white tail deer

Critter Pics and… sadness

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I only have a couple of critter pictures for you today, and both were taken with my phone camera.

I took many photos using the digital camera we keep on a tripod by our living room window, but then the camera died.

Then it worked again.

Then it died again.

Then it started doing weird things, like the viewfinder going completely black and the shutter getting stuck open.  Not being able to focus.  Error messages showing up.

My husband is the camera guy, and he opened it up, did some cleaning and checked it out.  The cleaning seemed to have helped a bit, but then the problems all started up again.

It looks like the camera body is on its last legs.  We hadn’t used it for so long, then suddenly we were taking probably an average of 150 photos a day.  It may not have handled that well!

When I uploaded the memory card onto the computer, there were only a few photos, taken later in the day.  Everything I’d taken before then was gone.

Our older daughter has offered to lend us hers; she has a Nikon D80, too.  I’m now paranoid that if I start using her camera, it’ll end up like ours.

Something else to add to the list of expensive things we’ll need to replace.  As much as I love my phone’s camera, it still can’t do as well as a good DSLR and some quality lenses.

*sadness*

We did get one deer visit today.

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This is Barbecue.  Hungry Girl didn’t show up today.  At least not that I saw.

I later saw that my brother’s dog had come out to check on his van, and that may be what has the deer’s attention in this photo.

The van is parked in front of the main entry, outside the kitchen window.  It was when I noticed the dog that I also saw this…

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Nasty Crime Boy and Rolando Moon were checking out the dog – and me! – through the window.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Hello, Deer

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Today was a very busy bird day!  Especially the grosbeaks.  So many of them!

At least until the deer came.  It was continual back and forthing between the birds and the deer!

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While there were plenty of chickadees, as always, and a blue jay also made an appearance, it was the grosbeaks that really stole the show!  There were so many red ones today, too.  Constantly flying in and out of the area.

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Also very busy today were the chipping sparrows.  Just masses of them!  They dash in and out a lot faster than the grosbeaks.

Then, out from the garden, a deer came loping enthusiastically in, and the birds took off.  Much to my surprise, it was the little hungry looking one!  The other one she usually follows came prancing in some time later.

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He did try to chase her off, but amazingly, this time she just shifted to another pile of feed, and they both ate together for quite some time!  A couple of times, she got chased off a bit farther, only to come back again, prancing in quite enthusiastically.

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It was so good to see her getting a decent amount of food, for a change.  And to see her being less skittish. I look forward to seeing her get all sleek and fat, like the other one.  That one clearly has seen no deprivation, this winter!

I wonder if the little one had gotten sick at some point?  Aside from when we had that polar vortex some in, with bitterly cold temperatures, it’s been a light winter, with very little snow to prevent deer from foraging.  There is lots of wild food to be had.

Eventually, he chased her off for good.  Then ran off, himself, later on.  He came back a couple more times throughout the day.

I’m thinking of calling the mean one, Barbecue.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

Daily Deer

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I may not have posted deer photos yesterday, but I did get some!

My older daughter also took advantage of our camera set up and got a few nice shots of a blue jay in the trees.

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The two deer that come together came yesterday, and today.  Yesterday, the one that looks so hungry all the time did get some of the feed, but she’s so skittish, she ran off quickly, and ever got a chance to come back.

I did manage to get a photo of her in mid chew, though.  I love it!

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She looks like she’s making faces at me! :-D

I have noticed that, when they come together, they both go to different food piles and eat together for a while.  However, hungry girl gets startled far more easily, and dashes off a few feet.  She then hangs around, looking everywhere, before she starts making her way back to the feed.  That is when the mean one starts chasing her away. :-(

Today, however, it was a bit different.

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Now that we have a sack of bird seed as well as deer feed, I did things a bit differently, by putting out alternating piles of deer feed and bird seed.

I don’t know if that made the difference, but today, when she got startled off, she actually came back and ate some more, without being chased off.

The other deer started out eating the bird seed.  Considering the birds have been eating their feed for all this time, I figure that’s a fair deal. ;-)

The other possibility is that the other deer was just too distracted to chase off the hungry one.

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As the deer were coming over, this one was very leery of the cat at the bottom of one of the spruce trees.

The cats, on the other hand, don’t seem all that disturbed by the deer. :-D

I didn’t take many photos today, because our movements distract her, and I didn’t want her to run off.  I hope that, for today, at least, she got a full meal!

The Re-Farmer

Busy Out Our Window

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We got quite a bit of action outside our living room window today!

The beauty of digital photography is that you can take lots of pictures and not worry about running out of film, then go through them later to pick the best ones.

The downside is that you can take lots of pictures, and then have to try and choose the best one!  Today, alone, I took about 200 pictures.  Oh, how to choose!

Well, here is a sampling.

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The pine grosbeaks were back.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen them.  I forgot how big they are!  Almost as big as the blue jays.

Speaking of which…

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The blue jays are funny to watch.  They have a definite preference for certain seeds, and are large enough that they can use their beaks to flick through the seeds, flinging them all over, just to find that special one!  They’d eat the others, too, but only after picking out their favorites.

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I got some really good photos of the outside cats that showed up today, like this one of Butterscotch, who is staring at our mama cat in the window.

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Then there was Trüllbus the Crime Eater… also checking out our cats in the window.

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Nasty Crime Boy also made an appearance.

I have a hard time telling Crime Boy and Trüllbus apart when they are not right next to each other. :-D

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Even The Mothman made an appearance today!  It’s been at least a week since I’ve seen her.  Then I realized all over again, what a big frikkin cat she is!

She spooked the deer, too.

Yes, we got deer as well.  Two of them; the nasty one and the one that stays close to him for some reason (see video)

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I picked this photo, not because it was the best one, but because you could see the difference between the two, a bit.  The little one looks thin, and its coat is rougher, compared to the round belly and smooth coat you can see in the other deer in the background.  It’s not as clear in this photo, but you can see her hip and shoulder bones sticking out more prominently, too.

They did eat together for a while, then something spooked the little one.  She went off to the side for a while, but she she tried to come back, the other one chased her off.  She then went into the spruce grove and hung around.  At least she has things to nibble on in there, even if it might not be as good as the feed I’m leaving out.  Still, the poor thing looks quite hungry. :-(

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

Not Nice!

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The pair of deer are here as I write this. This was taken moments ago. The one deer is quite nasty!

The other one is still around. I hope she gets a chance to eat. She looks much scrawnier than the mean one, and rough around the edges. :-(

Deer of the Day

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We got another lone visitor at the feed today.  Not the same one as yesterday, as this one has the dark patch on its chest.

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And it is definitely the aggressive one that usually comes with another deer.  The other deer did show up later on.  The only reason I saw it was because this one suddenly dashed off to chase it away. :-(

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In going through the photos I took today – especially the ones where the deer was eating at the feed closest to the house – I realized that I could see our house reflected in his eyes.

In all my years growing up in this house, while we certainly saw deer, we never had anything that encouraged them to come so close to the house like this.  This is the closest I have ever been to a live, wild deer.  Just a few feet away, with nothing but glass between us.

On the wish list, I would love to build a long, narrow deck on that side of the house, with a ramp on one end.  This way, we could use the actual “front” door, and my husband would have a ramp for his walker, and not have to lift it up and down those two steps at the door that we use now.

I can see us, some day in the future, sitting outside on the deck and having the deer used to our presence enough to come right up to us.

The Re-Farmer

Out Our Window, Today

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I finished off our first bag of deer feed this morning.  I’m glad I picked up a second one, already.

We got a visit from a lone deer this morning.  A different one; it did not have the larger darker patch of fur on its chest.

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I should go back over our older photos and see if I can tell if this is that first doe that started visiting us.

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I just love those eyes, and the long, long eyelashes.

Did you know that white tail deer have horizontal, slot shaped pupils?  Their eyes are so dark, I’ve never really noticed it before.

Of course, we had bird visitors.  I’ve been leaving some piles of feed closer to the house, and that has allowed me to get some better photos.

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For a while, this nuthatch was watching me take photos of it.  How much it could see of me through the reflections, I don’t know, but clearly, it could at least see me moving around.

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It’s a real challenge to get decent photos of the birds.  They just don’t stay still very long!  I’ve got the camera on a tripod with a head that is easily moved around, but it still takes a moment or two to adjust, and by the time I’ve done that, they’re usually gone.  Still, I’ve managed a few good ones. :-)

More deer showed up in the early evening.

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This is the one with the darker patch on its chest that comes with another deer that it drives away from the feed.  The other deer did show up with it, and was chased off by this one here.  Striking with hooves and all. Eventually, the other did make it to the feed, but barely got any at all before it ran off, then this one came back.

Interestingly, as it was coming to the feed and looking around, it kept looking up over the roof.  I wonder if one of the cats was up there?

The Re-Farmer

Getting things done, and more deer

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This morning, we got a phone call from my husband’s doctor, following up on the fax sent from the pharmacy about that prescription refill.  We then headed into town to pick up the prescription (he ended up giving a bunch), since getting the pharmacy to do it might take a couple of days.  At the same time, the prescription dosage error on the other versions of this medication was fixed.  So my husband is all stocked up on painkillers again, which is making life much more bearable for him!

We also got a pair of deer visiting again today.  This time, they seemed less nervous about us in the window.  The deer came together, but kept their distance from each other, trading off eating.  They left, but came back soon after.  Interestingly, one actually started to drive the other off of the feed, with some aggressive posturing and jumping.  Then they went into the spruce trees and hung out there for an hour or more before one came back.  The other stayed in the spruces for a while, then drove the first one away from the food and started eating, while the first on stuck around and seemed to keep watch.

It was interesting behavior to watch.

I was able to get some good photos of them, too.

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In between taking photos, I finally started on clearing that linen closet, wrapping up a stack of mirrors to box up, then removing the plastic shelf liners.  The seeds that we think are mouse poison were only on the top shelf.  I swept most away, but didn’t get to vacuuming the ones stuck in crevices, because I didn’t want the noise to scare the deer.  Meanwhile, my older daughter was a sweetheart and started cleaning the set of decorative plates I inherited from my mother-in-law.  They had hung on her wall for many years, and my in-laws were both heavy smokers at the time, so they had to be washed twice.  Not all the nicotine quite came off, though, so a third washing will be needed to get the last of it off, but they look fabulous now.

Cleaning the hangers is going to be a challenge.  That and the one plate that is a relief of a Rockwell painting.  That one will need a toothbrush to clean it.

That will all wait until later, as my younger daughter decided to make up a double batch of sourdough dinner rolls.  I am looking forward to those!

All in all, a pretty good day.