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When Big Daddy buck comes for dinner….
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The rest of the family has to share.
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One bowl for Big Daddy…
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One bowl for everybody else.
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It’s good to be King.
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When Big Daddy buck comes for dinner….
.

.
The rest of the family has to share.
.

.
One bowl for Big Daddy…
.

.
One bowl for everybody else.
.

.
It’s good to be King.
.

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He surely is a handsome devil.
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Strutting out of the woods with his son.
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Always wary of the neighbor’s dogs.
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And the crazy lady with the camera.
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The time of year I worry about him is almost upon us.
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And as much as autumn is my favorite season….
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It brings with it rifles and bullets and trophy hunters.
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And I’ll fear for our beautiful visitors.

Our big fellow made an appearance last night.

Moseying on up the back lawn.

Nibbling along the route.

Fresh grass pickings are slim with everything turning brown from our drought..

Except for over the septic tank.
Even he knows the grass is always greener there.

Our resident buck was here the other evening.

Up from the woods with last year’s progeny in tow.

The twin fawns are now young bucks themselves.

Before we knew it the whole family was here.

Chasing each other and ruining my shots.

This year’s Bambi.

And his/her dad.

Yes sir…

There are some good genes running through this family.
Because it’s time to clear out the photo files again.

Momma chuck has been packing on the pounds with an eye toward winter..

But it doesn’t stop her from scrambling up and over the rock wall quicker than I can move my shutter finger.

I have a feeling at least one of her two remaining offspring will be sticking around when the snow flies.

I keep catching him rooting around under the daylilies, filling his mouth with dead leaves and making off for parts unknown with nesting material.

Last year’s fawn comes every night, and since his new antlers are decidedly unbranched, I’ve taken to calling him the antenna buck. Because I’m old… and remember when you had to wiggle those things every afternoon to watch Dark Shadows.

Though these next two pics were at the outermost limit of my zoom, I’m including them because we rarely see momma turkey and her young.

She raises them in the woods and neighboring meadows, never crossing our large expanse of open lawn.

And finally, a few Bambi shots.

Because they’re so damned sweet, I can’t help it.

These two cuties came running up from the woods the other day while I was reading on the barn porch.

They’ve grown so quickly.

Getting taller every day.

We have a total of four fawns who visit.

But I’m guessing these two are twins since they’re always together.

Mom wandered up shortly after.

And kept an eagle eye on me and my camera.

No worries momma.

Bambi is safe with me.
This is the way we’ve been spending most of our evenings during the summer of Covid-19.

Barn porch sitting with an adult beverage…. or two.

Sometimes there’s a sunset.

The deer usually wander up for a treat.

And bark at us if we’re spotted.

Which, all things considered… is pretty frickin’ rude.

We are the treat suppliers after all.

I don’t need a formal thank you note, but a little common courtesy would be nice.

Ahh….
We caught another glimpse of Bambi last night.

Making it’s way into the woods with mom.

Can I get an awwww?

Last year’s babies antlers are growing…. this one’s straight up.

And this one’s up and out.

They’re brothers and no, I have no idea why their racks grow in different shapes.
And lastly, the end.

Of the deer, as well as my post.
We had our first little guy sighting of the season the other day.

And oh my goodness….

If that isn’t the definition of the word sweet I’ll eat a kale souffle.

The family kept a close huddle on the food.

But Junior managed to push his/her way into the fray.

I think I might have audibly squeaked in joy at that point.

Bambi!

We knew some of the does were pregnant, but they won’t bring the fawns up out of the woods for the first few months.

And even then it’s usually very early in the morning when yours truly is still in dreamland.

So it was wonderful to see them in the late late afternoon when the sun was still shining and providing light for pictures.

Welcome to the herd little one.

You’ll want to stick around, the crazy lady with the camera lays out a pretty nice buffet.
This is the time of year my heart goes out to these graceful wild creatures.
Because in Maine?

It’s fly season.

And there’s nothing flies like more than a juicy deer.

The poor things are covered in them.

Day and night, night and day.

All over their bodies.
They twitch, they scratch, they shake like a Parkinson’s patient to no avail.

I can’t even imagine how horrible this must be.
I go berserk if one nasty fly finds me when I’m mowing the lawn…. I’d be stark raving mad if I had to contend with this many!