By KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors Writer on Aug 11, 2012, at 5:07 PM Updated on 8/11 at 5:07 PM
THE OUTDOORS
Sitting in the sun, sitting in the rain, sitting through the thunder and lightning, wind, calm, night, dawn and … sitting.
Incubating ...
When I imagine what I might do if I were caught outdoors during a bad storm my mind tends to jump to ideas to shelter myself ...
Our bluebirds marked Mothers Day with the beginning of a new clutch of eggs.
Nest building began May 6 and egg number one ...
A sick deer was collected Friday night in an area where eight were found dead several days ago, according to a state wildlife biologist.
After residents reported finding dead deer and seeing sick deer in Rogers County along the Verdigris River just north of the Will Rogers Turnpike Bridge biologists documented 8 dead deer in and near the river Wednesday night and collected water samples that ultimately offered few clues as to the cause of the deaths. Biologists hoped to collect a fresh deer to test for possible viral infection.
Chief suspects as a cause for the deaths were toxicity from water that may have been tainted with blue-green algae or a common viral infection, epizootic hemorrhagic disease, known as bluetongue or EHD, which is spread by a small biting fly called a midge.
“We got a call last night close to dark and were able to collect a sick deer,” said Craig Endicott, northeast regional supervisor with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
He said a landowner checking on his cattle spotted a young deer that failed to flee with the rest of its herd and as it left the area it could not muster strength to cross the fence. “It was what we’ve been talking about, a deer that just doesn’t act right, doesn’t seem right,” he said. The landowner was instructed to kill the deer, Endicott said. “We got out there right away and collected samples to send to Stillwater,” he said.
Collected from the deer were lung, kidney, liver and blood samples, immediately packed in ice, he said. The samples will be tested at a lab at Oklahoma State University. Endicott said he was unsure how soon test results would be completed.
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