Fox and Deer

It's been a while between posts (we're retired) and this is far longer than most. But we had a wonderful few hours watching the interaction between our fox and deer today and wanted to share. It all started with noticing our neighborhood fox cuddled up in our back yard . . .

 . . . and then the herd of deer arrived . . .

 . . . one of them sensed the fox . . .

 . . . who clearly could care less . . .

 . . . and haughtily decided to settle back down for a nap before beginning the evening hunt.

Love

Most of what we do involves love. But normally our clients authorize the photos. This mother didn't. But I don't think she'd mind.

Deer

Not only is the number of deer on the rise but they seem to be getting bigger lately. Still no sign of any with a red nose though.

And then they started to play . . .

Benny's friends

Couldn't get to the camera quickly enough to catch the two fawns nursing (and had the wrong lens mounted) but Benny didn't care. He just enjoys seeing our daily visitors.

Silver lining

Losing one of our favorite trees turned out to have an upside. At least it did for one of our regular visitors . .. patiently waiting for snow and Santa.

Last snow?

It may be the final snow of the season. Or not. But our deer came out to forage anyway. We LOVE our backyard!

Mike

Mike came by to mow the lawn of the lot he's cleared for their new home. But some neighborhood volunteers beat him to it.

Deer, deer, deer . . .

Our local deer population continues to increase, mostly in our yard.

Oh Deer - again

As long as these guys keep wandering through our yard, we'll probably keep posting them. My, what big ears you have!

Oh Deer

We're growing lots of daffodils, ivy, weeds and . . . deer. Why can't they just eat all the weeds?

The Buck Stops Here

With apologies to Harry Truman. Kathy caught this guy while on a recent engagement shoot. We often draw spectators but usually with fewer feet.

Critters

We've noticed a strange family of squirrels in our yard this year with distinctive white tail fur.
Kathy and her friend Carol went out to investigate.
OK. That was a composite photo. They really didn't really go that close to the two deer who came to visit with our aberrant squirrels.

Buck up

Daddy was in our backyard yesterday looking for mom and the kids.

Yes, deer

OK, the nursing fawn a week or so ago was cute. And Momma deer lurking in our fern forest is pretty. But . . .

. . . three deer plus three fawns is starting to stress the food chain here. Anyone have any good venison recipes?

Our newest visitor

We were expecting this visitor but this is the first time we've seen the little newcomer.

The Gardener

We don't trim our own trees . . . the gardener takes care of that.

Prolific II

The pretty flowers have additional upsides. They attract these beautiful - but ravenous - visitors. Plenty to go around kids . . .And here's Momma, about to increase our local population once again.