who are aseventy year older, would probably remember that
because we have to remember in presettlementtimes in Ohio was fastly forested and had
(02:36):
prairies, wetlands, a lot ofgreat wildlife, deer, turkey, bears,
I mean, could go on andon. But then, of course
when the settlers came into Ohio,you know, we destroy those natural landscapes
for development like Marion Columbus, Delaware, things like that, and of course
for agricultural purposes as well. Andalso too, you know, this is
way before the Ohio Division of Wildlifewas around, so people could go out
(03:00):
any day of the year and killus much wildlife as they want. And
you know, like I tell kids, you know, this is way before
Walmart and Kroger's and Chipotle and allthose places were around. So yes,
you did have to go out hunting, and that was fine. But where
it got a problem was is well, I wanted to kill one hundred deer
for fun. If you did itand our neighbors did it just for fun,
well what happens to those local populations, Well, they decline, and
(03:23):
actually by nineteen oh nine, deerand turkey were declared what's called extirpated,
which they don't use that word alot in schools, but extinct or extinction,
so extrapated just means local extinction.And yeah, so deer at that
time, again we're very scarce.Now, the term in danger species was
not used in the early nineteen hundreds, and danger species were more used than
(03:46):
by nineteen sixties because that's when thewhole Endangered Species Act happed him. But
then, you know, here locally, deer were very scarce. I had
a gentleman, This was probably aboutthe first or second year I start working
for the park district. He wasan older gentleman. I want to say
seventies eighties range, and we werejust talking about, you know how deer
are very overpopulated now, and hesaid, well, when I was growing
(04:09):
up, you know, deer weren'tvery common. And he says, I
was around the Prospect region and hesaid this was in the early nineteen forties,
and he said he was going toreport it to the Marine Star,
but he thought nobody would believe himbecause he didn't have his camera. That's
how rare deer sightings were back thenagain here locally, but now, like
(04:30):
you mentioned, yeah, you canfind them in urban areas, and deer
were one of those few animals thatare actually adapting very well in urban areas.
And of course we can find themin farm fields, we can find
them in forested habitat, so kindof deer and coyotes like you know what
we've mentioned in the past. There'sjust again they're one of those animals that
are doing actually really well in theurban and suburban populations because you got to
(04:51):
think about, you know, inthose areas there's not a lot of predation.
Now, of course there are carsyou mentioned that they have to go
again, but you know, goingin our yards, our properties and of
course our flower gardens, our vegetablegardens. Deer are taking advantage of that.
And deer actually fairy adaptable, notjust with their habitat but also their
(05:12):
food. You know, during thenice spring and summer and early fall,
they're eating you know, flowers andgrasses and all that. But during the
wintertime they actually do switch their dieta little bit to mainly twigs and bark.
So not a lot of animals havethat ability, like deer kind of
like cows. They have that fourchamber stomach, so they're able to extract
(05:32):
a lot of nutrition from bark andtwigs, you know, versus if you
and I did that, not somuch, right, So, so that's
another reason why you know, theseguys again are very adaptable in our areas.
But you know the term white tail, you know, they get their
name from the whites underneath their tail, and they use that for communication purposes.
When they feel threatened, they willlift up that tail and they will
(05:55):
tell others and their their local herdlike, hey, there's danger around.
And then sometimes you may see orhear them doing that snorting sound, and
of course as they're running up withthat tail up, it's that warning flag.
Of hey, we need to getout of dodge. And you know
how while we're talking about their tails, you know how when you have a
pet dog and you say hi tothem, they wag their tail and they're
(06:15):
all happy. Well, deer isactually quite opposite. When they wag their
tails, it actually shows signs ofdistress. So that's interesting. And these
guys are mainly active at twilight,dawn, and dusk. It's called crispacular,
so that just means that they're active, you know, when the sun
is setting down or the sun isrising up. But they are actually see
(06:35):
better at night than they actually doduring the day. Now, yes,
we can see them during the dayif they have to move on to different
habitats or find different local food sources. But yeah, that's why we see
them around the roads. And ofcourse you know that actually gets very dangerous
of our drivers. And you knowwhen you always tell people you know,
(06:57):
who's the most dangerous animal, you'reprobably thinking of old bears or mountain lions
or things or sharks. Will actuallywhite tail deer kill more people, you
know, due to accidents. Ye, so that's you know, a really
really bad thing. And of courseyou know you got some people just get
minor accidents, and of course thereare in some cases if people are flying
down, you know, it canget very, very fatal. So you
(07:21):
know, of course, as wementioned, you know, this is time
where you want to be very observantbecause they're in that ruts, they're breeding
season, so that means you know, they're going to be very active.
You know, they're going to betraveling the roads and of course having hunting
predation on them from humans, Imay increase activity. So definitely within this
first week or two of the gunseason, I would definitely be very cautious
(07:43):
as you're driving along right right.Yeah, I mean, it just seems
like that that they have very muchadapted to the urban areas. The amount
of times you see on social mediapeople posting a picture of a deer in
their backyard and they're in a neighborhood. It's not necessary that they live out
in the country. That is becomevery prevalent, hasn't. Yeah, And
it's it's funny you mentioned that itseems like there's a good population by the
(08:05):
Hardy Memorial area in that cemetery.It does. Yeah, out by the
cemetery a Hardy Memorial and then outby Marion Harding High School out in three
on nine and twenty three. Alot of folks are saying that they're seeing
a lot of deer out in thatarea that's a little more wide open when
you consider the freeway and everything likethat. But but yeah, I mean,
it's it's becoming a thing. AndI have a lot of friends that
(08:26):
are in the insurance business, andthey have said that every year the number
of deer hits continues to uh togo up in the world of insurance,
and of course that number goes upexponentially as well. Yeah, so that's
that's that's a thing. And yougot to be careful, you know,
especially if they're running and they hityou. I mean you know, I
(08:48):
mean you don't even see them comingand they hit the side of your car.
I mean, it's like, holysmoke. I always told and when
I did drivers there, they alwaystold us, you're talking about that.
I always say that the deer hits, you hit the deer. Yeah,
that's yeah. I one insurance agentsaid, a deer it hit on the
side, came up on top,blew out all the windows and totald a
fairly new car. You know,it is what it is, but you've
(09:09):
got to be careful and you haveto realize that that is going on.
Now. With that being said,I know that you've been asked to let
people know what the rules are ofhunting in the area of the tall Grass
Trail. Yeah, so people arenot allowed to hunt on the tall Grass
Trail. But since Big Island doesgo through a part of tall Grass Trail,
(09:31):
hunters are allowed to cross over,you know, along the trail,
right, but they are not allowedto hunt through or on the trail,
right, And it's like a onehundred feet on the foot corridor yep,
on each side, So there's onehundred foot corridor, So realize that.
I know, I was out ridingone time and literally I had a deer
running. We're out near two ohthree and I'm riding along and there's a
deer just running right at the samepace of my riding and I'm like,
(09:54):
you come in here? You stayingthere? So yeah, they you definitely
will see them out there, sobe aware of that. And then of
course we're all the harvest what's goingon that's kind of kind of slowed down
most of it is done. Theyof course get pushed out as well until
you know that harvest is done andthey can find where they want to be
next. But you know a lotof them mustle into those you know,
(10:16):
the cornfields and stuff, and they'relike to not can't be here anymore because
we're gonna take all those down.Yes, you know, but those are
definitely some things. What else isgoing on around the park district? Or
did you have anything else you wantedto talk about in regards to deer?
Just just as we mentioned, youknow, when you're driving and be cautious
and then also too, like youmentioned to being on the trail, you
(10:37):
know, yeah, you will seea lot of deer activity sometimes standing right
on the trail. Yeah yeah,sometimes Yeah, I'm just walking along the
trail, especially within the miles twoto four that's where a lot of the
big on wildlife area is of partof the tall Grass trail, and sometimes
the deer or smart and they willjust stay right in the middle of the
trail. And sometimes we get youknow, fairly large numbers about four to
(11:00):
five or sometimes more, and thenyeah, they'll just sometimes just move along.
So just be careful if you're abicyclist too, because you know,
sometimes those deer like you mentioned yousometimes they're traveling fast and they don't stop
and they don't look. Oh,and they're hard to hear. I mean,
they really are quiet when they're runninglike that. I mean, you
know, I mean, obviously they'llyou'll hear the you know, the leaves
(11:22):
or whatever they're in. But thiswas that field was empty at that point
in time on two oh three,and I didn't hear them at all.
I just was like, holy cow, dudes, you know, sixty feet
away from me and running at fullbore. So they can jump ten feet,
Yeah, they can. If you'venever seen a deer jump, it'll
blow your mind right now. Yeah. Absolutely. I've been fortunate to see
some eagles recently. We're at Reb'sBottom one ninety nine south of Upper Sandusky,
(11:46):
heading back to twenty three, andI've since been told that there's a
nesting pair there at at one ninetynine, a beautiful bald ego just out
going and you could see the otherone in the nest, and now that
the fall has happened, you cansee it much nicer. So if you're
looking for for some eagles, theyare out that way, and please realize
(12:07):
that you know that is not foryou to mess with. Just realize that
they are doing their thing, andyou know it's beautiful to be able to
see them and let them. Letthem do their thing and live their life
and be happy because we see themat Tallgrass Trail too, don't we.
Oh yeah, absolutely, and actuallyate it by the prison right off twenty
three with the leaves all down,you can see the bald eagles nest really
well. Yeah, adult, pullover on the road because I have heard
(12:30):
the prison will show you away.Yes they will. So if you got
binoculars or long lens cameras, yeah, they don't want you near there.
Totally understand that. Realize that youare required by law to leave them a
loan, so please do if youfind where they're they're actually at. Let's
talk a little bit about some ofthe other thanks that thank you that you
had from from the board. Yes, yes, so we like to give
(12:52):
thanks to the donors of the MarineCommunity Foundation for generously funding a blower that
we use on the Marin Tallgrass Trailto help keep the trail clear because,
as we know, the leaves drop, walnuts drop, and you know,
sometimes it's getting hard to find youknow, where the trail is but again
we've been very very lucky that,you know, we got this great donation
and kind of going along with that, we like to thank our volunteers to
(13:15):
help out with those projects, especiallyRandy Dots he does a lot of mowing
and leaf blowing. Brian Gross alsohelps with lead blowing, and Bob Simmerman
who does a lot of other projectsalong the trail as well, and also
too if you go out to theMarrion Targas Jail, you see our big
interpretive signs, and some of themhave been a little wear and tear just
(13:37):
throughout age, but we have actuallyreplaced two of them. We replace our
trumpeters one that faces out to theMarrin Community Foundation Lake and then our other
one right by the second bridge rightbefore her Road. That was our bald
eagle one right. So we're reallyfortunate because what's really special about the two
news signs is we gathered pictures fromlocal footo bugs, locally from Marion County
(14:01):
and also to around. The picturescome around Big Island, maryon Taalgrass Trail,
maybe parts of Chillitier planes, soit's nice that those pictures are again
are from our area. So TinaThompson. She's the lady that helps sign
those large interpretive signs, so welike to really thank her for help designing
those signs for us. Oh,excellent, good stuff, good stuff.
(14:22):
What's on the calendar? What's happening? Yeah, so a lot of fun,
exciting things are happening with the parkdistrict. So the on December sixth,
at four thirty pm, we're doinga sunset hike. We'll be meeting
at the trail, but we'll meetingat her Road parking lot, so we'll
go around the trail and we'll belooking at different local floora and fauna and
that's the time too. Our beaverscould be active. The deer, as
(14:43):
we mentioned, could be active,so that could be a fun experience.
On the thirteenth, at four thirtypm, we're doing what do animals do
during the winter season. This willbe at the Marion Tallgrass Trail, starting
at the trailhead, so we're goingto be talking about how animals, how
do they app during the winter season. I actually go out on the trail
and see for signs of different wildlifeand see what they're up to. On
(15:07):
the twenty first, at four thirtypm, we have the winter in the
woods, so we're just starting atthe trailheads. We're just taking a stroll
along the trail and then on thetwenty seventh at two o'clock PM, we're
doing a looking for Bird's Nest programat the trailhead, so we'll be looking
at some of the different nests thatbirds make and some of them really small,
some of them are very large,and as we mentioned before, it's
(15:28):
a lot easier to finding them nowsince the leaves are down. On the
twenty eighth, we're doing our WinterTree id program that will be starting at
the trailhead again at two o'clock,so we'll be learning how to identify trees
and other woody plants without their leaves. And then on the thirty first,
we're doing our Christmas our Audubon ChristmasBird Count for Cular Planes SLASH Big On
(15:50):
Wildlife Area. So it's the bigbird Research Scientist citizen scientists project that has
been around in the United States Ithink for one hundred and twenty eight years,
but here in Marion County it's beenabout almost fifty to fifty five years.
Ed Lux, which I know,was very big into the Scouts and
I think you remember hitting up.He was the compiler for a while,
(16:11):
but then he moved up to LakeErie, so I've been the compiler for
that for the last six years.So yeah, we're always looking for people.
And if you don't have much birdingin the experience, you still can
come along. But it will coverparts of Marion why not, and a
little bit of Harding County. Soif you are interested, let me know
because there is a particular circle.It's not just anywhere in Marion County or
(16:33):
wind Nott or hard And there's avery selective area. So the region district,
yeah, region district. Yeah.So yeah, if you're interested,
please reach out to me on thePark District page or tall Grasstrow page and
I'll be more than glad to setthat up with you. Some great stuff,
man, I appreciate you coming inas always, yes, and you
know, happy holidays, enjoy thenext month of all of the great events
(16:56):
that you have and all that goodstuff, and enjoy time with your family
as well. Friend, I yesyou too. Absolutely. That is James
Anderson from the Marion County Park Districttalking about all things you need to know
about what's going on with nature andin Marion County. If you like what
you're seeing, make sure you hitfollow on this podcast. Every time we
post a new one, you'll geta notification right there on your phone.
Joining me in studio from the MarionCounty Park District. It is James Anderson,
the naturalist for Marion County. James, how are you, man?
Oh? Wonderful are you? Iam well. Deer gun season began yesterday,
so a lot of folks talking aboutdeer, and some of them are
talking about them in different conversations andsome are saying great, these hunters hopefully
will be successful and I won't seehim running out in front of cars anymore.
(00:22):
But I'll tell you the deer populationhas certainly exploded, and we're seeing
a lot more talk about deer,whether it be the types of accidents that
run into or seeing them in differentareas, urban areas, things like that.
But there really has been a lotof chatter about deer. And you've
got a lot to talk about todayabout deer too. Yeah. Yeah,
(00:42):
and especially here locally with the newchronics waste disease sightings, which I know
you've talked with mister Chad Grody aboutin the past, and luckily I haven't
heard any more reports about that.And Marrion Windott at Harding County, I
did hear that that one checked inlast week in Hardin County. With CWD,
and it would have been last week, so it either came off the
(01:03):
youth season or from primitive one orthe other. But I did hear that
last week one was checked in inHardin County. All right, well,
thank you for loving me. Yeah, I just heard that yesterday. I
think last night it was I heardthat, so well, hopefully it doesn't
keep spreading. So yeah, absolutely, it's a it's a major thing.
You can read about it on ourwebsites. I have a couple of press
releases, including one that I gotjust about two weeks ago. They kind
(01:27):
of did an update about that,but obviously that might change a little bit
this week because hunters have to checkthose deer in yes, yep, yeah,
which is kind of where that camefrom. Anyway, your species is
deer, talk a little bit aboutit. Yeah, So the reason why
I want to talk about the deer, except you know, for the deer
gun season is you know, thisis a beautiful majestic animal that we have
here in the state of Ohio.It's actually our states animal. Actually was
(01:49):
adopted in nineteen eighty one. Andof course, you know we have the
cardinal as our state bird, andof course there's other state animals, there's
we have a state fraud all goingto stay aphibian and all that. But
yes, our actual state animalist againis the white tailed deer. And it's
kind of funny like you were mentioningat the beginning of this program that you
know how deer are everywhere. Well, what if I were to tell you
(02:12):
that one time in the state ofOhio that deer were considered an endangered species.
I'm sure a lot of people listento this would go no, yes,
yeah, it's very hard to believe. But if our older audience is
out there, especially who are aseventy year older, would probably remember that
because we have to remember in presettlementtimes in Ohio was fastly forested and had
(02:36):
prairies, wetlands, a lot ofgreat wildlife, deer, turkey, bears,
I mean, could go on andon. But then, of course
when the settlers came into Ohio,you know, we destroy those natural landscapes
for development like Marion Columbus, Delaware, things like that, and of course
for agricultural purposes as well. Andalso too, you know, this is
way before the Ohio Division of Wildlifewas around, so people could go out
(03:00):
any day of the year and killus much wildlife as they want. And
you know, like I tell kids, you know, this is way before
Walmart and Kroger's and Chipotle and allthose places were around. So yes,
you did have to go out hunting, and that was fine. But where
it got a problem was is well, I wanted to kill one hundred deer
for fun. If you did itand our neighbors did it just for fun,
well what happens to those local populations, Well, they decline, and
(03:23):
actually by nineteen oh nine, deerand turkey were declared what's called extirpated,
which they don't use that word alot in schools, but extinct or extinction,
so extrapated just means local extinction.And yeah, so deer at that
time, again we're very scarce.Now, the term in danger species was
not used in the early nineteen hundreds, and danger species were more used than
(03:46):
by nineteen sixties because that's when thewhole Endangered Species Act happed him. But
then, you know, here locally, deer were very scarce. I had
a gentleman, This was probably aboutthe first or second year I start working
for the park district. He wasan older gentleman. I want to say
seventies eighties range, and we werejust talking about, you know how deer
are very overpopulated now, and hesaid, well, when I was growing
(04:09):
up, you know, deer weren'tvery common. And he says, I
was around the Prospect region and hesaid this was in the early nineteen forties,
and he said he was going toreport it to the Marine Star,
but he thought nobody would believe himbecause he didn't have his camera. That's
how rare deer sightings were back thenagain here locally, but now, like
(04:30):
you mentioned, yeah, you canfind them in urban areas, and deer
were one of those few animals thatare actually adapting very well in urban areas.
And of course we can find themin farm fields, we can find
them in forested habitat, so kindof deer and coyotes like you know what
we've mentioned in the past. There'sjust again they're one of those animals that
are doing actually really well in theurban and suburban populations because you got to
(04:51):
think about, you know, inthose areas there's not a lot of predation.
Now, of course there are carsyou mentioned that they have to go
again, but you know, goingin our yards, our properties and of
course our flower gardens, our vegetablegardens. Deer are taking advantage of that.
And deer actually fairy adaptable, notjust with their habitat but also their
(05:12):
food. You know, during thenice spring and summer and early fall,
they're eating you know, flowers andgrasses and all that. But during the
wintertime they actually do switch their dieta little bit to mainly twigs and bark.
So not a lot of animals havethat ability, like deer kind of
like cows. They have that fourchamber stomach, so they're able to extract
(05:32):
a lot of nutrition from bark andtwigs, you know, versus if you
and I did that, not somuch, right, So, so that's
another reason why you know, theseguys again are very adaptable in our areas.
But you know the term white tail, you know, they get their
name from the whites underneath their tail, and they use that for communication purposes.
When they feel threatened, they willlift up that tail and they will
(05:55):
tell others and their their local herdlike, hey, there's danger around.
And then sometimes you may see orhear them doing that snorting sound, and
of course as they're running up withthat tail up, it's that warning flag.
Of hey, we need to getout of dodge. And you know
how while we're talking about their tails, you know how when you have a
pet dog and you say hi tothem, they wag their tail and they're
(06:15):
all happy. Well, deer isactually quite opposite. When they wag their
tails, it actually shows signs ofdistress. So that's interesting. And these
guys are mainly active at twilight,dawn, and dusk. It's called crispacular,
so that just means that they're active, you know, when the sun
is setting down or the sun isrising up. But they are actually see
(06:35):
better at night than they actually doduring the day. Now, yes,
we can see them during the dayif they have to move on to different
habitats or find different local food sources. But yeah, that's why we see
them around the roads. And ofcourse you know that actually gets very dangerous
of our drivers. And you knowwhen you always tell people you know,
(06:57):
who's the most dangerous animal, you'reprobably thinking of old bears or mountain lions
or things or sharks. Will actuallywhite tail deer kill more people, you
know, due to accidents. Ye, so that's you know, a really
really bad thing. And of courseyou know you got some people just get
minor accidents, and of course thereare in some cases if people are flying
down, you know, it canget very, very fatal. So you
(07:21):
know, of course, as wementioned, you know, this is time
where you want to be very observantbecause they're in that ruts, they're breeding
season, so that means you know, they're going to be very active.
You know, they're going to betraveling the roads and of course having hunting
predation on them from humans, Imay increase activity. So definitely within this
first week or two of the gunseason, I would definitely be very cautious
(07:43):
as you're driving along right right.Yeah, I mean, it just seems
like that that they have very muchadapted to the urban areas. The amount
of times you see on social mediapeople posting a picture of a deer in
their backyard and they're in a neighborhood. It's not necessary that they live out
in the country. That is becomevery prevalent, hasn't. Yeah, And
it's it's funny you mentioned that itseems like there's a good population by the
(08:05):
Hardy Memorial area in that cemetery.It does. Yeah, out by the
cemetery a Hardy Memorial and then outby Marion Harding High School out in three
on nine and twenty three. Alot of folks are saying that they're seeing
a lot of deer out in thatarea that's a little more wide open when
you consider the freeway and everything likethat. But but yeah, I mean,
it's it's becoming a thing. AndI have a lot of friends that
(08:26):
are in the insurance business, andthey have said that every year the number
of deer hits continues to uh togo up in the world of insurance,
and of course that number goes upexponentially as well. Yeah, so that's
that's that's a thing. And yougot to be careful, you know,
especially if they're running and they hityou. I mean you know, I
(08:48):
mean you don't even see them comingand they hit the side of your car.
I mean, it's like, holysmoke. I always told and when
I did drivers there, they alwaystold us, you're talking about that.
I always say that the deer hits, you hit the deer. Yeah,
that's yeah. I one insurance agentsaid, a deer it hit on the
side, came up on top,blew out all the windows and totald a
fairly new car. You know,it is what it is, but you've
(09:09):
got to be careful and you haveto realize that that is going on.
Now. With that being said,I know that you've been asked to let
people know what the rules are ofhunting in the area of the tall Grass
Trail. Yeah, so people arenot allowed to hunt on the tall Grass
Trail. But since Big Island doesgo through a part of tall Grass Trail,
(09:31):
hunters are allowed to cross over,you know, along the trail,
right, but they are not allowedto hunt through or on the trail,
right, And it's like a onehundred feet on the foot corridor yep,
on each side, So there's onehundred foot corridor, So realize that.
I know, I was out ridingone time and literally I had a deer
running. We're out near two ohthree and I'm riding along and there's a
deer just running right at the samepace of my riding and I'm like,
(09:54):
you come in here? You stayingthere? So yeah, they you definitely
will see them out there, sobe aware of that. And then of
course we're all the harvest what's goingon that's kind of kind of slowed down
most of it is done. Theyof course get pushed out as well until
you know that harvest is done andthey can find where they want to be
next. But you know a lotof them mustle into those you know,
(10:16):
the cornfields and stuff, and they'relike to not can't be here anymore because
we're gonna take all those down.Yes, you know, but those are
definitely some things. What else isgoing on around the park district? Or
did you have anything else you wantedto talk about in regards to deer?
Just just as we mentioned, youknow, when you're driving and be cautious
and then also too, like youmentioned to being on the trail, you
(10:37):
know, yeah, you will seea lot of deer activity sometimes standing right
on the trail. Yeah yeah,sometimes Yeah, I'm just walking along the
trail, especially within the miles twoto four that's where a lot of the
big on wildlife area is of partof the tall Grass trail, and sometimes
the deer or smart and they willjust stay right in the middle of the
trail. And sometimes we get youknow, fairly large numbers about four to
(11:00):
five or sometimes more, and thenyeah, they'll just sometimes just move along.
So just be careful if you're abicyclist too, because you know,
sometimes those deer like you mentioned yousometimes they're traveling fast and they don't stop
and they don't look. Oh,and they're hard to hear. I mean,
they really are quiet when they're runninglike that. I mean, you
know, I mean, obviously they'llyou'll hear the you know, the leaves
(11:22):
or whatever they're in. But thiswas that field was empty at that point
in time on two oh three,and I didn't hear them at all.
I just was like, holy cow, dudes, you know, sixty feet
away from me and running at fullbore. So they can jump ten feet,
Yeah, they can. If you'venever seen a deer jump, it'll
blow your mind right now. Yeah. Absolutely. I've been fortunate to see
some eagles recently. We're at Reb'sBottom one ninety nine south of Upper Sandusky,
(11:46):
heading back to twenty three, andI've since been told that there's a
nesting pair there at at one ninetynine, a beautiful bald ego just out
going and you could see the otherone in the nest, and now that
the fall has happened, you cansee it much nicer. So if you're
looking for for some eagles, theyare out that way, and please realize
(12:07):
that you know that is not foryou to mess with. Just realize that
they are doing their thing, andyou know it's beautiful to be able to
see them and let them. Letthem do their thing and live their life
and be happy because we see themat Tallgrass Trail too, don't we.
Oh yeah, absolutely, and actuallyate it by the prison right off twenty
three with the leaves all down,you can see the bald eagles nest really
well. Yeah, adult, pullover on the road because I have heard
(12:30):
the prison will show you away.Yes they will. So if you got
binoculars or long lens cameras, yeah, they don't want you near there.
Totally understand that. Realize that youare required by law to leave them a
loan, so please do if youfind where they're they're actually at. Let's
talk a little bit about some ofthe other thanks that thank you that you
had from from the board. Yes, yes, so we like to give
(12:52):
thanks to the donors of the MarineCommunity Foundation for generously funding a blower that
we use on the Marin Tallgrass Trailto help keep the trail clear because,
as we know, the leaves drop, walnuts drop, and you know,
sometimes it's getting hard to find youknow, where the trail is but again
we've been very very lucky that,you know, we got this great donation
and kind of going along with that, we like to thank our volunteers to
(13:15):
help out with those projects, especiallyRandy Dots he does a lot of mowing
and leaf blowing. Brian Gross alsohelps with lead blowing, and Bob Simmerman
who does a lot of other projectsalong the trail as well, and also
too if you go out to theMarrion Targas Jail, you see our big
interpretive signs, and some of themhave been a little wear and tear just
(13:37):
throughout age, but we have actuallyreplaced two of them. We replace our
trumpeters one that faces out to theMarrin Community Foundation Lake and then our other
one right by the second bridge rightbefore her Road. That was our bald
eagle one right. So we're reallyfortunate because what's really special about the two
news signs is we gathered pictures fromlocal footo bugs, locally from Marion County
(14:01):
and also to around. The picturescome around Big Island, maryon Taalgrass Trail,
maybe parts of Chillitier planes, soit's nice that those pictures are again
are from our area. So TinaThompson. She's the lady that helps sign
those large interpretive signs, so welike to really thank her for help designing
those signs for us. Oh,excellent, good stuff, good stuff.
(14:22):
What's on the calendar? What's happening? Yeah, so a lot of fun,
exciting things are happening with the parkdistrict. So the on December sixth,
at four thirty pm, we're doinga sunset hike. We'll be meeting
at the trail, but we'll meetingat her Road parking lot, so we'll
go around the trail and we'll belooking at different local floora and fauna and
that's the time too. Our beaverscould be active. The deer, as
(14:43):
we mentioned, could be active,so that could be a fun experience.
On the thirteenth, at four thirtypm, we're doing what do animals do
during the winter season. This willbe at the Marion Tallgrass Trail, starting
at the trailhead, so we're goingto be talking about how animals, how
do they app during the winter season. I actually go out on the trail
and see for signs of different wildlifeand see what they're up to. On
(15:07):
the twenty first, at four thirtypm, we have the winter in the
woods, so we're just starting atthe trailheads. We're just taking a stroll
along the trail and then on thetwenty seventh at two o'clock PM, we're
doing a looking for Bird's Nest programat the trailhead, so we'll be looking
at some of the different nests thatbirds make and some of them really small,
some of them are very large,and as we mentioned before, it's
(15:28):
a lot easier to finding them nowsince the leaves are down. On the
twenty eighth, we're doing our WinterTree id program that will be starting at
the trailhead again at two o'clock,so we'll be learning how to identify trees
and other woody plants without their leaves. And then on the thirty first,
we're doing our Christmas our Audubon ChristmasBird Count for Cular Planes SLASH Big On
(15:50):
Wildlife Area. So it's the bigbird Research Scientist citizen scientists project that has
been around in the United States Ithink for one hundred and twenty eight years,
but here in Marion County it's beenabout almost fifty to fifty five years.
Ed Lux, which I know,was very big into the Scouts and
I think you remember hitting up.He was the compiler for a while,
(16:11):
but then he moved up to LakeErie, so I've been the compiler for
that for the last six years.So yeah, we're always looking for people.
And if you don't have much birdingin the experience, you still can
come along. But it will coverparts of Marion why not, and a
little bit of Harding County. Soif you are interested, let me know
because there is a particular circle.It's not just anywhere in Marion County or
(16:33):
wind Nott or hard And there's avery selective area. So the region district,
yeah, region district. Yeah.So yeah, if you're interested,
please reach out to me on thePark District page or tall Grasstrow page and
I'll be more than glad to setthat up with you. Some great stuff,
man, I appreciate you coming inas always, yes, and you
know, happy holidays, enjoy thenext month of all of the great events
(16:56):
that you have and all that goodstuff, and enjoy time with your family
as well. Friend, I yesyou too. Absolutely. That is James
Anderson from the Marion County Park Districttalking about all things you need to know
about what's going on with nature andin Marion County. If you like what
you're seeing, make sure you hitfollow on this podcast. Every time we
post a new one, you'll geta notification right there on your phone.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.