A Deer And A Flower Bush

I was surprised by a deer that I must have surprised first! Does that sentence sound strange? I guess I need to explain this a bit. This odd incident happened kind of close to home while I was experimenting some more with my camera's macro setting.

I was standing in front of some type of shrub taking pictures of the flowers. I had been standing there for quite some time. I was using macro, super macro, and manual focus to see which one would work best for me. I had been under the mistaken impression that the camera might be somehow flawed as far as these closeup shots went, but I now know that I just need to learn a bit more. It actually works better than my old camera.

But back to what happened! After what seemed like a quiet time at the edge of the forest, I began to hear some rustling in the trees behind the shrub I was looking at. It all began rather quietly. But then as they continued, the rustling sounds picked up in volume and intensity.

Oh, by the way, these are the flowers I was looking at when all of this happened. I think the camera did just fine with the macro setting. These flowers are kind of small, and the camera was able to pick them up clearly enough. I've since fine tuned other settings to make all of my pictures come out better. These macros seem to be mostly a matter of holding the camera at the right distance.

Anyway, back to the incident with the rustling noises. I thought maybe the squirrels were kicking up their heels in that thick little forest area. The squirrels back there don't like me as much as they do in other places, so they stay well-hidden and they'll go to any length to run away.

But then just when I was getting tired of the flowers because of the sounds now becoming very distracting, a deer came bursting out of the forest! It was to my left only a short distance away. It ran across the field I was standing in, and towards the freedom of the trees on the other side.

Two things enabled me to get these pictures of it. The first thing was that I just happened to turn my camera's setting back from macro to normal view. The second was that I'm now experienced enough to have the presence of mind to react quickly enough to start taking the pictures. That's not as easy as some people might think.

When the deer finally got to the edge of that other line of trees, after only a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, it turned and looked at me. It studied me for several seconds before finally turning and disappearing into the trees. I feel bad about probably disturbing its nap, but it was an exciting event for me.

Betty Bunny Update! Today was a whole new day for my favorite little rabbit. I found her outside my door once again. But this time she was looking and acting just fine. She was hooping around with a lot of energy. She even scared a bird that happened to be in her way. A true happy ending to yesterday's story.

Nature Center Magazine - Steve from Out On The Prairie has a fun and very informative story called "What's Bugging You?".  It's about keeping away some of our least favorite wildlife. Go take a look!