Oh Wise One,
The town deer (besides being extremely annoying, especially when you step around the corner with your dog and they are just standing there, holding their ground, or when they are in your yard eating your tulips or almond bush, or just sauntering by the house on the sidewalk, stepping easily over the tree-heaved cement, making the dog bark crazily in frustration) are sometimes wearing colorful earrings. A young buck today had a blue tag in each ear. Pray tell, what do it mean?
Signed, Deport the town deer
Deer Deporter,
First, I think I got another misdirected letter – Wise One? Or I guess you are just calling me a “wise guy,” and not the connected kind – more of a “wise” something else. Either way, I’ll take it.
The blue ear tags are not, as you might think, a dating strategy to signal their availability. Rather, as explained to me by the helpful person at the Parks & Wildlife office in Bodo, it means that deer had to be tranquilized to help it out after getting entangled in something like that fake cobweb stuff people put up at Halloween (other culprits include holiday lights, hammocks and decorative fencing). The ear tags have a date written on them, usually 30 days after tranquilization, so you can tell when your prey is safe to eat after the drugs are out of their system. (Roadkill is always a possibility for harvesting meat out of hunting season – see Action Line Dec. 15, 2025.) The tags are actually put in both ears in case one falls off.
Hi Action Line,
Generally we try to observe “No Mow May” in support of the early pollinators, bees and butterflies that might be enjoying the extra shelter in our lawn. And, our lawn is getting out of control. It’s getting looooong out there. Is it safe to mow early since the weather has been so warm? Or, should we still hold off.
Signed, A Bee Hugging Commuter
Dear Bee Hugger,
I’ve seen those memes about “no mow May” but it turns out to be more complicated.
The idea was brought to the U.S. from the U.K. by the town of Appleton, Wisconsin. But as that state’s extension service now explains, pollinators are busy throughout the growing season, so to really help them you need to do things that help all spring/summer/early fall.
Local nurseries can suggest trees, shrubs and bushes you can plant to attract pollinators. Cutting out herbicides and pesticides is a big one. If you look up “bee lawn” you can see how to enhance your lawn with plantings to attract pollinators. And for mowing, you can let your lawn grow a little longer than the well-manicured look, and yes avoid mowing when those plantings are flowering, but not necessarily only, or necessarily during, May.
Email questions and suggestions to [email protected] or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Today’s Fun Fact: A current meme going around says that the NASA Orion mission spent the exact time on the far side of the moon as Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” 42 minutes and 50 seconds. Like the “no mow May” meme, that’s not exactly right – it took a few minutes longer than that, but still pretty cool. No reports of whether the crew had the Wizard of Oz playing too, but they do know there’s really no “dark side” of the moon, only a “far” side that is sometimes sunny but always faces away from the Earth because of “tidal locking,” where the moon’s rotation period matches its orbital period around Earth.