Wildlife out our window

A New Cat!

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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.

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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.

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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. :-)

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I even had a co-operative redpoll.

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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.

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It was quite a party out there!

The Re-Farmer

Deer Battle video

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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

A Whole Lotta Deer!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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

Battle On!

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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.

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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

Silly Deer!

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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. ;-)

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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.

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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.

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“Hey, cat!  You messed up my picture!  You know what I say to that?

pptthhhhppptthh!!!”

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“So there!”

This next one is something extra special, though.

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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.

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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

 

Deer visitors – and a surprise guest!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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Barbecue looks like he’s giving me the stink eye!

Or should I say “she.”  No sign of antler nubs!

The Re-Farmer

Today’s deer visitors

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I was rather late getting the deer feed out today.  We ran out yesterday, so the plan was to pick up some more after getting our Easter basket blessed in town.  That was scheduled for noon.

My younger daughter came along, so we took advantage of being out together and played Pokemon Go while we were out.  There was a major update, and all kinds of new things in the game, so we had a lot of fun – and saw a lot of other vehicles driving around and parking in certain areas, just like we were!  :-D

Which meant we didn’t actually get home until past 2pm or so.

Rather than get the same feed at the local store we usually do, I decided to try one of the places in town that carried feed.  It’s quite a bit more expensive, though we caught a good sale, so it wasn’t too bad.  We still got only one bag.  The reason for the extra cost became clear, when we saw the list of what was in it.  Our usual feed is mostly sunflower seeds with some grain.  This stuff is mostly grain, plus corn and a couple of other things.

We’ll see how it goes over.  It wouldn’t be worth paying extra, if it turns out the deer don’t like it.

As the feed was being rung up, I noticed the display had it under “pet food.”  I chuckled and commented on it.  The cashier told me, they may was well be pets, considering how much money people are spending to buy feed for them.

Interesting.

On the way out, we saw quite a few deer in that first mile on the made road from our place, and more on the way back.  Deer did come to our place while we were gone, even without fresh feed, and my older daughter got a few photos.  Once my younger daughter and I got home and unloaded the van, I put the new deer feed out.  Some came by when I wasn’t around to take photos, but the mama with no tail and her boy came by again later on, so I was able to get more photos.

I have had a name suggested for the deer with no tail.

Detail.

*groan*

Yeah.  I’m going to run with it.

So here is Detail and her boy!

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Check out those antler nubs!

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They are noticeably bigger than the last time I saw him.  I’m thinking we should be seeing antler tips very soon.

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Detail has such a long face, and a distinctive dark spot above her right eye.  For a while, I wasn’t sure if it was her fur, or something caught in her fur, but it’s definitely a dark patch of fur.

She also obliged me with a tongue shot.

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As did her boy. :-)

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:-D

The Re-Farmer

Our Daily Deer

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I’m told I missed a whole lot of deer visiting when I went into town.  My daughter and I still saw about a dozen or so, in three different groups, just in the first mile along the road from our place.  We saw more, again, on the way back, as well as a couple of other between our little hamlet and the next town.  They were really active today!

Tomorrow, when we come back from blessing the baskets, we’re going to have to get more deer feed.  I put out the last of it today.

No one was able to get photos while we were out, but thankfully, we got more visits later, and I was able to take photos.

First up was Hungry Girl and Barbecue.

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They didn’t stay for long.  Something kept startling them.

After that came the deer with no tail, and her little one!

We’re going to have to come up with a name for her.  “Deer with no tail” is a bit cumbersome.

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I kept trying to get a good shot of the little one’s antler nubs, but they are still so small, that they don’t really show well in the photos.

If you saw the video I posted earlier, you saw Mama and the twins come in, too.

Mama and the twins drove these two off for a while, but they came back soon after.

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They definitely enforce their hierarchy at the feeding station!

I just love this photo of one of the twins.

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Such beautiful eyes!!!

There was a daring squirrel that would come in while the deer were feeding, and both Mama and the twins, and the other pair, were very curious about it today.  The mama with no tail did a bunch of foot stomping at it – which the squirrel ignored – and her boy, as well as one of the twins, got brave enough to approach and try and sniff it.  Which the squirrel also ignored! :-D

I’m so glad we are getting more regular visitors.

The Re-Farmer

Video Experiment

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For a while I thought we weren’t going to see any deer today.  Then we got 5 of them, all at once!  They got very active, with them attacking each other and chasing each other around, before things settled for a while.  It turned out to be Mama and the twins, plus two others I didn’t recognize.

I’ve been able to upload videos directly into posts from my phone, but I am quickly running out of space on my free WordPress account.  We’re not in a position to upgrade, so I’m going to try uploading a video onto YouTube (I just activated a new channel today), and embedding it into this post.  If it works, I will upload other videos that I’ve posted here, then switch the videos in the posts to embedded YouTube files.  I’ll then be able to delete the videos from here on WordPress and free up some space until we can afford to upgrade our plan.

So please do let me know in the comments if it plays properly for you on whatever you use to view this blog!

Many thanks. :-)

The Re-Farmer