I got very few pictures of the deer today. Detail and her boy came first thing, before I’d gotten more feed out. I didn’t even try to take photos. The glare in the window that time of day results in basically the whole thing being one big reflection of our living room. Mama and the twins came by later, and of the few photos I got, only one was glare free.
That one photo sure was a winner, though! :-)
The Re-Farmer
I was settling in at my computer in the office, when my daughter happened to glance out the window. She spotted a new cat!
I just barely got a picture with my phone through the window before it went out of sight.
This makes number nine! Our seven regulars, the Mothman, and now this guy.
It may be one of the cats from my brother’s place, up the road, but I don’t recall ever seeing it there. Not that I’ve seen all of the cats he’s got in his yard, to begin with. :-D
On the down side, the reason my daughter was near enough to see it was because she was plugging in an extension cord for our handheld vacuum. She was a sweetheart and sucked up the many Asian lady beetles on the window in the bathroom. I had just done my own window, after counting 22 of the buggers crawling around. Then there were the ones on the floor. Almost immediately, another one showed up on the window, and when I picked up my USB cable to upload the above photo, I found another one on the cable.
Argh! I just saw yet another, crawling along near my modem!
I like lady bugs/lady beetles. Honest, I do. They eat aphids and stuff. I just prefer them outside, not crawling around all over the place, or bouncing off my head. These things don’t seem to have landing gear. They just drop, with a loud *tick*, then spend the next while trying to right themselves and tuck in their winds before crawling along.
I made the mistake of glancing down at the floor. Two more crawling along there…
Ugh.
Enough! Back to cute things!
Like cats. And deer.
It was busy outside our living room window, and a lot more orderly! The deer came in their little groups, rather than all at once, coming back several times each, throughout the day.
The first two were Hungry Girl and Barbecue.
It was earlier in the morning, so the windows had a lot of glare on them. The deer were also very distracted.
By cats.
They were all over the place! Running across the feeding station, sparring in the bushes, making their way through the spruce grove… We even saw the Mothman climb up on top of the stack of pallets or whatever is under the tarps, with Rolando Moon very carefully climbing up to check her out.
Only Butterscotch paused long enough in a spot we could get a decent photo, though. :-)
I even had a co-operative redpoll.
Detail and her boy came by, and I tried to get photos of her boy’s antler nubs, but the glare was just too much.
Mama and the twins paid a visit, too.
It was quite a party out there!
The Re-Farmer
Well, let’s see if this worked!
I’ve made a playlist of several short videos.
It was quite the show to watch them going at each other. Mama even drove away her own twins!
Some of the deer ended up all the way to the parking area in front of our gate, then came back through the yard to try for the feed again. Others got driven behind the house.
Deer can be pretty violent buggers! LOL
The Re-Farmer
I am in the process of uploading video of the deer drama this morning, so that will be for another post. They were really going at each other, today!
Until they are ready, I have some still shots for you to enjoy.
Check out those itty bitty antler nubs, peaking through the fur! This is Detail’s boy. One of the twins is showing signs of antler nubs, but they are quite a bit smaller than this guy’s.
A couple of the deer that got chased off ended up at our front gate!
With all the leaping and chasing and slashing of hooves, we had deer running around all over the yard!
After the deer left, Butterscotch came out to her favourite spot to enjoy the sun. My older daughter took this photo for me. :-)
In the early evening, Detail and her boy came back.
When they came in, a bit of snow just started to fall. I got a few photos, then took the memory card to upload them. A few minutes later, I brought the card back – and saw the snow was coming down much harder!
Detail and her boy were already getting quite the layer of snow on their backs!
The snow went away as quickly as it came.
I’m really looking forward to when we get – and stay! – above freezing, some time next week.
The Re-Farmer
We had some wild activity outside our window this morning! All 7 deer showed up, and they kept chasing each other around. Even Mama was chasing her own twins away!
I got some video that I will actually put together into one larger file to upload later. For now, here is some of what we got to see.
Meanwhile, we have also managed to get a Facebook account going for this blog. I’d tried last night, using the blog’s email address, and it wouldn’t accept my phone number to confirm the account. It wouldn’t work for my husband, either. We finally had to abandon it and start over.
If you look at the side bar, you’ll see where you can now follow us here on WordPress, on Instagram and on Facebook.
And if all goes well, this post will automatically upload on Facebook, like it does on Google +. You can find us on Pinterest, too.
Little by little, we’ll figure this out!
The Re-Farmer
I’ve been getting daily photos of deer for quite some time, now, and you’d think I would be tired of it by now. After all, they are often quite similar in pose and expression – and really, there isn’t a lot to differentiate one deer from another.
Then I upload the photos and see them on the monitor. The photos themselves often pick up details I simply cannot see from the window; the zoom lens makes all the difference. It’s so amazing to be able to stand in my window and have a deer looking at me from less than 20 feet away. Then, I upload the photo of that same deer, looking directly into the camera, with such detail and clarity that I can see our home reflected in its eyes, and count the eyelashes. It’s amazing!
Best of all are the split-second shots. Those fleeting moments, captured in a still shot, that often have me laughing out loud. Especially the tongue shots. Those just crack me up!
Today was filled with such photos. Here are some of my favourites.
First, we start with Barbecue, being all rude and stuff. ;-)
She looks like she’s giving someone behind the house the raspberry!
Taking photos from the living room has its other challenges, though.
Like cats.
Cats who like to walk on the window ledge, right in front of the camera.
That’s the mama cat’s tail, blocking what would have been a great shot of Hungry Girl. :-D
She looks like she had opinions about that.
“Hey, cat! You messed up my picture! You know what I say to that?
pptthhhhppptthh!!!”
“So there!”
This next one is something extra special, though.
That’s some 3D, jumping right out atcha, dynamic action tongue going on there!
And look at those teeth!
There were more funny shots today. Too many to post!
Later on, Detail and her boy came by.
I really tried to get some closer shots of her boy and his growing antler nubs, but the light was starting to fail. With a zoom lens, it doesn’t take much. You can’t really tell in this photo, but it looks like the antler tips are just, just starting to show through the fur.
Looking forward to taking more pictures tomorrow! :-D
The Re-Farmer
After our vehicle troubles yesterday, I’d intended to stay close to him today. I had to go to the post office before noon, and that was the only thing on my list that required driving.
I ended up out three times today, first to pick up the mail, next to pick up prescriptions, and finally to get a few more groceries. I tried a different town this time; one I haven’t been to in probably 2 decades. It’s a half hour drive away, and I was hoping it would be more of a stocking up sort of place. I was wrong. Ah, well. Live and learn. It did give me a chance to test the vehicle out – and be totally paranoid, constantly checking the gauges and the heat, and listening for any unusual noises.
No signs of any leaks. I checked under the van in the garage, to see if there was a sign of puddling that I’d missed before, but the ground (the garage is just over packed dirt) has had so many spills over the years, I couldn’t tell if what I did see was old or new. Since I was in and out so many times, though, I could compare from within the day, and there is no sign of any leaks.
Of course, I’m still going to be paranoid!
For now, I get to share adorable photos with you. I give you…
Sleepy kitties!
Nasty Crime Boy was back in what seems to be a favourite spot, causing us to spontaneously melt into puddles of awwwwwww….
Then Trülbus the Crime Eater joined him, for double awwwwww….
I even got some bird pictures today; here is one of them.
They seem to like the new feed, too. :-)
They also were completely ignored by the sunning cats. :-D
We haven’t been seeing the grosbeaks for a while now. They seem to disappear for a while, then come back in droves.
When getting the mail, I picked up some more of the previous deer feed, that’s mostly sunflower seeds. I plan to mix them about half and half for the next while. That way, there will be a wider variety of seeds for the critters.
There are deer pictures for today, too. So many have me laughing out loud! I will share some of those in a separate post, once I’m done resizing them.
The Re-Farmer
Before I go on to post about today’s adventures *sigh* here are some critter pictures for you to enjoy!
While I was home in the evening, we got visited by a lone deer (I wasn’t around to see any of our other deer visits).
There wasn’t a lot of feed left, so it didn’t stay long.
It was very interested in the cat loaf in the grass…
Look at that Nasty Crime Boy! What a face! :-D
Just a few minutes ago, my younger daughter was telling me about a face suddenly showing up in their window on the second floor. It was this handsome fella. So she opened the window, which still doesn’t have the screen in it, in case they need to go onto the new part roof again. This opening of the window thoroughly confused him, but he did eventually come back to look at her – going around the open window to look at her through the glass, then going under the window to check out her hand and take some pets. Then he heard my other daughter make a noise, so he went to the other window, which doesn’t open. She traced her finger on the glass, which he followed with his nose, with his tongue sticking partway out.
Like this…
What a cutie!
The Re-Farmer
Today, things got quite cold; we hit -20C, with a wind chill of -26C in the morning, though our high of the day was around -5C. It was also bright and sunny, with little wind, which meant that some of the ice and snow still managed to melt a bit, and the animals came out to enjoy the sun.
Not that I was there to see most of that; our adventures of the day will be for another post. Here, I give you cute animal pictures!
This morning, my younger daughter got some pictures in – it was the first time she’d used this camera! Mama and the twins had come by. She managed to get a few good shots, in spite of the massive reflections on the glass.
Here, Mama and one of her twins are very intently watching something.
What where they watching?
I think that’s Squishum. It could be Rolando Moon, but looks too small.
I was home for a while and got a few shots of Hungry Girl and Barbecue. Hungry Girl is the one that comes closer to the house, so I can get really good shots of her face. Barbecue hangs back, so I don’t get the good shots like this one…
I got a few really good ones; it was hard to choose which to post.
Then Hungry Girl obliged me with a funny one…
Mmmm…. nummers…
While my younger daughter and I were out in the afternoon, my older daughter got some photos for us, too.
It was Hungry Girl and Barbecue again … and cats! Can you see Beep Beep, hiding in the grass?
The Hand also came out to enjoy the sun.
Awwww… look at that face!
Others came by, as well.
Nasty Crime Boy came over to luxuriate in the sun, where he was joined by Butterscotch…
… who looks most displeased! :-D
The Re-Farmer
This morning, we had a WHOLE lot of activity out our living room window! Detail and her boy were back, as were Mama and the twins. Sometimes, they’d be eating peacefully together, other times, Mama would chase them off.
Then we saw more activity in the spruce grove and realize that Hungry Girl and Barbecue had tried to come over, but they were getting chased off by Detail’s boy!
Getting photos was rather difficult, though, as the sun was shining into our living room, and there was a lot of reflection of us in the way. I did manage to crop most of that out of this image I got with my phone.
You can actually still see my husband, and part of the book he’s reading, in the reflections. :-D
Later on, something big went flying by, and I had to check it out. That’s when I saw a huge raven, over by our compost pile. It didn’t stay anywhere for long, so the best I was able to get was this photo of it in one of the maples. while leaning up against the window as far as I could!
I remember, in my younger days, reading about ravens and descriptions of them. We never had them around, so that’s all I had to go by. It seemed to me that they were kinda like big crows.
Then I moved to Victoria, BC, and saw a raven for the first time. I couldn’t believe how massive these things get! And that noise they’d make. Yikes!
Usually, the biggest birds we see are blue jays, crows, magpies and grouse, with the grouse being the biggest. Red tail hawks are not much bigger than crows. Once in a rare while, I’ve seen owls and eagles.
This raven? The only birds I’ve seen locally that are bigger than this was a great horned owl and a bald eagle, many years ago. This thing was massive, even compared to the ravens I saw on the West Coast! They are not at all common around here.
Early this evening, we got visited again by Hungry Girl and Barbecue, for a little while. I’m glad they came back, because they sure didn’t get a chance at the feed this morning!
Barbecue looks like he’s giving me the stink eye!
Or should I say “she.” No sign of antler nubs!
The Re-Farmer
