Doe, Fawn, and Ticks

 

I snagged this shot of this doe and her fawn over the weekend. I didn't realize until I downloaded the photo to my computer and viewed it on a larger screen that she was covered in ticks.

We have an upsurge in tick problems around here this year. One of our local television stations even reported recently on how bad they've become.

How do ticks affect wildlife? In deer, heavy tick infestations can contribute to fawn loss and even antler deformities in bucks, among other health problems. 

Deer also happen to be excellent tick transporters, and we have plenty of them around here.

Which means, I suppose, we have plenty of ticks too.

Of course, I wasn't trying to photograph a doe covered in ticks. I was after the little one.

I stepped out the front door and stood at the corner of the house. The doe spotted me immediately and decided I didn't belong there. She planted herself and began stomping a hoof, hoping I'd take the hint and leave.

I was hoping she'd wander over to my side of the fence so I could get a better shot, so I stayed perfectly still.

Stamp. Stomp.

She kept trying to make me move. I kept standing still.

Finally, she apparently decided that whatever I was, I wasn't going anywhere. She wheeled around and bounded off, and the fawn raced after her as fast as those little legs could carry it.

Fighting Deer

My game camera caught this photo. It's a sight I see occasionally, but I've never managed to get a picture like this.

Deer frequently rise up on their hind legs to reach up into trees, but sometimes they fight with their hooves.

I don't know what these two were having a disagreement over or who won, but they were certainly having a little spat.

When the Deer Trust You

 

There are two deer right now outside my office window. I've been up and down getting water and doing chores, and they aren't moving. The photos are with my cellphone and that's my curtain and the shoestring I use to pull down a blind in the afternoon when the sun shines in that window showing.

They frequently settle down in the yard like this, but not normally outside of my window.

Before the Snow and Ice

I grabbed this shot of this buck eating on an evergreen before the snow and fell. I hope the wildlife is making out ok in all of this frozen ground. Snow doesn't often hang around this long.

Ice and Snow

We've had bad weather now for a while. First, we had an ice storm, followed by two snows. It makes getting in and out rather sketchy. However, the photos are nice.

A small buck in the ice.

The ice coated everything.

I'm probably one of the few people who kept their old paper box and used it for yard art.

Evergreens in the snow.

Deciduous trees and evergreens, all frosty and lovely.

Managed to catch the moon in this one.

The neighbor's house in the snow.

Two does trek across the field.

Prancer

Not the animal discussed in this post.

The other morning, after 35 years of watching deer, I saw something I'd never seen before.

A cold front was heading in; the deer were all over the yard. Every time I looked out the window, there was a doe. On one side of the house, two young bucks butted heads, then stopped and stared at me as I raced outside with the camera.

A little later, I heard my husband coming up the driveway, but he didn't come all the way up. I went to the garage to make sure he was ok.

Through the window, I saw that he had the binoculars out and was looking at the woods. I looked too and saw a doe come running out of the trees. She slipped under the fence and dashed through the front yard, moving fast.

Right after she slipped under the fence, a buck jumped it, taking it like a grown man would step over a child's alphabet block, and then, it happened.

The buck pranced.

He pranced across my front yard as if he were the prince of the land, which I suppose he was at that particular time. His feet lifted much like a horse in a parade might do. He wasn't running after the doe; he was sure he was going to get her.

His stately look made me gasp and wish I had my camera, because of course I did not. He pranced on out of sight, while I stood there, entranced.

And the amazing thing was he pranced right in front of my husband, who watched him, too. And while it was a buck big enough to shoot, my husband let him go, so he could find his lady love.

I'm not sure which was the best to see, the buck prancing so, or my husband's wisdom in letting that buck live another day.

The Buck Stopped Here

I took this photo back in September. This was the deer my husband decided he wanted to hunt this year. It was a nice 10-point buck.

 

A little spoiler space for my readers who want to turn back now instead of seeing the trophy dead deer shot:

We gave the meat to someone who needed it. We never let it go to waste. 

He is happy. But I prefer my way of hunting with the camera to his.

 
 

Battling Bucks

It's time for the rut, and the young bucks are fighting over the does. The larger buck just lay there and watched; I guess he'd already won his fight when I saw these two going at it.

 

Hello there!

 

A Herd of Deer

 

Shiny Antlers

I wasn't really in a good position to get this photo, but these shiny antlers certainly caught my attention yesterday morning.

Aren't they lovely?

Bucks Butting Heads

A quick little short video I captured of two bucks hitting their horns together. 

In All His Glory

Here's the 5-point buck I've been watching all summer without his velvet, ready to head into the rutting season with his horns.

Losing the Velvet

Last week I posted photos of this buck in velvet. 

Yesterday he was back in the yard, but the velvet is starting to come off. I thought some of my readers might like to see this as it's not something that one sees everyday.

Male deer begin growing antlers in late winter/early spring. The velvet covering feeds the bone and helps keep it safe.

The bucks begin to lose the velvet in late August or early September as the velvet starts to lose its blood flow. It also indicates an increase in testosterone in the male deer. This signals the beginning of the rut, meaning the bucks soon will begin chasing the does as they hit their cycle for procreation.

Beneath the velvet is hard bone that makes up the antlers seen in white tail deer. The antlers are shed January-March, usually, and the process begins all over again.

Here is the buck with full velvet:

And here are photos of the velvet starting to come off on the left side of the deer's antlers. Note the red color of the bone as the velvet begins to shed. Eventually they will turn brown or brownish white.

You can see how much smaller the actual antler is once the velvet begins to come off as indicated in the last photo.

I've seen this shedding of velvet before but not often. This is the first time I recall being able to get photos of it (I took them through a glass door; the deer was about 30 feet away from me.).

Hope you enjoyed the biology lesson.

 

Five Point Buck in Velvet

 

He brought a long a friend, too.

In Velvet

 I spied this buck taking a break in the field and was entranced by the velvet on his developing antlers.

A Little Kiss

 Momma deer taking care of her baby.

The Hawk, the Squirrel, the Fox, and the Deer

I was on the phone when I glanced out the window and watched a hawk land on a tree across the way. Next thing I knew, the hawk was chasing a squirrel, its wings flapping, head bobbing as the bird tried to grab the furry little thing in its talons. The squirrel ran in circles around the tree, it's fluffy tail wagging behind it like a flag. It raced to the back of the tree, and I lost sight of it.

So did the hawk. With its prey gone, it flew off, and I turned my attention back to my conversation.

Then I looked out the window again and saw a fox trotting across the pasture, not far from where the hawk had just been defeated by the squirrel. A mother fox with kits, I guessed, since she was out in the middle of the day. She didn't look rabid or anything. She was just going about her business, doing fox things in a fox way. 

I had to tell the person on the phone what I was seeing, because I don't see foxes very often and this was rather exciting. Fortunately, my caller is a nature lover, too, and understood my enthusiasm. But not enough for me to hang up the phone and find a camera. The fox would have been long gone, anyway.

Not long after the fox went by, I saw a small herd of deer wandering up from the creek, heading into the same pasture the fox has just vacated.

The deer were in no hurry, and I watched them simply flop down beneath the oak trees, sunning themselves in the warmth of the day.

They were still there when I ended my call. I grabbed the camera. They weren't a fox or a hawk, but they remained, still resting and soaking in the sun, and the other animals had vanished.

This is what I love about my life. Where else could I have such a view, and see such things on a warm spring day?

Deer just hanging out in the sunshine.

Deer in the Yard

 

Friday Morning

 

It's unseasonably warm here now, so much so that I stepped outside onto the front porch in only my robe, slippers, and nightgown to take a photo of the moon. The deer in the front yard ignored me entirely. That gleaming white dot in the sky in the last photo is an over-exposed moon. The light was still low, so I was playing with camera settings to try to get the deer and the moon in a single shot. I would have preferred to have the moon look like the shot that looks like the moon is supposed to look, but the deer left before I could figure out where I needed to set the dial on the camera.