Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Lovely garden pests

Sunday evening when that combining was going on, Courtney's daddy had driven by with a truckload of soybeans and noticed deer out by the garden. Knowing how I love a good photo shoot, he texted me about them. I switched to the zoom lens on my DSLR, grabbed a jacket and headed out. Here's what he'd seen. 


They were three fawns. Triplets? Maybe. There was no doe around. Now I know who's been visiting my garden a lot lately, leaving tracks as they knocked tomatoes on the ground and munched carrot tops and a few flowers. Such beautiful pests they are! And this time of year, it doesn't matter much what they do to the garden crops, as they're about done, anyway.

I sneaked up very slowly, inching my way toward them, but they weren't very afraid. They were only slightly wary, and I was able to get within 30 feet of them! They even came toward me, quite curious about me. I kept snapping away, ending up with over 150 photos! LOL I culled them down some, but still have so many because they were just too good to delete. Don't worry, you won't have to look at all of them. Here are just some of my favorites. Enjoy!










If you're wondering what they were looking at so intently above, here it is:


Rainbow was getting tired of me ignoring her while she so (im)patiently waited for her supper. She had been wrapping herself around my ankles, then gave that up and lay in the grass with her back toward me, meaning she wasn't very happy with me. Then she gave up and wandered off to where she sat above.

The fawns stayed. I left with the DSLR and came back with the iPad and even got a few videos (but you'll have to check for them on Instagram... I don't think I'll upload them here, unless someone requests it). I finally left to get that combine video, and they were still there! Their mama probably wouldn't be very proud of them. I think they need a few more lessons in the ways of wild animals, but meanwhile, I sure enjoyed the photo shoot they gave me.

8 comments:

Jenny said...

Great pictures! I like the one 5th from the end that looks like the one on the right is hopping. Just kids playing in the backyard. They've probably been getting their lessons about ignoring the humans from the turkeys! Mothers should protect their fawns from the poor influence of wild turkeys.

Jenny

Grandma G said...

Ha! Right! Just so they don't start drinking out of the birdbath!!

annie dee said...

Lovely photos! In photos 2, 3 and 4 - are those lighter brown spots between its ears the start of horns? They were acting like teenagers whose mom left to run an errand! Bad kids!

Grandma G said...

Yes... well... antlers, that is. ;) At that stage they are known as "button bucks".

Thank you! And yeah... bad kids, indeed! LOL

Geneviève said...

I pictured the fawns drinking from the birdbath and had a good laugh! :D Turkeys are SUCH a bad example for the younger ones, tsk.

Great shots, so many nice pictures!

Grandma G said...

Thanks, Geneviève! For the giggle, too. :)

LiEr said...

Oooh, lovely! I especially like the shot of the fawn hopping a little. You are so lucky to have so much nice wildlife visit your backyard. All we ever get are squirrels and the occasional blue jay. And caterpillars. Lots of those.

Grandma G said...

Thank you, my friend! I'm glad you at least have those caterpillars. They make the pretty butterflies, y'know! ;)