Well, it finally July and we've had some visitors in the yard. I live in the suburbs of Columbus and we're infested with rabbits and of course deer. Sometimes we'll wake up to 7 of them laying in the backyard and other times we don't see any for weeks.
In early May, I noticed a loan doe a few backyards over standing in some large trees and I thought, "Wow, that looks like a weird deer." I took some really bad pictures of her because she was so far away but through the camera lens I could see her from all angles as she walked or should I say waddled around. She was pregnant. I mean, about to explode pregnant and I'm fairly certain I don't know much about deer gestation but I was fairly certain she wasn't just having one fawn. I was fairly sure there was going to be twins, which I understand deer mostly have but I've never seen a doe in this advanced condition before.
Anyway, fast forward several weeks to early June. My dog, River, started going crazy at the front window, which normally means the UPS man is on our street. I went to the window and looked out and saw what appeared to be the same doe with two little fawns in my neighbors front yard. I'm assuming its the same doe but who really knows? Its not like they all look that different from each other.
So one of the little ones, with his cute big ears and sweet white spots trotted into our small front yard and momma started to follow. Well, my chin dropped when I saw a third fawn following her and they all proceeded to torment my dog by gracefully trotting across the yard not fifteen feet from the window. I grabbed my camera but didn't see them again.... well, that day anyway.
On June 15, I was outside with River when I saw the doe and fawns again. I quickly got the dog inside and grabbed my camera. I took several pictures and some are grainy or slightly blurred but hey I did what I could before they all ran off. And of course, I had just made a new flower bed out back by the big ugly green telephone/utility boxes and planted a bunch of perennials, when the deer came through and nibbled some. I had already seen the evidence of munched plants but what can you do? Its like laying out a buffet to deer and bunnies and then saying "no, don't eat that it's mine." Right. They don't care that you paid money for these things. They just eat the blossom, fill your yard full of deer poo for your dog to eat and move on. Apparently, they think this is a fair trade in the their little mammal minds. Me, not so much.
When the doe got closer, I could see she still has a very large lump on her right side so I'm wondering if her health is okay or not. We can only hope it is. She seems fine and moves okay. I'm sure if I had triplets my right said would be lumpy too.
The other family that's been visiting our yard has been a female mallard duck and her 8 babies. We've watched them follow her around for weeks. Each time we see them they're bigger and none have gone missing. One of the little ducklings was a bit gimpy and he limped badly at first but the limp seemed less pronounced each time the little family came through the yard. They would just walk through eating whatever bugs they could find sometimes going back and forth across the entire yard like a voracious bug eating vacuum.
Its been a few weeks since we saw the group and I'm glad to say all 8 were still following momma around and it looked like they had gotten most of their feathers in and none of them looked gimpy so whatever injury one had it appeared to heal.
We've barely seen any bees and certainly no butterflies. We've seen some cabbage whites and even those seem to be scarce. I even planted millkweed this year and nothing seems to land on them but I'll keep an eye out for caterpillars. Keeping my fingers crossed that July will see some butterflies.
In early May, I noticed a loan doe a few backyards over standing in some large trees and I thought, "Wow, that looks like a weird deer." I took some really bad pictures of her because she was so far away but through the camera lens I could see her from all angles as she walked or should I say waddled around. She was pregnant. I mean, about to explode pregnant and I'm fairly certain I don't know much about deer gestation but I was fairly certain she wasn't just having one fawn. I was fairly sure there was going to be twins, which I understand deer mostly have but I've never seen a doe in this advanced condition before.
Anyway, fast forward several weeks to early June. My dog, River, started going crazy at the front window, which normally means the UPS man is on our street. I went to the window and looked out and saw what appeared to be the same doe with two little fawns in my neighbors front yard. I'm assuming its the same doe but who really knows? Its not like they all look that different from each other.
So one of the little ones, with his cute big ears and sweet white spots trotted into our small front yard and momma started to follow. Well, my chin dropped when I saw a third fawn following her and they all proceeded to torment my dog by gracefully trotting across the yard not fifteen feet from the window. I grabbed my camera but didn't see them again.... well, that day anyway.
On June 15, I was outside with River when I saw the doe and fawns again. I quickly got the dog inside and grabbed my camera. I took several pictures and some are grainy or slightly blurred but hey I did what I could before they all ran off. And of course, I had just made a new flower bed out back by the big ugly green telephone/utility boxes and planted a bunch of perennials, when the deer came through and nibbled some. I had already seen the evidence of munched plants but what can you do? Its like laying out a buffet to deer and bunnies and then saying "no, don't eat that it's mine." Right. They don't care that you paid money for these things. They just eat the blossom, fill your yard full of deer poo for your dog to eat and move on. Apparently, they think this is a fair trade in the their little mammal minds. Me, not so much.
When the doe got closer, I could see she still has a very large lump on her right side so I'm wondering if her health is okay or not. We can only hope it is. She seems fine and moves okay. I'm sure if I had triplets my right said would be lumpy too.
The other family that's been visiting our yard has been a female mallard duck and her 8 babies. We've watched them follow her around for weeks. Each time we see them they're bigger and none have gone missing. One of the little ducklings was a bit gimpy and he limped badly at first but the limp seemed less pronounced each time the little family came through the yard. They would just walk through eating whatever bugs they could find sometimes going back and forth across the entire yard like a voracious bug eating vacuum.
Its been a few weeks since we saw the group and I'm glad to say all 8 were still following momma around and it looked like they had gotten most of their feathers in and none of them looked gimpy so whatever injury one had it appeared to heal.
We've barely seen any bees and certainly no butterflies. We've seen some cabbage whites and even those seem to be scarce. I even planted millkweed this year and nothing seems to land on them but I'll keep an eye out for caterpillars. Keeping my fingers crossed that July will see some butterflies.
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