Debbie and I took an evening drive up to Cuyamaca Mountain yesterday, arriving at the Stonewall Mine just before sunset. The meadows in that area used to be full of deer, but after the fires of October/November 2007 we saw none until the last couple years, and even then just a very few.
But last night... Last night, the deer were back, in force. We saw about 10 groups of deer all together, with five or six of the groups number more then 20 individuals. The grass is plentiful this year, and the deer were chowing down with some enthusiasm.
The return of the deer means that the mountain lions will be back (if they're not already). We know the rodent population must be healthy because we see lots of hawks. Hopefully that also means the bobcats are back (we've seen a few, but nothing like the numbers we used to see up there). It's very nice to see the animal ecosystem returning to some semblance of normality...
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