Winter feeding the animals of the forest

Feeding wild animals during the winter season is a good gesture, however it can cause more harm than you think if it's not done properly ... some tips to help you help your animal friends.

Juni

Hi everyone, hope you are doing fine! Are you already enjoying spring? Here in central Sweden, it looks like winter doesn't want to let go this year!

Today, I would like to talk about a subject that is particularly close to my heart, winter feeding the animals of the forest, with special regards to deer, as where I live, they are the ones that are generally more used to venture in our gardens looking for food, along with birds and squirrels of course.

If you have been following this blog since my first posts, you'll probably know that a couple of years ago I made friends with a family of deer, Tiril, the father, Juni, the mother (here above in her winter coat) and their two kids Bodin and Eira.

Eira

Juni has started visiting our garden on a summer day, she liked a lot the parsley that we were growing outside. We caught her with her paws in our vegetable garden boxes, but both my partner and I were so happy to be able to see her so closely, that we have decided to let her continue. Of course, she ate all of it!

Since then, she has visited more and more regularly, even when the parsley was finished and there wasn't anything else to eat ... first alone, then accompanied by her companion Tiril, and after a while with her fawns too.

Tiril

I have never thought about feeding wild animals, the idea never really crossed my mind, and I think I saw the first deer feeder only 3 years ago when I moved here during one of my first walks in the forests.

However, last winter, I started feeding birds, and one morning, I caught Juni eating the seeds that they were throwing on the ground. It was a very cold day, everything was frozen and the ice was thick on the ground. She was eating eagerly and for the first time I realized that she looked very skinny. I started wondering how she would feed during the winter season and I decided to do some researches on the Internet.

That's when I found out that deer actually struggle to find food in winter, in fact they eat a lot more during the autumn season to get some extra fat and build up a reserve to help them survive when the food in the forest is scarce. But if the winter is particularly harsh, with a lot of snow and ice, it gets really hard for them to find anything to eat and by the end of February the reserve in their body is totally gone. Some of them starve to death.

Of course, I did not want that to happen to my deer friends so I have continued my researches to find out how I could help and feed them. What I found were controversial opinions.

Here in Sweden, winter feeding is generally allowed and in certain circumstances and under some conditions, even encouraged.

However, in many countries it's not only discouraged but it might also be forbidden by law for different reasons.

I read a lot about pro and cons arguments and I was particularly touched when I found out that people might end up damaging the animals out of kindness as they feed them with whatever they think it might be good for them or with whatever they just have at home.

In fact, every animal has its eating habits and needs that most of the time are completely different than the ones of humans.

Deer for examples are herbivores and ruminants, they eat different kinds of vegetation, including grass, leaves and stems of woody plant. They also eat berries, nuts and some fruit. This doesn't mean though that they can eat all kind of vegetables that we eat, in fact some of them are even toxic to them like potatoes, kitchen scraps (carrot pulp, fruit peeling, or herb stems) grapes and raisins, just to name a few ...

After a lot of reading I have realized that the matter was more complicated than just throwing some left overs whenever I could, and that if I really wanted to help my friends I had to follow all the good practices in order to make sure to cause them no harm.

That's what I learnt.

First of all, it's important that the area where you feed them is not exposed to any perils and that it is not dangerous for them to reach it.

My house is located on a forest hill above a little village, it's a very quite area, with just a few houses and no car traffic at all. The forest is just a few meters from my garden. This means that deer can easily pass from the forest to the garden in a few steps without incurring in any dangerous situation.

If that wasn't the case and my garden was in a crowded area with cars passing frequently, I would rather leave the food in the forest or avoid feeding them at all. You don't want to see them ending up under a vehicle, do you? Also, the less disturbance when they eat the better, as they are wary and can get easily scared.

Get advice from your local animals shop or hunters association and only buy food which is specifically meant for the animal you are feeding. This way, not only you avoid harming them with food they cannot eat, but you are also sure that they get the nutrients they need to go through the season.

Be aware though, it can become expensive in the long run. In fact, once you have started feeding them, they will rely on you and you cannot stop until spring comes. So, it's better to avoid starting at all if you cannot afford it.

Only feed them if and when it's really necessary, generally in late winter, when their body reserve is exhausted and when there is very little left on the ground for them to eat, which is particularly true if it has snowed a lot or it's very icy.

You don't want to feed them if it's not needed. Never do that in spring, summer or autumn.

Bodin & Eira

Don't give them too much food so that they are forced to keep on looking for it themselves. Consider the right amount so that it only represents a supplement to their diet.

When it's early spring and the first leaves and buds start appearing, gradually reduce the frequency before you stop feeding them. You'll notice that they will come less and less as soon as they will find something they like more, like the juicy fresh leaves they are so fond of. Be aware though, by winter feeding them, you will have sent them the message that it's OK to come to your garden to eat. So, they will still visit to check if there is something interesting whatever the season. If you like to grow vegetables, plants and flowers, I suggest to avoid feeding them in winter, unless you are ready to install green houses, as they will surely steal whatever your have planted in your garden if it's of their liking.

Check with your council whether there is any ban against feeding wild animals. Also, look around you. Are your neighbors' gardens well kept and full of flowers and plants? If so, I strongly suggest that you ask them whether they are happy with your feeding activity or you might end up having arguments with them because of the possible damages to their yards.

When I moved here, deer were already used to roam among the gardens. Also, the region where I live is a woodland, as the major part of Sweden. And although in the south the situation might be different, here in the center-north regions gardens are mostly decorated with plants and flowers that grow wild due to the cold climate and the short warm seasons.

Keep yourself at distance from the animals and don't let them get to trust you too much. As much as you would love to hug them and be with them, it's important that they keep to be wary of you, as deer are prey for us humans! It's just a way to protect them. They will know in any case that it's you feeding them, don't worry.

Be aware that it's a commitment. As I mentioned already, once you start feeding the animals, they will rely on your supplementary meals and they will regularly come to your place, because they know they will find food. You must make sure that food is always available when they come to eat. In fact, deer may travel a long distance looking for food and they need energy to do it. If they don't find it at your place as expected, it might be too late for them to move somewhere else looking for alternative sources that are scarce anyway.

So, forget taking any vacation in the period you are feeding them, unless there is someone else who can replace you 🥴😊

Be ready to wake up early even during weekends as dawn and dusk is when they usually come to eat (when it's quieter). Depending on how large your feeder is, how many are they, and how much of the food is taken away by other animals, you might need to feed them even three times a day. So, think carefully whether you are able to keep up with the task. If you start and then you abandon them you are causing more harm than not feeding them at all.

In fact, I think that the final and most important message is, "remember that you are doing this for them not for you". Do not expect any other satisfaction than to be able to see them at close distance, which is wonderful anyway! They are wild animals, not pets. And they should remain so, for their own good.

If you follow these suggestions, and whatever other advice is given by your council, you will help your forest friends surviving the harsh winter and prospering. You will also live a precious experience! My garden is now regularly visited by different species of birds, two beautiful and funny squirrels and my family of deer friends. Nothing else relaxes me more than watching them by the window and it's a great satisfaction to see them healthy and happy.

I leave you with a little video of my friends eating at our little restaurant under the apple tree 😊

Till next time, take good care of you.

Love,

Simona 🤍🦌🤍

We all need some magic

Finding some magic moments in our busy week it's so much needed and simpler than we might think. It's just a matter of using the whole spectrum of our senses ...

Hey everyone!

This is just a short story I posted on Instagram yesterday.

I thought to publish that here too on a Monday as a way to bring some magic to the beginning of a busy week for us all. In fact, my Mondays have always been filled with an unpleasant, anxious feeling, as I often felt forced to re-enter kind of a "boring reality mode" after a couple of days of distraction from the everyday life. Maybe you can relate to that? 😉

It wasn't the vacation that I wanted to prolong, but that sense of being able to live my life to the fullest by doing what I was passionate about. Avoiding that unpleasant feeling of being stuck in a boring life has been so important to me, that since I was young I've done all my best to make sure to be able to do whatever job I just loved to do, regardless of whether that would bring me money or carrier. That of course has caused much struggle, as my parents were often not happy with my unconventional, in their opinion unwise choices 🥴

Anyhow, Mondays aside, I think we all need to season our days with some magic to make the most of them, and "magic" to me is just a way to enjoy the mystery of the Universe surrounding us by using the whole spectrum of our senses, something which somehow seldom happens in our everyday life as we have been kind of forced to "cut ourselves off them" ...

But back to the story ...

I was sitting in the forest the other day, enjoying the relaxing view of the snow that was falling abundantly. There was a soft and soothing atmosphere all around, as the sounds of the wood were absorbed by the fresh snow covering the ground and the trees whit its mantle.

It was so pleasantly quite that I must have entered a sleepy trance, as I found myself staring for a long while at a dark gap among the trees standing in front of me in the distance, where the falling snow looked so defined against that midnight blue background.

It was such an enchanting view and I was really tempted to reach that place, but I knew that it was just one of the many illusions created by the forest. In fact, had I stood up and walked towards it, the magic would disappear as soon as I’d stepped into that gap, as the darkness would dissolve along with the contrast. It's a bit like when you are trying to chase a misty horizon that moves further forward every time you think you’ve reached it. Watch out! The forest is so good at creating optical illusions! I don't know how many times it has made me walk for hours following some deceiving light 😁

So, this time, I decided to resist its tricks and rather than moving towards that magical place, I zoomed into it with my camera, closer and closer ....

The darkness was still there, the falling snow was even more defined ... and the magic was preserved ... ✨✨✨

That simple, unwilling act of staring at the falling snow, resulted in a precious moment of calmness and mindfulness, that has brought so much peace into my busy mind, restored my good mood and all my energies .... and it was achieved by just getting a hold of the magic that exists all around us.

I wish you can enjoy your magic moment this week! You don't need a snowfall or a forest to find it, just let it go, trust your senses, connect with nature and the magic will find you.

I would love to hear about your magic moments! Leave a comment below if you feel to!

Before saying goodbye ... I just wanted to let you know that I managed to get 30% discount from my posters supplier! It is valid till 31-03-2023 so don't miss it! Have a look here and use discount code ARTIST11340 at checkout. Hope you'll enjoy it 😊

Till next time, take good care of you 🌹

Love, Simona 🤍🤍🤍

When the forest is cut down

Seeing my favorite forest cut down was a bit of a shock and surely a depressing experience. When and how it will grow back depends on many factors. What's certain is that the forest as I knew it is gone forever and countless creatures have lost their home ...

Hi everyone! How are you doing?!

Here I am with another story from the forest hills! Actually, I have written this post in my mind many times, but somehow I have not been able to put it down and couldn't decide to publish it for a while.

On the one hand, I thought it was too sad a story and I didn't want to bother you, one the other hand I knew that the experience I had lived was of value to everybody and it was worth telling about it even if it would likely cause some sad feelings. This at least is what happened to me while living it.

It was a Saturday early morning when I headed out with my camera to one of my favorite forests, which also happens to be the closest to my home.

It was supposed to be snowing a lot that day and I wanted to take some dreamy pictures of the snowy woods and enjoy the magical atmosphere.

However, when I reached the main forest path, the one I would usually deviate from to take another smaller path leading deep into the woods, what I found to my dismay were piles and piles of tree logs covering both sides of the road for as far as my eyes could see ...

At the beginning I was just confused, I thought I had gone too far on the road and missed the little entrance to the forest, so I kept on going back and forth to find my way in, my heart pounding. Of course, deep inside, I knew already what had happened, but it was only when I reached the end of the road that I fully, painfully acknowledge what my eyes were seeing.

My forest was gone, at least a very large part of it ... It had been cut down extensively.

It hurt so much that it's really difficult to put it into words.

The narrow dreamy path among green rows of tall trees on which I walked countless times had disappeared. That beautiful trail, covered with red needles and little forest rocks, used to lead the way through the thick forest eventually descending to an enchanting little lake.

What was left instead, were the large tracks of the monstrous harvesters going in all directions. They were covered with piles of dead branches, trunks and torn blue berry bushes.

The trees still standing looked so lonely and fragile, lacking the support of the ones that were used to grow next to them. Some young trees were left alone on the sides of the trails.

Huge gaps opened up in a forest that just the day before was so thick that you could barely see through the trees. Now I could see the horizon, the houses once hidden behind the vegetation and the other side of the hill.

I wasn't really able to take more pictures than the ones below. There was little left to be photographed anyway ...

I was shocked and extremely confused. Was I on the same path leading to the lake? How could I not recognize the forest that I had been visiting almost every day and that I thought I knew inside and out?

I tried to orient myself and find my way to the lake but after a while I was walking I managed to get totally lost. All my landmarks were gone ... The felling operations had eventually changed the geography of the place. Walking among the big piles of left overs covered in snow was tricky and tiring, I was extremely demoralized and so exhausted ...

Eventually, I gave up. I stopped by one of those piles in the snowy desert of dead trees. I knew that I would never find my way in that state of mind. I had to sit down and let it go. Couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

The forest as I knew it was gone forever.

I stood there looking around for a long while, recalling how it was before, all the little places I got to know in the years that I had walked through that forest, its beautiful hidden spots, the ones where I could see the sun rising and setting, the ones with the giant dancing ferns, the ones covered in berry bushes. The place where the deer were feeding ...

That forest was my happy place, the one I reached every time I was feeling down, every time I was happy, when I was tired and needed some rest, when my mind was too busy and needed to reset, when it was spring and it was magic, when it was summer and I could find shelter from the heat, when it was autumn and it was cozy, when it was winter and it felt like Christmas. I have walked through it almost everyday and nonetheless I would always find some new beautiful part of it.

It was a whole precious world that had disappeared from one day to the next.

It was home to countless creatures that lost it that day. Deer, squirrels, foxes, moose, birds, insects and other innumerable species that I don't even know about.

The ones that were not killed in the felling process had likely already left, gone somewhere else, in search of a new home, leaving the forest deserted. The ones that had remained were surely struggling to find food and some shelter.

That's when I really reached the bottom of my despair ... when I tried to imagine how the animals felt during and after the cutting. When they discovered that their home were destroyed.

I felt so powerless and useless . There was nothing I could do to help those creatures.

When I stood up to return home I realized that I had wandered more than I thought and I was no longer able to find my way back. When I eventually made it, it was almost dark.

That's the last image I have of my forest, the part that was less affected by the cutting.

When and how the forest will grow back depends on many factors, starting from the felling strategy adopted by the logging company. But this is another story ....

The purpose of this post isn't to talk about good or bad forestry, it is not a rant against the logging companies, or the government policies in terms of forest management. It is a complicated issue, and it requires a lot of knowledge to be able to seriously talk about it.

I rather wanted to try and describe how it feels when a natural place that you care about, that you are so familiar with and that you thought would be there for ever is destroyed. Because hearing about deforestation and forest loss is surely sad, but seeing with your own eyes a forest disappear has definitely a more devastating impact on you.

It's about witnessing death and destruction. It's about loss and feeling powerless.

And it's about connection with the natural environment around you.

Because it was my connection with that forest that caused so much pain when I saw it cut down, it was that connection that taught me the importance of taking care of it.

And perhaps, it is precisely the loss of that connection that has led us to the critical environmental and climatic situation of today.

It's just a more intimate perspective on a gigantic issue. I hope it makes sense to you. I hope I managed to reach you and make you see and feel what would it mean to wake up and realize that the planet as you know it is gone ...

Anyway ... Enough with the sad thoughts.

I will process the pain, leak my wounds and keep on going. The only thing I can do is to never stop standing with all the people fighting to protect our planet and never lose hope!

I will return to the forest and take care of what's left. I will do my best to contribute to its restoration.

In fact, it is with a picture of hope that I want to leave you.

I took it a few days ago by another beautiful lake. It was an amazing morning and the air tasted of spring ... The season of renewal ...

Till next time .... take good care of you.

Love, Simona 🤍🌲🤍