Beautiful pests

My fawns have been back again. I can't resist taking photos of them. I hope you don't mind looking at them so often. 

There were two this time, and I've since seen three again (but didn't get photos). I don't remember for sure, but I think this may be the same one in all these photos. They're just a little bit hard to tell apart - ha. But if you look at that little bump behind its shoulder, it looks the same in every pic. Whatever... just enjoy the view! 

Sunday evening as I was out enjoying the last rays of sunshine (and taking sunset photos), I happened to notice this in the garden:

I'd forgotten how much deer love that sedum! All the spent flowers (seed pods?) were gone, plus most of the leaves. I sprayed it with Liquid Fence in the spring, and they hadn't bothered it all summer, so I kinda forgot about it. Oh well, they sorta did me a favor. Now I don't have so much to cut back. Apparently they don't care so much for California poppies or alyssum.

Just one this time

I happened to glance out the kitchen window early yesterday afternoon and saw another fawn. This one was in the shadows between the evergreens and lilac bushes. As I was looking at it, I also noticed a couple of turkeys right next to it. They wandered off, and then I saw a cat there, too! They must've been having some kind of conference.

I grabbed the camera and decided to see if I could get a shot or two. Lo and behold, this one wasn't afraid of me, either! I got about 10 feet from it before it decided to trot off a ways. 

It was alone, so I don't know if it was one from the group I photographed before or not. It might have been, because early that evening, just as Courtney and her mom were leaving, there were two out by the garden. We encouraged Courtney to walk out and see how close she could get to them. She did get pretty close, but then she just couldn't resist doing a little jump to see if they'd run, and of course they took off. I had wanted her to try and pet them, but she might have been just a bit afraid to get too close. Sure wish I'd had the camera out there at the time, but it was getting a little dark for photos, anyway.

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.

This made my day!

A couple of evenings ago, I decided to wander around outside after supper with the camera and iPad, just to see what I might find to take photos of. I almost switched from my zoom lens to the regular one on the DSLR, but for some reason decided not to.

First I saw this milkweed flower, which seemed extra bright and pretty in the golden hour sunshine.

Then I turned around, and much to my surprise, I saw this staring at me!

Was I ever glad I'd left the zoom lens on! It wasn't terribly far away, but the zoom was needed for shots like these.

It posed nicely, then trotted off for a different pose. Very cooperative subject, it was.

Such a dainty, lovely creature! I love how the spotted area of its coat looks like a blanket was laid across its back.

It stomped its little foot at me a couple of times, then off it went, showing off its feathery white tail.

What fun shots! Yes, my day was made! These are some of my favorite photos ever, and I think I'm going to print them all.

Oh, deer...

I was outside a few evenings ago and happened to see a deer walk into our evergreen trees. Of course I wanted to try and get a photo, so I ran in for the camera, switched lenses, and headed back outside. He'd gotten a long way by the time I got out there, though, so the pics aren't the greatest, not to mention that there wasn't a lot of daylight left. Here he is in our soybean field, and obviously he'd seen me coming.

Yes, it's a buck. If you click on the pics to enlarge a bit, you can see his small antlers.

(Incidentally, did you notice all the cornstalks on the ground from last year's corn? That's what all those flooded fields looked like before the rushing waters washed the cornstalks into those piles.)

He didn't stand around long before he took off...

... and leapt up onto the road...

... where he carefully looked both ways...

... and trotted off with his tail in the air.

The end. Literally. Ahem. :)

My favorite deer story is still the little fawn I found a few years ago. If you haven't seen the videos, check them out here. The followup story with more photos is here.

Shooting deer

Deer hunting (firearm) season ended here yesterday. I shot mine! Of course I only shoot them with the camera. 

There seemed to be plenty of deer around our yard this year. I saw a couple of them out my kitchen window on Friday afternoon. Here's a "screen shot" (i.e. taken through a window screen, thus poor quality) of one of them.

Not too clear, huh? There were actually two of them. They seemed to be quite calm, just having a little lunch. I decided to see if I could sneak out and get a better shot at them. Since they were in back of the house, I went out the front to avoid any squeak from the back door, and then I walked very quietly to the end of the lilac bushes, camera at the ready.

I shot them! LOOK!

They stared at me like that for about two seconds, then headed off down the hill. Below is the only other shot I got at them. It is, as they say, the 'tail end'.

Then yesterday morning I happened to glance out the living room windows and saw another deer across the driveway on the edge of the field. This isn't a "screen shot"... just a dirty-window shot. She was a bit too hidden by the trees, though.

She stood there grazing for a bit. I had the camera focused on a clearer spot, hoping she'd soon move on. She obliged!

As it happened, I wasn't the only one watching her.

That pickup had been sitting across the field the whole time. You can see the "hunter orange" through the windshield. I don't think they were hoping for camera shots!

The deer, however, was quite wise (or lucky). She slowly moved on, and suddenly I couldn't see her anymore. I think she lay down in the grass for a nap. The pickup then left, too.

The end.     (Click any photo to enlarge.)

View from the sewing room window

When will I ever learn to never go down to the sewing room without the camera?! I'd just gotten down there and sat at the sewing machine, when all of a sudden there was a deer head right outside the window! I quickly sneaked away and ran for the camera, but alas, this was all I managed to catch:

I watched for a while, hoping it'd come back. I could barely see it up against the house to my right. Then it almost looked like it was going under the deck! So I ran to the other basement window, and sure enough, there it was, under the deck!!

The camera flashed, and that didn't even scare it away. Josie happened to follow me to the basement, and she got very interested in our visitor, too!

Yep, under the deck!

Then it wandered off, and I got to my sewing.

But lo and behold, it came back!!

Poor skinny thing... did you notice that hip bone jutting out? This is the sickly one. The other one wasn't along this time.

But such a gentle, pretty face.... up close and personal:

It was weird. That deer had to have seen me in the window. I went outside later and looked in the window, and everything inside was very plain to see! And what's more, I had my iPad on the window sill playing music. Surely it had to have heard.

I even managed to get a video. Turn up the volume and listen to the music I had on, thanks to Pandora.

As you can imagine, there's not much left of my tulips. I hadn't resprayed them after it rained. There are only 3 buds left. But what would you have done... chased the deer away, or taken the rare opportunity to get pics and video of a deer up this close? ;)

Let's pretend it's spring

Another sighting of the deer, taken shortly after Saturday's robin pics:

The other one was there, too, hidden behind the evergreen tree. I was a little too slow at getting the camera to capture him, too. They've been around here quite often. No doubt waiting for me to get something good growing in the garden.That snow he's standing in was all melted by mid-afternoon that day. Yay!

BUT.... it came back. Boo! This morning looks like this. (Sorry, I've got nothing better to take pics of right now. And I know at least one person will enjoy them.... right, Mark? ;) )

No, it wasn't enough snow to make drifts, as it looks like below. That's still what's left from winter. In fact, it's down to just that little bit now. Yay!

Notice the green beneath the evergreens:

Yes, we really DO have GREEN GRASS!

But the way the forecast sounds, Courtney won't be doing any playing in the sandbox tomorrow.

Still cold, with a couple more inches of white tomorrow, and another couple inches of accumulation tomorrow night. Boo! BUT IT CAN'T LAST LONG, RIGHT?!?!