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The polymer sheet garnish on the antlers obviously makes the deer agitated and insecure. In the morning it was on the feeding ground again, without the ornament and calm.

 

 

The first stags often appear on the feeding ground already at about 6 o’clock in the evenings. A few days ago a youngish stag arrived at the feeding ground in an excited state and with a ”cap” on his head.

 

Of course it wasn’t a cap but the thin white polymer sheet from a silo hay ball wound like a turban on  his crown. Quite clear that the deer make trouble for the Saaremaa farmers when they destroy silo balls  - after all the stag arrived carrying the evidence on him. The stags damage the balls with their antlers and the deer cows tug holes in the sheets with their teeth. There are other mischief makers-silo wreckers too besides the deer; they don’t eat the silo grass but search for other morsels. Ravens and crows tap holes in the sheets to find ground beetles  and other insects there, even wolves have been seen gnawing on the balls to get at dead mice that have been rolled into the ball.

The natural food of deer in winter however is mostly the shoots of deciduous trees and shrubs and plants in the shrub layer. In a severe and snow-rich winter the preferred species on the menu are alder buckthorn, various willow species and birch. But why eat less nourishing twigs when silo balls are waiting in the field or have been brought to the deer feeding ground. 

 

image from webcam captured by  Ergee, LK forum