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Post by binnylou on Nov 23, 2019 16:37:27 GMT -5
It wasn't deer this time. Yesterday's visitors were the neighbor's beautiful Red Angus cattle. Eight full grown ones and a couple of calves.
This was just about sundown and that's a bad time to be chasing cattle. Before the chase began, one of the heifers was checking out our bird feeder, picking out the corn that had been kicked out of the feeder. Hubby was outside to fill the feeder when he first noticed the cattle. The one by the feeder was wanting to be his buddy when he was getting newly purchased birdseed from the back of the truck. The owner obviously spends time handling them or she wouldn't have come in so close to him. They all spent the night in their pasture.
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Post by binnylou on Dec 8, 2019 12:01:52 GMT -5
Yesterday was the big deer hunt. A group of hunters...guys, young teens, and a gal or two...enough to fill two pickup trucks...all dressed in orange and carrying big guns. They start in an area north of us...driving the deer in our direction, through the timber that usually provides protection. Shooters are stationed to our south and east. We must have had at least fifteen deer come through our yard, in groups of two or three. Hubby yelled at one of the hunters, telling him no shooting on our property. After that, the hunters mostly stayed just beyond our property line.
I recognize the fact that the deer numbers needs to be reduced. I just hate the way it is done. When visiting with a cousin who grew up on a farm not far from my hometown, she tells me that deer were never a problem when she was a kid. Now, the deer population is such that we avoid driving certain roads at dusk or later because of our chances of an encounter with a deer.
Lack of natural predators probably plays a big part in the problem. Hunters want to increase pheasant population, so they reduce the coyote population. There is deer “wasting disease” in a county to our south. I would expect that to play a part in reducing the numbers. How does a hunter know if the deer he killed might be infected?
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Post by Mumsey on Dec 14, 2019 6:02:56 GMT -5
binnylou, I don't know the cost for CWD testing, but the CDC recommends testing of harvested deer if they are from an area where infected deer have been confirmed. The signs of illness may not show up for 3 years in infected deer. You probably know all this, but here's an interesting link for anyone interested. naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/wildlife/cwd
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Dec 14, 2019 13:30:34 GMT -5
binnylou , as I read of your four legged visitors, I'm reminded how different the environments are in which the posters here live. The one time when a doe was in my yard was an extraordinary moment; I'd never seen a doe that close before other than in a zoo. And even though they can be a nuisance, racoons are also a special sight.
As I listen to the roar of cars down the street during rush hours, I think how peaceful it must be to live far away "from the madding" drivers, and to have so many animal and probably avian visitors.
I think there's a new "friend" here in a black squirrel; he/she romps around in the back yard, probably rearranging bulbs or whatever it can find, but either this or another has become emboldened and comes right up to the front porch. I saw it again this week, for the 3rd or 4th time.
It's a mystery to me why it gets so close; there's nothing edible that I know of, and that's what concerns me. I'm wondering if it's nesting somewhere, perhaps in the large arborvitae in the front yard.
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Post by Wheelgarden on Dec 18, 2019 21:29:36 GMT -5
SpringRain🕊️ , we have grey squirrels who come very close, ignoring me and my dog ("go ahead...catch me --- if you can"), and at times curling up like a cat nearby to watch us go about. They sometimes run down a tree branch next to the house, and stare inside the window. I stare back. It's transcendental. Wildlife is fascinating.
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Post by Mumsey on Dec 19, 2019 5:06:34 GMT -5
Wheelgarden, We have red squirrels here. Sis has black squirrels 100 miles away from us. She has one that scampers the roof and looks in the window at her. They are mischievous creatures! It's interesting to read about them, apparently the red squirrel populations are declining. The blacks are gaining due to a mutant gene.
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Post by binnylou on Dec 19, 2019 10:11:38 GMT -5
We have red squirrels, but 10 miles away, there are pockets of the black squirrels.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Dec 19, 2019 12:10:25 GMT -5
Wheelgarden , good reminder that wildlife is in fact fascinating. I tend to think that about animals in the wild, but not so much about the ones around my house, although I do enjoy seeing them and love watching the magnificent black cat that visits my back yard periodically. She used to come over almost daily, casually heading toward the center path, like someone shopping for bargains. Eventually she'd turn off and disappear in the foliage. I too have seen a progression of squirrels, red ones years ago, then a gradual introduction of magnificent grey squirrels with beautiful fur, more lustrous than those of the blacks or reds. Now there are less of any squirrels, but the black ones still flitter around, and an occasional red squirrel appears. Haven't seen any signs of raccoons lately either. The worst though are the two legged kind zooming through up and down the street, throwing trash and especially the little alcohol bottles out onto residents' lawns.
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Post by Wheelgarden on Dec 19, 2019 21:19:10 GMT -5
Was watching the beds rest, and then what did I see? Fresh cloven deer tracks, just to aggravate me. Those hooves sunk deep in those enriched, built-up beds. I'm itchin' for Spring. The deer are, too. And it's not even Winter yet. "patience..."
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Dec 19, 2019 22:19:20 GMT -5
Wheelgarden , clever adaptation of the Night Before Christmas! I haven't heard or read that poem in sooo long....
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Dec 20, 2019 16:49:47 GMT -5
Was watching the beds rest, and then what did I see? Fresh cloven deer tracks, just to aggravate me. Those hooves sunk deep in those enriched, built-up beds. I'm itchin' for Spring. The deer are, too. And it's not even Winter yet. "I've been thinking of your adaptation and came up with a few lines of my own, but this is as far as I got: T’was the night before Solstice, and the garden was clear, Not even Binny’s deer were anywhere near, The tools were stored in the shed or the barn, In hopes …??? (trying to think of something about all the harvested crops. Any suggestions? Is this worth a separate thread to create a Night before Solstice thread?
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Post by Wheelgarden on Dec 20, 2019 19:15:43 GMT -5
I'll give it a try...
...In hopes that they'd last, next year and beyond. The harvest was all stored for good winter fare, We were well set up in our cold weather lair.
...
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Dec 20, 2019 22:28:40 GMT -5
Wheelgarden , I like that! Makes me think of being cozy over the winter and well supplied with food from the garden.
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Post by binnylou on Jul 26, 2020 11:31:52 GMT -5
I stepped out on to the deck earlier this morning, and I saw a young deer (larger fawn)out south of the house. Then I realize that it’s the twins, but I don’t see mama in the area. One fawn crouches down, almost like a puppy might do, and heads toward the other fawn. They frolic and chase each other...I guess that’s self training for survival. Then they changed their interest to our young bald cypress trees. So..I yelled at them and they went on their merry way. I do hope the garden electric fence is still hot.
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Post by Wheelgarden on Jul 26, 2020 16:15:05 GMT -5
The deer have been roaming around here too, does and fawns, and of course there's always a buck or two nearby. Rafters of turkeys out shopping for produce, too.
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