Trail Cam Update

From the trail camera trap line is a selection of photographs....

Sunset

Gobblers

Sandhill Crane

Doe and Fawn

Woodcock

 

Wiley Coyote

 

Nature is a Harsh Mother

From our walk the other day there was this...

 

The remains of a dead fawn that Blonde Dog found.

You're probably thinking - How do I know it is a fawn?  The size was the give-away.  It was a very small deer.  And if I had the presence of mind I should have included the dog in the pic for scale.

Anyway I figured it was the earlier extended cold snap in January that did it in.  My neighbors concluded that cold wouldn't be a factor until later in the winter when fat reserves are depleted.  They suspect a wounded deer from a hunter or a car collision.

We'll never know for sure as all the other critters that live around here have been dining on it and there's not much left but skin and bones.

Spots Sighting

 Showing-up on the trail cameras lately.....

Scruffy Deer

This animal looks a bit shaggy - perhaps a bit scruffy.  It would be a fawn born earlier last year.  Which would make him a teenager.

Maybe he just got out of bed...

Doe and Fawn

Here's another daily dose of Bambi - mama and her little one.....

 

Momma

A short fifteen second vignette of momma and her little one from the trail cam set on video mode....

Observations From the Natural World

I made a vow when I retired to pay closer attention to what was going on around me in the natural world.  I would have missed this if it wasn't for the vigilant sniffers on the Labs.  From our walk today there was much of nature to observe.  And the highlight was this....

This little one must’ve arrived in the world only within the last hour or so as it was still a wee bit damp around the edges.          

Coincidentally, it is the Dowager Retriever’s birthday today too.         

Fourteen circuits around the sun makes her 103 in hoomin years.....

Full-Circle Life Cycle

WisDOT manages the state Car-Killed Deer (CKD) Program, a system to remove dead whitetail deer from the roadside of state highways in Wisconsin. 

'Roadside disposal' is the only option available in rural areas.  So when I found this little guy on our road yesterday morning I picked it up and moved it to the ditch.  Nature will dispose of it.  

I was struck – however – by the diminutive size of this fawn.  It was the smallest fawn I have ever laid eyes on this late in the year.  My Labs are larger.  Momma must’ve been a late bred doe for sure. 

In any event, a couple of America’s majestic national birds showed-up today to claim it.  

Money Shot

click on image for a closer look

 

As I’ve been saying the trail cameras have been serving-up some really nice digital content lately. I’ve been running my ‘trap line’ of trail cameras for a long time and on rare occasion something shows up that is what us wildlife enthusiasts call a ‘money shot’.  This is one is from June 30th at 6:33 AM.   

 

Early morning low light with a fawn and bird posing for a holy card. I was blissfully snoozing as a $99 Moultrie motion-activated camera did the heavy lifting.      

 

Walt Disney himself couldn’t have staged this with all the help from central casting and his animated studios.   

 

Raising a toast to the unpredictability of our natural world.

 

All photos posted here are the exclusive property of the publisher and are protected by copyright

Fawn Recruitment Looks Good

Today's cuteness overload episode is brought to you by this mama and her fawn.  Trail camera closest to the house - photos taken June 18th.  That little one will have grown considerably by now...

click on images fro a closer look

 

Survival of the Fittest

This past weekend I was puttering about the house and assembling a batch of venison chili for dinner.  For reasons unknown I walked to the living room and looking out the back window spied this,

click on images for a closer look

 

Yup.  A boy fawn looking for all the world dazed and confused.

Middle of the day, broad daylight and walking into the yard without an ounce of precaution or a lick of hesitancy.  The thought occurred to me that he might have been orphaned as no proper whitetail mama would countenance such risky and careless behavior.

I observed him for a few moments as he made his way across the yard and eventually within view of the dogs.

The Labs gave him a well-deserved barking and he skedaddled.  Hopefully, having learned a modicum of self-awareness and caution. 



If not - that little deer doesn't stand a chance against nature.  Because nature can be a tough mother...

Not So Cute

Yesterday I published a gushingly-cute photo of a spotted fawn gamboling within view of a patient trail camera.  In the interest of laying it on thick the cuteness was so treacly thick that it would even have made Walt Disney blush.

This is not cute.

This fawn was dining on my late season garden vegetables - so in my biggest, loudest, very big scary voice I ordered him out.  Vamoose!

This little one's mama has taught him a great disservice - namely garden raids are accompanied by a stiff penalty.

Capital crime around these parts...

Cuteness of the Day

Here you go.

Fawn on a romp.

Your cuteness fix for awhile...

Fawn Development

This photo was taken a couple of weeks age and this fawn has put on enough size to be almost as tall as mom.  It has only a few spots remaining from the natural camouflage it was born-with.  If I had to hazard a guess - by the time  you are reading this that fawn will be spotless.

The deer are already beginning their transition from their ruddy red summer coats to the dull, gray-brown coats of fall and winter.

Scruffy Deer

This animal looks a bit shaggy - perhaps a bit scruffy.  It would be a fawn born earlier last year.  Which would make him a teenager.

Maybe he just got out of bed...

A Prize

If you are a Labrador retriever there is hardly anything more tantalizing than finding something dead or disgusting (or both) in the woods.  Think of it as the prize that people find in the bottom of a box of Cracker Jack.

Both dogs emerged from a thicket with one of these in their mouth.

 click to view

A fore-leg from a dead whitetail fawn.

I have no idea how this deer met its fate and I certainly wasn't about to dive into the thicket in search of additional remains but judging from the size of the bones it was a newborn fawn.  And it had been deceased for quite awhile.

Nature can be a cruel mother.

Generations

In the following two photos are three generations of whitetail deer.

 lick on images to enlarge

Huh?  I see only two deer.  What gives?

The first picture is of a yearling fawn.  The fawn belongs to the mom in the second picture.  If you look carefully the mom is looking a bit rotund and pot-bellied.

That would be a consequence of her advanced state of pregnancy.

The third generation.

The Good Mom

Discretion is the better part of not getting exsanguinated.    

                                     -Jim Butcher

From the new camera location on the western edge of the woods in the northwest corner of the property.

Needless to say this camera captured quite a few deer over the course of two weeks including this one.  A very cautious doe showing great discretion upon discovering this new visitor on her travels.  Ordinarily deer are naturally curious (but timid) about a new encounter with a trail camera.  This deer particularly so - she wasn't having anything to do with it until she was satisfied it was not a threat.

The Moultrie camera recorded many more photos than the fourteen you see posted here - but I'm publishing these to illustrate the restraint this doe manifested as she enters the field of view from stage right.  The time stamp records her timid approach over the course of six long minutes until the source of the caution is revealed in the final seventh minute.  A yearling fawn.  Cautious mother this deer is.  Enjoy the sequence...

Doe and Fawn

In keeping with all of the crap ton of whitetails around here some pictures from a trail camera in a different location.  It's a doe and her fawn.

I'd be willing to bet that this photo taken at an earlier date is this little guy.  A button buck - also known as a nubbin buck.  You can see the antler buds showing prominently on his brow, 

 click on image to enlarge

Fawn

Fawn in the front yard.

Middle of the day.

Mama is probably in the corn field next door or the heavy cover to the west.

This is an older fawn as it has no spots.  An adult deer would not likely make this mistake.  Nevertheless it's unusual as the deer tend to be skittish.  Of course the dogs were in the house...