Waiting in line

Thought you might enjoy seeing the drink queue at our pond. Of course, not everyone is interested in the water!

Apologies for delayed posting ... It seems Google Blogger had some problems 11-12 May and deleted quite a few posts and comments. This blog was affected. They claim they will restore everything and I've filled out the appropriate maintenance request forms but here it is a week later, and my posts are still among the missing. I'll try to get things back on track for next week. Have a great weekend!

A Deer in the Pond

The seasonal frog pond, as I've come to call it, just outside of the Gallon Jug Farm, in the forest, has proven to be an attraction for more than just frogs. Here a white-tailed buck is feeding early, very early one morning. This is probably the most interesting of 3 sequences I got of white-tailed deer using the pond.

The Deer from Hell

My little dog and I set out for our evening walk and came across this pair, probably the same twins from my previous post. I'm sure mama deer wasn't far and they craned their necks at us as we passed by, not even bothering to go into the bush. My little dog seems always to attract the interest of other animals. For her part, she doesn't like deer and makes very sure that I am between them and her.

That would be because she remembers being attacked by just such a mama deer, with twins, in the very same location some years ago. There we were, minding our own business, walking down the hill as we do every evening. I'd seen the newborn twins ahead --- aww, so cute!-- and given them a minute or so to disappear into the bush before proceeding. The dog appeared to not even notice them. I'd thought the coast was clear.

To our utter amazement, mama deer came barreling out of the bush, bleating furiously. She straddled my small dog and began stomping her feet in an angry tattoo, evidently trying to crush my horrified pup. Shock and awe doesn't even begin to describe my reaction. Hey, we were totally minding our own business!

I rushed to the rescue, somehow snatching the dog from the hooves of doom. Mama deer did not give up. She continued to rush at us, still bleating -- I'd had no idea deer could make sounds like that -- with slobbery foam flying off her muzzle. She'd literally worked herself into a lather. We beat a retreat back up the hill to the safety of the house. She'd back into the bush momentarily, only to come flying out at us wild-eyed with renewed fury. She was the Deer from Hell.

Luckily we were physically unscathed, but emotionally? To this day, our small dog gives deer of any size, a very wide berth.

Oh my Deer

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) aren't anything new to many readers, especially where they've reached nearly plague proportions in some parts of the American suburbs. We've seen them become very common here in Gallon Jug, near the farm and in the pastures. In my backyard too, where these photos were taken. It seems to me that we've had similar population growth of pumas that prey on them near the farm as well.

The twins poked their noses out at me with curiosity while mama deer stalked back and forth in front of them. Perhaps she was waiting to see what I would do or maybe encouraging them to stay hidden or trying to block them from my view. We have a small pond in our yard where she likes to drink. They are regular visitors now that it is so dry.