Okay, if you insist.
I caught a couple of nice shots of our old doe in the field.
I don’t know how many seasons she’s seen, and the poor thing didn’t even blow her winter coat this year.
But she comes for dinner every night.
And brings her kids.
Whose little Frankenstein nubs always make me chuckle.
Everyone gets along well.
Except this one.
Who sticks his tongue out at woodchucks.
I guess everyone has a rude child once in a while.
But there’s a woodchuck right behind you.
The deer was oblivious for quite a while.
But when she finally did realize it….
The interspecies communication did not go well.
Chuck – 1.
Deer – 0.
If you’re getting bored of our backyard zoo…..
Tell me.
I won’t stop posting pictures….
But I could probably be talked into just the highlights.
Or then again….
Maybe not.
So feel free to skip these posts if critters aren’t your thing.
I won’t be upset.
But he might.
You never know who’s going to wander up from the woods lately.
The other day….
It was a pair of deer and a pair of turkeys.
One of the turkeys was occasionally headless.
But they all kept pace.
Right up to the feeders for a nosh.
Mother and son.
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.
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.
So we’ll start from scratch.
Baby buck antlers.
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.
Because our buck is sticking around with his family this year and I’m enjoying his weird head.
We always see him with his impressive rack in the fall….
But rarely in the spring when they start to grow back.
It really is a strange process.
Yes, I’m talking about you.
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.
Don’t get excited, I’m talking about deer antlers.
And as I was filtering through my hundreds of shots of our buck the other day….
I thought some of you city people might get a kick out of this.
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.
And painful, though they assure me it’s not.
But how do the proverbial ‘they’ know?
I doubt anything has fallen off of them lately.
It certainly doesn’t look like fun to me.
It’s been deer central at Casa River lately.
With upwards of 14 at a time.
Lots of repeat visitors from past years, and though they might all look the same to you…. we recognize and call quite a few of them by name.
Alright… Pregnant, the Buck, Little Guy and Dark Doe aren’t so much names as designations. But still.
Our resident buck’s antlers are starting to grow back….
Which always makes me think of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia’s doughnut hairdo.
They’re all currently blowing winter coats and the lawn is full of hair clumps.
Which the birds, chipmunks and squirrels scoop up for their spring nests.
Mother Nature is a wonderful thing.
Ah, spring!
In Maine? We tend to do it differently.
Like last Thursday, when one of our woodchucks came out of hibernation and said wtf?
The deer weren’t too happy either.
And before we knew it, what was supposed to be a light flurry…..
Turned into a full blown storm.
Complete with heavy wet snow weighing down the trees..
And turning everything into a winter wonderland.
Spring.
It isn’t always green.
River's world..... 