• Thursday-What'sUP October 30 - 10:23 pm

Now there's a common sight, often seen on the side of the road here UP North. The first thought that goes through your mind is whether they'll stay where they're standing or dash out in front of you. It's best to do as Bill Haller did here. Stop and let the deer take the lead, since they can be so unpredictable. You might just avoid an accident and you'll get to enjoy the beauty of the wildlife in their surroundings, too.

"Good morning", There are deer all over this wonderful state. I see one or two ar least once a week. Everyone please drive Carefully.

There are a lot of them in this area, too. Always keep an eye out for them & stop to see what they're going to do because I certainly don't want to hit one of these beautiful creatures!

We love to go out by a place where we live and watch the deer. There is a apple tree by us and we take apples out there to them. A lot of people take corn and other stuff to them in the winter time. Luckily the deer are still wild and not use to humans. ;O)))

We have been watching this awesome buck that likes to roam around our farm for a few years now. He's massive! He is almost as big as our Quarter Horse mare, Tia. My husband got a good look at him with the binoculars and estimated this buck as a 14-16 pointer. And if it's possible for a buck to weigh 800-900 lbs. he is pretty close to that weight. We figured this buck must be a pretty smart and clever one to know to run and hide well from hunters and knows to stay away from the roads. His favorite time of the year is coming up!

We were saddened here a couple of weeks ago. There has been a mom and her fawn hanging around the area and we would, at times, see them on our road when we took the dog for a walk. They'd hang out for a while and we'd stop to watch them. But then mom would get spooked by a movement from the dog and off they'd go, across the highway. A couple of weeks ago we saw a deer lying dead on the side of the road. We assumed it was mom and (at least I haven't see him/her) the little one hasn't been around since. Poor little thing. Everybody, please be careful.

They are so fun to watch. Good shot.

Those deer are probably saying, "Hey, kids, look! There are some people!"

Maybe those deer are saying do they have guns?

Good picture. Mary, that is great advice! The problems usually come when it gets to be dusk or dark, or the deer jump onto the road from a deep ditch, so you can't see them in time! (Unfortunately, words of wisdom from the experiences of my family and me, over many years.) When you least expect it...

From now through at least the end of the year, friends, please watch closely! It's not just for the safety of the deer, but for your own safety as well as the safety of your passengers. Michigan is now ranked #2 in deer-vehicle accidents in the nation. In our county, there have been rollover accidents recently, from people losing control, trying to swerve to miss deer. All too often, people are injured or killed in vehicle-deer accidents.

Marianne it's funny you say that, It was just on our local radio station this morning that Wisconsin was #2 behind Texas? Maybe every state is saying that to charge more for auto insurance??

I swear by my deer whistles on my car. Many, many times I've had deer stop instead of rushing across the road. Some people say they don't work, but I do. Does anyone else have any experience with them?

Mooselover, wow! the deer your deer whistles encounter are lucky ones! 95% of the cars, trucks, S.U.V.'s etc, that are results of deer hits that arrive to the auto collision repair where my husband is the production manager have deer whistles. And by the request of these vehicle owners, they ask that the whistles need not be replaced. A lot of these vehicles arrive at the shop upon the flatbed often have the dead deer laying right there to be taken to the processer upon the vehicle owner(s) request.

The deer whisltes I have on my car are the double ones, each side has 2 whistles. I have noticed at least 4 times that they are working. I've watched them stop and cross the road behind me, even when there is other traffic around, they walked out in front of other cars, fortunately no accident. Keep in mind they only stop the deer, they do not scare them. Make sure they did not stop in middle of the road.

It's hard to imagine GA is not #1. We see them everywhere. Everyone in my family has hit at least one deer. Just the other day on the loop around our town, I saw a car w/ a badly smashed up front end and there beside it lay the deer. I think we could have year-round hunting season and still have too many deer.

While the deer are nice to watch in a natural environment, they rank right up with Asian Beetles and Asian Carp in Illinois as pests. Don't know where the state ranks but the local insurance companies say that deer v vehicle is the number one claim in the state. We have a long, essentially no limit bow season on them here. Same goes for the shotgun weekends. Come on down and get all the corn fed venison you want.

Deb S.:

I understand about not wanting to hit a deer. Sadly, I
experienced such a thing in Nov. 2005 about 2 miles east of
Mesick. My wife and I were traveling northwest on M-115, after
dark, and the doe was just suddenly running right in front of us.
We weren't hurt, and our 2 boxers, Matty and Trooper, were fine,
but we will always feel bad about hitting that poor animal. Yes,
always be careful so you don't hiy them.

Where's the daddy? Here daddy daddy, POW! Just kidding, we don't even load our guns, most of the time,lol.

UP here they tell us , "Don't veer for a deer." Most likely you'll just end up in the ditch or rolling the vehicle over. Or worse! Trying to avoid a deer is worse than hitting it, sadly.

We Ohioans love seeing them-- but then we love seeing anything in the UP.