We've been having a lot of whitetail deer visiting us recently.
I love deer, I think they are fun to watch, are very gentle. And the fawns are so much fun, they act just like puppies when they play.
The deer don't really damage anything - we keep the garden fenced. We don't like having deer ticks around, but we raised the Guinea fowl to take care of that issue. Plus we've been visited by wild turkeys for the last week, and they love to eat bugs. We used to have so very many deer ticks and large dog ticks, but this year (so far) the ticks haven't been much of a problem. Although I don't credit the Guineas for this at all, as they don't leave the chicken pen area.
We provide the deer with a salt and mineral block in our back yard, and a bucket hangs on the fence - I fill it with corn during the winter months when snow is on the ground and food is hard to come by for the deer.
These are the latest deer that have been visiting this past week- two young bucks.
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| Two bucks can't share one salt block! |
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| Two bucks, the smaller one is angry because he gave up his turn at the salt block |
Previously two does and two fawns had visited. They were both first year does, both still nursing their first babies. The fawns still had their spots. Early in the mornings when the sun rose the fawns liked to romp, jump, run and chase each other around the back yard. It was always a pleasure to watch them play. I wish I had taken some pictures of them. The does and fawns stayed about three weeks. Sometimes other does and fawns would join them and stay for a day or two, then leave. When the two bucks arrived the does and their young left.
Here's a flashback to last winter's visitors. This herd stayed with us quite a while - so long I started to name them!
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| Deer in backyard January 2010 |
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| I named this little fuzzy guy Little Deer |
We always find antlers on the ground in the yard. The bucks shed their antlers every year and grow new ones.
This is the latest to our antler collection - a young buck had died out in our woods near the main road. We collected this last month.
Memories from the February 2010 snowstorm. The deer found safe haven under the cedar trees in the back yard where the snow was not so high.
16 comments:
The deer are beautiful. They are lucky to have you and your farm. The antlers are amazing, particularly the new one you found.
Amy at Verde Farm
Enjoying your photos. Please come take a look at my farm blog and become a follower.
www.stonehedgefarm.blogspot.com
when I see your photos all I can think of is gregory Peck and Jane Wyman in the YEARLING!
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THAT MOVIE>!
When do your deer begin the rut? Ours seem to start earlier and earlier every year. My bucks have even rubbed the velvet off their antlers already. I got lucky, as I hadn't covered the trunks of my young trees.
I love those bucks with the big antlers. They are so handsome!
We have mule deer, and we see them more in the fall than summer. We haven't seen them yet, so I'm hoping that means we still have a bit of summer left.
I am in awe of where you live. Breathtaking is what it is. Just breathtaking.
I've seen deer a good part of my life and to this day I still get all excited when I see one.
Whatever happened to Little Deer? I think that was the name you gae him.
Amy - I am just happy to have the animals visit me!
The ST Farm - I will come and check out your blog! Thanks for visiting!
John Gray - No, I've never seen The Yearling, but I looked it up since you mentioned it. It sounds like it has a cute deer, but the story sounds awful! The deer was killed in the end by the boy who loved him, all because of the boy's mother and the hard time she was going thru! So sad! I don't want to watch it because I know it ends badly for the deer!!!
CeeCee - Ours haven't yet gone into rut yet. The does seem to have their young so late in the year, like in June or even July. The fawns are still small with spots. Following rut season comes hunting season - that's always a busy time for us, monitoring the property and keeping hunters off.
Barb - Randy loves them, too! Last week he counted 9 bucks with large antlers in the backyard at the same time!
Terry - I am so not ready for autumn yet! I want summer to last just a little bit longer!
Cindy - I loved Little Deer! After he was orphaned last hunting season, a herd of does and fawns moved into the yard, and he joined them. They left a few times and he remained in the yard, but they kept returning, and eventually he left with them. So they must have adopted him. Now many deer come visit us, I'm sure one of them is him, but I can't pick him out from the crowd. I don't really even know he was a male, he might have been female. I hope so, he has a better chance of surviving hunting season if he's a doe!
~Lynn
Beautiful! So beautiful! It's so good of you to look out for them. I wish we had deer here in Texas, but in our area there isn't much tree cover for them and unfortunately so many of the yahoos here shoot everything that moves, I fear they wouldn't make it, plus the coyotes have done in so many small mammals. Anyway, I just think it's great that you give them a helping hand and hope they keep coming back to your place.
That is just too cool. Love your antler collections, so neat. Once in a while we have a deer or two in our backyard in the winter, otherwise only see them running on fields if I go for a drive. They are just so beautiful.
Great photos and a fabulous antler collection! I am always looking for antlers on our property and I NEVER find them. (And we have lots of deer.) I must be looking in the wrong places.
Everything okay? It's not like you to go a week between postings. I hope you're just busy.
a girl after my heart! i love your deer, they are very pretty! that fuzzy baby is cute! you might want to consider putting corn out earlier so the stomach chambers get used to it before they actually need it. dnr says we aren't doing them a favor feeding corn in the winter but it is my opinion if it is done before winter, then their stomachs can adjust. i have 4 -5 year old deer that are doing well, but i feed year round and when they don't want corn, they don't come down. and, the only reason they aren't older is because a loser trespassed and killed them... you are seriously lucky to find thpse antlers! i found bossy's boy's antlers last year but those were the only ones!
Me again. You okay?
I put my home email on the post you made in my blog.
Hope your okay. It's been a while since your last post. :)
Ken and Mary - Thanks you!
Tina - I agree, I think deer are beautiful, too. So graceful.
Knatolee - I hope you find one! I never found one till we moved here, and we lived on 12 acres before and had plenty of deer. but no antlers. But here, plenty of deer, and plenty of antlers, too. Who knows?
CeeCee and Robin - Thanks for being concerned!!! I'm back now!
Kritter Keeper - I love to read about your deer. I find it amazing that you can tell them all apart. In another house several years ago we had a doe named Sally which we tamed with corn, and every year she brought her twins up to us. But that property was too close to suburbia and hunters who wiped out all deer. Every year her male son disappeared before he was 2 years old. We were able to tell Sally and her children apart from the other deer because they were so friendly we got to see them up close. But now, in this house which has so much land and it's so much safer for the deer, they don't come so close. It broke my heart when Sally came up lame one year and died. Her last son, Stomper, was killed that year, and I can only hope her last daughter, Sadie, lived another year, but I doubt it. That was what drove us to the country. Thanks for writing about your deer, they are the most beautiful and graceful creatures. And thanks for the advice about corn, we will start putting it out earlier to help them adjust to it. Plus it will help to keep them on our property and away from the property borders where the hunters linger.
~Lynn
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