Tag Archives: deer

Random critters.

 

I was finally able to grab a few pictures of our resident buck.

 

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Which is getting harder to do as the summer wears on.

 

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But this father son shot was pretty sweet.

 

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Junior’s antlers are growing.

 

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And it always makes me wonder what the felt feels like.

 

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Naturally there are woodchuck photos.

 

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And some close ups.

 

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We have one lone chipmunk this year.

 

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And yes, those pesky red squirrel babies are still here.

 

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Using our deck railing as a cafeteria.

 

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As well as a toilet.

 

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Yes, I’m talking to you.

Clearly your mother didn’t tell you not to shit where you eat.

Bad form. Very bad…..

 

 

My favorite kind of sale!

 

When the local nursery has a half price and buy one get one free sale in July?

 

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You fill the back of your car.

 

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Find room for some in an already full bed.

 

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And replant the pots that your resident woodchucks munched to stalks.

 

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Hopefully with flowers they don’t like.

 

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And when the nursery extends the sale to the end of the month?

You go back again.

 

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And cram even more flowers in a bed that’s already full just because you can.

 

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While a red squirrel watches.

When you’re done?

You sit back on the barn porch and enjoy an adult beverage before dinner.

 

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And watch the old doe walk up to have a snack.

 

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Life is good.

Deer me.

 

Okay, if you insist.

 

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I caught a couple of nice shots of our old doe in the field.

 

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I don’t know how many seasons she’s seen, and the poor thing didn’t even blow her winter coat this year.

 

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But she comes for dinner every night.

 

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And brings her kids.

 

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Whose little Frankenstein nubs always make me chuckle.

 

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Everyone gets along well.

 

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Except this one.

 

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Who sticks his tongue out at woodchucks.

 

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I guess everyone has a rude child once in a while.

 

 

 

Baby buck.

 

Our resident buck with the felt covered mini rack has flown the proverbial coop, which is a shame, because I think most of you…. some of you?…. alright, at least one of you… was enjoying the fuzzy updates on antler growth progress.

But never fear.

 

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Our old doe, who we call pregnant because she always seems to be, has last year’s progeny with her on a daily basis now.

 

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So we’ll start from scratch.

 

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Baby buck antlers.

 

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At this point, they’re just little nubs that he keeps rubbing on trees and rocks.

And can you blame him?

The poor little guy looks like a four legged Frankenstein.

 

 

Ducks… and a deer.

 

We now have daily duck visitors.

A pair of mallards who make me smile and cut grapes in half. It’s the best food for ducks…. though they prefer to nibble on deer grain.

They’re here off and on all day but make a point of showing up about 4:00pm when I put out the nightly treats for the deer.

You would think the considerably larger deer would scare them off.

 

 

But in actuality, it’s the opposite.

 

 

The deer is frightened of the ducks and makes sure to eat on the opposite side.

 

 

Keeping one eye on those terrifying birds the whole time.

 

In case you’ve never seen it close up….

 

Don’t get excited, I’m talking about deer antlers.

 

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And as I was filtering through my hundreds of shots of our buck the other day….

 

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I thought some of you city people might get a kick out of this.

 

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After the fall rut….. (read: deer orgy, where size does matter) ….. the buck will drop his then useless horns.

It’s a slow process that sometimes takes all winter. The blood supply is cut off and they slowly loosen. You often see bucks with one side hanging crookedly… and they’ll rub against trees, fence posts, picnic tables or whatever is around to knock them off.

When this happens, it does look a little bizarre.

 

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And painful, though they assure me it’s not.

 

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But how do the proverbial ‘they’ know?

I doubt anything has fallen off of them lately.

 

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It certainly doesn’t look like fun to me.