Looks like these guests prefer the sunrise timeframe to come and visit; we may have to adjust our feeding times to ensure they get enough.
:)
Wildlife out our window
Critter Pics and… sadness
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.
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…
Nasty Crime Boy and Rolando Moon were checking out the dog – and me! – through the window.
The Re-Farmer
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Hello, Deer
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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Daily Deer
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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Not Nice!
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. :-(
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Deer of the Day
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.
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. :-(
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
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Out Our Window, Today
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.
I should go back over our older photos and see if I can tell if this is that first doe that started visiting us.
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.
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.
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.
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
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Four!!
I knew it was a matter of time before the rest showed up!
Our Lady came back with company today.
This deer was at the far end of the garden, and never came any closer. It is most likely a buck.
We could see the fourth one (pictured above) digging in the snow for forage, beyond the wood pile in the garden, before it moved along the line of shrubs to nibble on some branches. It kept close watch in all directions in the process.
She’s keeping a close eye on me through the window! (You can see part of the window frame on the left, where you can also see a tiny bit of the fourth deer in the top corner.)
These are most likely her twins from last spring.
Mama kept a close eye on us in the window, but she seems to be starting to get used to us being there. As long as we don’t move too quickly, she stays. Of course, deer are skittish and it doesn’t take much to send them running, but she was quicker to come back, and her dash away is not quite as abrupt as it was when she first started to visit.
And to think that was just a few days ago!
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This Morning’s Critter Visitors
We are going to have to rethink how our living room is laid out again. A bit of adjusting to better suit my husband’s needs, and a bit more shifting around. Our big picture window is currently blocked off completely, and I’d like to open it up again.
Then promptly block it again. With a tripod. :-D
We had many chickadees, as usual, and a third squirrel has joined the two we usually see. Then we got this crowd.
I have been able to find our copy of A Field Guide to the Birds of North America, and was able to identify them as chipping sparrows. [correction: these are redpolls, which were not in my book at all. We get chipping sparrows in the summer.]
Then our beautiful lady came to visit again. We first saw her going through the spruce grove some distance away, but she came back for a quick feed.
What a beauty!
We have a pair of blue jays that regularly visit – likely a mated pair. One of them hung out in the spruces for a while.
I just love their colouring. They’ve always been one of my favourite birds.
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We Got Deer!
It took a while – and perhaps it was found when we weren’t there to see – but today, a white tail deer finally showed up at the deer feed we’ve been leaving out.
What a beauty, too!
This is so exciting!!
(photo taken by P., using a Nikon D80 and a 70-300mm Nikkor lens)
The Re-Farmer 