And There She Was…

August 12^th.  i turned into our drive and…

there she was, with her fawn.

Luckily this section of drive is down hill, so I turned off the engine and coasted down the drive, stopping periodically to take photos. This was the last one - zoomed, not that close up - before she decided that enough was enough, and took her fawn and left.

This has been a good year for White-tailed Deer in our area. This doe had a single fawn. Another doe that we see frequently had twins this year.

Reference.

NatureWorks: White-tailed Deer – Odocoileus virginianus

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

October 4th, 2014. We often see several does with their fawns in the field between our house and the road. One doe had two fawns this year. They would spend the afternoon in the field and I’d often see them move into the woods at dusk. I was so used to seeing the fawns with their spots that I was somewhat taken aback when I saw them on this particular afternoon and saw that they no longer had any spots. They were young adults. 

The doe and…

one of the fawns.

 

I haven’t seen them recently. Maybe they read that the deer hunting season was about to begin (October 15^th) and they should lay low for a few months?

White-tailed Deer: I’m b-a-a-a-ck…

I'm waiting for you to get your camera...

I need to get on with my morning...

Think I'll eat this one...

I'm beautiful... Don't you think so?

Is this my best side?

I heard you and I'm keeping my ear on you... 

July 25th, 2014. 

White-tailed deer visits in the morning. 

Walton County, GA

She comes by periodically to browse on plants around the house. On this morning she stayed out in the open for quite some time. I wondered why I hadn’t seen a fawn with her. Then last Saturday evening, I think I saw her in an opening in the woods with a fawn. She was giving it its weekly bath – from head to foot – before they wandered off towards the field.

A Thief in the Orchard

August 27, 2011. It’s that time of year. The time of year when there are apples and pears in the orchard. The deer – Whitetail Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) - like them and they’ll even stand on their hind legs to pick fruit from the trees. And we have a bumper crop this year. On a couple of occasions recently we’ve arrived home near dusk and caught them in the act.

Who, me?
The tree is tall and, even on her hind legs, she couldn’t reach fruit on the tree.

I’m just scrounging around on the ground for pears that have fallen from the tree. They’re fair game.

But they’re hard. I can’t just chew them.

I have to roll them around in my mouth to try and break them up.

It’s a lot of work to eat these. If there weren’t so many of them and they weren’t worth it, and if winter wasn’t coming, I’d just go somewhere else. (You can see the pear in her mouth in this photo).
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Bambi's Big Brother

Hancock County, Georgia, must have a fairly large White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population. It’s unusual if we don’t encounter deer along rural roads in the county. Usually we see does or fawns that still have their spots. Last weekend, however, we encountered a young buck in the middle of the road just after we rounded a corner. He bounded off the road but stopped in the woods nearby.

*****

He gave me time for just two shots before he moved off deeper into the woods.

It was nice to see such a healthy young deer. But I hope he develops some street smarts before the hunting season in the Fall.
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Identification resource:
- University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Deer: Southern White-tailed (Odocoileus virginianus virginianus)

A number of Southern White-tailed Deer consider our property part of their range. They have many trails in the woods behind the house and, occasionally, they will graze close to the house. They will also loiter in the woods until dusk and then either bed down for the night in the long grass in the field or cross the front field to the woods on the vacant property next door. That’s where I saw them tonight when I arrived home.


A doe and two fawns...

Both fawns now have adult coloring. I think one is now two years old and the second is a yearling. I encountered these fawns a few months ago when the younger still had a spotted coat. It was late one afternoon when I was walking in the front field. When I saw them, the younger fawn had made it out across the field to one of the apple trees. The older fawn lingered at the edge of the woods; I think it had seen me. It signaled the younger fawn who retreated back to the edge of the woods. They loitered at the edge of the woods. I settled under the edge of the woods on the other side of the field in the hope that they would cross the field and I could get some photos. On that occasion they were more patient than I was.

Today was different. The doe and the younger fawn were watchful. The older fawn ignored me. It is interesting that the older fawn which was nervous a few months ago is now the more independent and adventurous of the two.