This Is How I See Deer

It took me a few minutes of fumbling with my phone camera, but I finally got these pictures of the last two deer in a herd of about eight. I wasn't going to bother, but it looked like I had lots of time to get the pictures.

I saw the first couple of deer crossing the road in the distance ahead, so I slowed down the truck and finally stopped so they could cross the road. As I sat there waiting I realized I should probably at least try to get some pictures.

This was actually the second big herd I saw along this road on this trip. This was the first one I had to stop for. When I finally got the camera working I got these last two. Usually, I get nothing, so I never try. But I see so many.

After running alongside the road after they crossed, the deer jumped over the fence and quickly disappeared. Even though I sat there for quite some time this time, the crossing deer usually disappear very quickly. And once they started it was no different this time.

I see so many animals here, but they are usually on these busy highways. This road doesn't look like much in my first picture, but the cars go very fast here and it is a very dangerous place. This is the road my old family farm is on, so I know it well.

The road is curvy and full of hills, so you don't see other cars coming until they are right up on you. Stopping here is not the safest thing to do because the other cars like to drive way too fast here. It's been that way as long as I can remember, even before the road was paved.

For some reason, the animals only come out along the roads around here. I rarely see them anywhere but near these dangerous roads. This is why I don't get many pictures of them. This is not a safe place for animals or humans if you're not careful.

But any opportunity for some good(bad) animal pictures should be taken. So I took this chance. And I was able to share at least a couple of these deer with you. Hopefully, I'll have more chances this year. Now that it's warming up and the chaos of setting up my new business is winding down, maybe I'll begin to post more often again. We'll see.

I'll talk to you later.

Tracking a Christmas Mystery

After finding all of those rabbit tracks in my last post I decided to find some tracks for animals that most people look for. I went to the back of the nature park to a meadow where I knew there would be some good tracks. This is where the deer live, and I knew I could find their tracks here.

All I had to do was go to the part of the meadow that's farthest away from the hiking trail. No humans go here so I knew the deer tracks would be here. It wasn't too hard to find the tracks when I got there. They were all over this part of the meadow.

The first thing I did was take plenty of pictures so I would have a record of the deer tracks. Then I took a very close look at the tracks to see if there were any fresh ones. How recently had these deer been here? There were some older tracks, but there were also some very new ones too.

I must have just missed a whole herd of deer by only a matter of minutes! I knew what I had to do. I was going to follow these fresh tracks to see if I could find the deer. As soon as I began following them I noticed something very strange. There were other tracks.

Somebody else had been over here even though I was the only human who ever really comes out to this part of the meadow. Whoever it was had very big feet and he was here about the same time as the deer.

I continued to follow the tracks and saw that they lead right into the forest. The big footprints went right in after them. I really didn't want to follow them on the same path so I went back to the hiking trail. I was going in the same general direction, but I figured my quest was over.

After I got into the forest I saw some movement far ahead to the right of the path. There looked to be over half a dozen deer purposely moving away from me through the forest. These were the ones that made the tracks I was looking for!

As they turned and cut through the forest in front of me, I excitedly tried to get a few pictures but they were very far away. I got a few bad pictures that showed deer, but it was very hard to see them through the trees. I thought I knew where they were headed but I would have to run to catch up.

I did my best to run through the forest without alerting the deer that I was there. I thought my chances of catching up with them weren't good, but I still had to try. I stayed on the hiking trail, and that may have been my downfall because I never did catch the deer.

When I realized that they were long gone I slowed to a walk and sadly began to make my way back to the front of the park so I could go home. And when I turned the corner to the path that leads to the parking lot I found something amazing!

There he was! The person that was standing in the meadow with the deer! I recognized him by the size of his feet. There's only one person who wears this kind of red suit that I know of, and there he was in front of me! He didn't see me because he was standing there peering through the trees at a black squirrel. I guess he had never seen a black squirrel before because he seemed to be fascinated by it.

I got this one picture right as he saw me standing there. After only a second after turning my way he just vanished as if he was never there! The only thing I was left with was this one picture and a bad Christmas story.

Tune in on Christmas Eve (Sunday) to find out why Santa Claus was really so interested in squirrels. I'll have a special Christmas present for any of you who can find the time to stop by for a visit!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Deer On The Side Of The Road

You wanna know something I really like? Small pictures in my blog posts before some smart person goes and clicks on them to see the bigger versions. My pictures today benefit greatly from this concept.

I took several pictures of this deer through my windshield as I was driving towards it on a country road. It looks like I was very close to the deer, but I was actually very far away. The deer only looked like a speck. I had to use the maximum zoom through a dirty windshield while in motion to get these pictures.

I wouldn't have even bothered, but I see so many deer and I get so few pictures. And the truck was moving very slowly at the time. That's why the deer stopped to look at me. It was wondering what I was doing driving so slowly. You can do that on a forgotten dirt road.

Most of the deer I see are near the busy highway right before it gets dark. That means there's no way to get any pictures. This was very different so I thought it was a rare chance to show everyone that there is indeed deer around here. Now I have absolute proof. Ha! I'll talk to you later.

A Fun Deer Encounter

I haven't been able to get out much to get any new material to post so I decided to use some good older pictures of mine and write a new post about the memory. Maybe I'm a little rusty from not writing in so long, but I'm excited to get back here. And maybe I can get out for some new stuff soon.

I remember how excited I was when I first spotted this big guy at the front of my favorite old nature park. I was just leaving when I spotted him lying there to my right. He didn't have the biggest rack of antlers, but he was a big deer, the biggest I had ever seen up to that point.

I remember telling myself to appear calm and move slowly so I wouldn't frighten him away. I was excellent at keeping deer calm back then. Some of them even approached me out of curiosity. They ran from almost anybody else. This one didn't mind me at all. I got lots of pictures.

After my initial bunch of pictures I decided to move on and give the big boy some peace. As I moved up the trail I looked back and noticed that I could get more pictures from a different angle. So I stopped and began to do just that. There was one problem though.

It was right as I was about to take the first of my new pictures that another guy came walking up the trail from where I had come. As soon as the deer saw this new person it jumped right up and prepared to run. See what I mean about other people and deer? It was just mostly about the way I moved back then around wild animals. They never felt threatened by me.

It took no time before the deer lifted its tail in fright and ran off into the thick brush and trees and was never seen again by me. You may notice when the deer was clearly frightened that he never looked my way. He only looked toward the threat. And I was every bit as close as the other person.

My point here isn't to brag that I'm wonderful with animals. It's just to point out that you can put them at ease by adjusting your body language just a bit. I haven't been able to do this for the past few years because I haven't had these types of encounters. But I just know I could do just as well with these country deer too. It'll happen one day. I'll talk to you later.

A Visit With Some Deer Friends

Look what I found on my first trip to my new favorite nature park. Well, it's not exactly my first trip, but it is my first trip there in three years. These three deer were right out front. They were actually the first thing I saw when I stepped onto the nature trail.

I didn't exactly see them like this right away. The second picture was what I saw first. This top picture came later after some examination by me and by the deer.

This is the first encounter with deer in a nature park for me the entire time I've been here in Iowa. I used to see them several times a week when I was in Michigan. I've only seen them here on busy highways running in front of my truck. That happens very often.

So this second picture is how I saw the deer first. I wasn't expecting to see any deer at all, but I was hopeful. I included this deer butt picture because these white tails are what they're known for, which is why they're called White-Tailed Deer.

These deer flash these white tails at each other as a sign of danger. This time I was the danger. They saw me first and ran away, which is why I even saw them. I had to fumble with my camera to get the couple of shots I did. I thought they would be gone before I got anything more. But then came the interesting part.

The deer stopped just beyond that bench that you can see in every picture. They stopped and turned around to watch me. But that's not all they did.

They came back toward me a few steps to see what I was doing there. I can't exactly tell you just how happy this behavior made me feel. Maybe I can. I'll explain why I like this so much.

This curious behavior is the same as the way the city deer from back in Michigan behaved. Those deer would get so curious as to my existence there that I could sometimes coax them to come right up to me. I got so good after awhile that I could make them do practically anything I wanted.

I manipulated the wildlife in the nature parks there that I began to think I could do just about anything. I visited the wild animals every day so they were very used to my presence. Some would even seem happy to see me when I arrived at the parks. I was welcome among them. I miss those days very much. The behavior of these deer makes me think I can have some of that back.

I originally stopped going to this park because it's so very full of hills; steep hills. I'll try to show that to you in a future post. Even when I was in good shape the hills just about killed me every time. But this park has trees. It has wildlife. It has all those things I always loved, even a nice bridge. I'm going to conquer the hills. I have to.

This is going to be a great challenge for me because I've let myself get so out of shape now, but I know I can do it. I'll take it all a little bit at a time. And when I get tired I'll go inside the wonderful nature center at the front of the park. I haven't been inside that building in maybe ten years. It was great back then, and I hope it is now still. I can't wait for future visits to this park. I'll talk to you later.

I Can See Them In The Dark

Welcome to this rare weekend edition of The Everyday Adventurer! I don't know for sure, but I may post more often on the weekend again if this post feels good for me. I said before that my posting would be a little more unpredictable. This is where it starts.

I've been telling you that I have only been seeing deer when it gets dark around here. That hasn't changed. But I decided to do something about it. My new camera has all kinds of capabilities that I haven't tried out, so I thought I'd try a few night shots.

I saw these deer just after the Sun went down, so I wasn't sure what might happen when I took their pictures. I set the camera on the Night Scenery setting and the pictures came out looking as if they were there in the daytime. I was surprised I got anything at all. My last camera would have only gotten a bunch of dark blurs.

This is just a small herd of about four. It's actually kind of typical, but I also see them much larger. Much of the time there are several groups like this scattered around the same field. It was still a little early, so these four were alone. I wish I would have thought to take some closer shots, but the deer ran away too soon when they saw me.

I have a little more time on my hands so I hope to be able to post more often again. I've had a little trouble getting some pictures because the innards of my trucks side window broke because of the cold weather. Now the window is stuck shut. I have to take it in and get it fixed now. They're going to keep it for about a week.

I liked rolling down the window and taking some pictures right from the truck. Now I have to get out to do it. Animals that seem okay with a noisy automobile coming near them don't really like it when I get out to try to get pictures. These deer were no exception. Getting out of the truck can be good too though. I need the exercise. I'll talk to you later.

I've Been Seeing Deer

I keep finding myself away from this blog for too long. I haven't really been able to get any pictures for awhile because I've been away during all the daylight hours. So I haven't had anything to post. By the time I get home I've been too tired to get on here so I just had to put things on hold until I got time to do things.

Now I'm finally getting some time back to start doing this again but I don't have any pictures yet. My solution to that is I'll use some old pictures for this post. I'll have some more new pictures in a few days. It's good to have the time to do all of this again.

On my way home every night I've been seeing deer in the fields for miles and miles. It's not odd for me to see about fifty deer in one night. That's really fascinating, but that's where a little problem begins. The deer come out right at the time it gets dark and I'm only there when it's getting dark. That makes it impossible to get pictures.

My solution to this is to use these old pictures for this post. I think this was the biggest herd of deer I saw about four or five years ago. There were about six deer. The herds I've been seeing now can reach about a dozen sometimes. It's really amazing. I only wish they'd come out in the daytime. I guess that'd make all the hunters happy too.

It's not only deer that I've been seeing when it's too dark. Just yesterday I went past a place where I saw several trees that were just full of turkey vultures. The light was a little better at the time but I only had my phone camera with me. That would have never worked out well. I thought the turkey vultures were elsewhere this time of year. It's possible I was seeing something else.

I'm going to spend the next couple of days catching up on my blog reading. I usually do that before I write a post, but I wanted to finally get this one out. I'll hopefully see some of you here in the comments section or I'll be reading your blogs. Until then, I'll talk to you later.

Mother Deer And Child

I'm back again with another thrilling episode of The Everyday Adventurer! The white-tailed deer seem to be on the move right now. It seems like everywhere I go I see them now. this is the third park in a row that I've not only seen them, but had a very close encounter with them.

It all started when I was coming towards the back end of the nature park where the forest ends and the two trails cross. I looked over to the other trail past the trees and I saw some movement. It was a small deer! I noticed that it was looking at me as well, and we seemed to be moving in the same direction.

The trees were blocking my view so I kept on moving to the trail crossing, and so did the deer. I stopped short so I wouldn't scare the animal too much, but I was still close enough to see it. I then noticed that there were two of them. They were both small, but one was an adult and the other a child.

Right at the crossing the trails split again. One direction goes to the meadow, and the other to the lake. The deer were going to the meadow, and until I saw the deer I was going to the lake. But that was all changed now. I followed the deer out to the meadow using my amazing deer stalking skills. Really! I'm not bragging.

The two deer began to run because I got just a bit too close for comfort, but I corrected myself and hid behind a few small trees. It worked perfectly and this time I came out just a bit more slowly. They saw me there, but my slow movement and slouchy demeanor told them I was no threat.

Now I was able to begin taking a few better pictures than the ones I'm not showing you! And yes, I was as close to these deer as the pictures indicate. They were a bit wary of me, but they continued to eat the tops of of all these plants. I was okay to them as long as I didn't come much closer.

You can see in all of the photos that the mother mostly made sure she was closer to me than the little one. It wasn't like that all the time. The young one would sometimes come back towards me to check me out, but not for long.

The one good thing about this small meadow is the tall grass. In most places it's taller than these two deer. You can see that in the first picture. I didn't like the lighting I was getting from where I began, so I went to the other side of the meadow and moved around to the other side of the deer. now the Sun was at my back.

When I got back over to them the two little deer were very surprised to see me. The mother looked straight at me, but the little one isn't quite as skilled yet. They were a little more nervous this time, so I decided just to move on. They were eating, and I wanted them to be at peace for as long as possible.

But wait, there's more! I got video of this encounter! But can you guess where it is? Yup, it's over at Nature Center Magazine serving as Cool Nature Video for this week. It's very much worth a look. Don't worry, it's a short video and you'll really like it. Plus you'll get to see the little deer eating the tops off of these plants. Fun fun fun.


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Deer Caught Drinkin'

It seems the deer are on the move this time of year. I found this one standing next to a small creek not to far from the pond I featured here last week. The pond actually empties into this creek. The deer was obviously trying to get a drink of water when I happened by.

As soon as we saw each other we both froze in our respective spots. I, of course, pointed my camera at this wary beast. But I didn't take any pictures. ...Wait! How can that be? Aren't these things that you see in this post indeed pictures? Well, yes and no.

What I took was a video of this deer, and these are screen shots from the video. This time I remembered to get the video, but I forgot to get the pictures. And by the time I remembered them it was time for me to move on.


So now we have another episode of Rat TV, and you don't even have to go to Nature Center Magazine to watch it. You'll notice that there's some noise in the background of the video. That is the sound of the distant freeway. There are plenty of nature sounds when you're there, but on the video the freeway sounds seem to dominate all.

As I said in a previous post, I left this place before the deer did. I left the poor creature in peace so he could get his drink of water without worrying that I might be a predator ready to tear out his throat. In fact, I might shoot him, but only with my camera.

While I write this, Blogger has been doing some work on the draft version of the dashboard and all its parts. I'm hoping they're improving things, because they took away one feature I really liked, and there are a few new bugs that have been introduced. I'll be checking things out as soon as I'm done here. Let's hope things are more good than bad.

See ya next time.


Nature Center Magazine - Come over and give us a big nature hug! The Green Man has a strange look on his face.

Two Fawns Walked Up To Me

I just had a major encounter with two baby deer and I got the best part of it on video! I'll tell you the story from the beginning, and then tell you about the video.

I haven't been going very far this year because of last year's car accident. It just has made things a little bit harder for me. Because of this, I got to thinking that I hadn't been to Heritage Park, one of my old favorites, this year. It's not very far, so I decided to get into my truck and go.

There are usually a lot of people at Heritage Park, so I am always of a mind that there are no animals at this place. But I usually see quite a bit every time I go there. Even so, I wasn't expecting much except to walk this place I have liked so much.

I was on the main trail when I found myself free of any people. But when I looked into the distance in front of me, I saw something odd. It was hard to see, but it appeared to be a deer looking back at me. It seemed strange that it wasn't running away, but I've seen deer on this trail many times before.

I zoomed my camera in to get a better look, and, sure enough, it was not only a deer, it was a little fawn. I noticed that it was eating the leaves off the trees, so I didn't want to disturb it, But I had to walk that way, so I took pictures as I moved forward.

I fully expected this baby to run as I got closer, but nothing of the sort happened. In fact, this little fawn was now joined by a second, and they were looking right at me. Then as I moved towards them they began to come towards me too!

This development began to remind me of an encounter with raccoons I hada few years ago. Many of you might remember that one, but I'll give links for you newer readers who would like to read a hilarious story about how I was chased at high speed by raccoons for about a third of a mile.

Here are links to this three part raccoon story:

1. Raccoons
2. Surrounded By Raccoons
3. Chased By Raccoons

Well anyway, when these two little deer began to come forward I stopped in my tracks. I wanted to get as many pictures of this as I could. You're looking at the best right here. The two deer would come forward, then they would stop for a nibble on the leaves. Then they would come forward some more.

I was wondering why they weren't frightened of me. I knew these two were wild, but they were also babies. I also wondered where the mother was. I didn't want her angry with me if she found out how close her babies had gotten to me.

This is a big park, so I'm guessing that she just gave them a little freedom, and they were pushing that freedom a little too much. Humans are mostly safe for them here, but it's not wise for them to become too tame. I also didn't want to disturb these cute little creatures too much, but my destination was past the spot where they stood.

So now we get to this last picture. These babies were now very close to me. I had zoomed my camera out al the way, so they were actually even closer than the picture shows. This very scene is the exact spot where the video starts. And what happens in the video?

Well, as one of them walked right over to me, I watched them for a few seconds and then decided I just had to get past them. I kept the camera pointed at them the whole time. Finally, the closest fawn got spooked by my sudden movement, and decided to run. The video makes it look as if I moved closer, but I was just moving around the poor little thing. The second fawn saw its sibling running, so it decided it was time to follow, but at a more leisurely pace.

And now you want to see the video, right? Here's the trick. The video is over at Nature Center Magazine, featured as the Cool Nature Video for this week. The video is the best part of this whole story. It shows you just how very close I got to these two little deer, so I urge you to go over and watch it.


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On The Deer Trail

It has been awhile since I've visited my old favorite place, Woodland Hills Nature Park. I love going back there because it's not very far from home, and it is a nice and quiet place to hike. Most people don't like this place because they can't take their animals, and it is more nature than park.

There aren't usually many animals to see at this place unless you know what you're doing. Almost everyone stays on the main paths, which are still kind of rough compared to most normal walking parks. But I look for the out of the way places. I look to explore the trails where no other humans go. I look for the deer trails.

Deer make their own trails that sometimes criss-cross the human trails. I immediately upon arriving on the human trail decided to move to the first deer trail I saw. And around the first bend I encountered exactly what I was looking for. This white-tailed deer was staring back at me as if it couldn't believe I was really there.

I made sure I chose the right body language to keep it there long enough to get several pictures to share with you. But then I had an even better idea. I should get a little bit of video. I haven't had an episode of Rat TV in a very long time.

The problem with the video is that the deer wanted to keep standing there staring at me. So I had to slightly shift the way I appeared to her so that she would decide it wasn't such a good idea to be there anymore. I did it because I knew you would want a little bit of an action video.  Of course I didn't want to scare her too much though. Let's watch the video.


The sounds you hear in the video are the freeway that is not too far from this park. The trees muffle most of that noise, but sometimes, like in a video, it can sound very loud. The animals are used to it by now though. And this park is a good enough size that they can hide from most humans pretty well.

I'm not going to share any blogging tips this time. As I  write this, I'm not sure if anyone cares about them yet. I'll still put them out there when I think of something cool. But nature is cool too. And I just went on this trip that I am extremely excited about. This deer wasn't the only thing I found. See ya!


Nature Center Magazine - Your starting place for nature!

After The Rain

It's been raining here almost nonstop for the entire week. I said almost. It actually did stop a few times for very short times. One of those times I hurried over to the nature park because I knew what would be there waiting for me. The animals.

right after a rainstorm is the best time to see wild animals. This is when they come out to either travel or enjoy the sunny weather. And so as soon as I got to the nature park there was this white-tailed deer walking right at the tree line. I was only a little surprised.

I knew there would be animals, but I didn't know there would be a deer. And I didn't know he, yes it's a he, would be there right as I got out of my truck. I was able to use all of my techniques for getting close to a wild animal to get very close and to follow him for quite some distance. I got a total of 108 pictures of him, but I'll share these three.

Just to change the subject for a few sentences, I got my memory test back from the neurologist, and it's not too good. As I expected, the test shows that my memory is terrible now. there were other parts of the test that had to do with dexterity and some other brain things. I did fine on those, but not the memory part.

While that is bad, at least I now know that I haven't been imagining my messed up memory and headaches. Now I just need to find out if anything can be done about it or if I'm stuck this way. I still have trouble remembering things from one day to the next. Oh well. Back to the deer!

As you can see by the last picture, I was able to get pretty close to this guy. He only decided he was done with me when I got bored as well. Most of the time I can get the animals to be as curious of me as I am of them. I've had deer walk right up to me. One once even came to me for protection against two women who were watching it.

But see how the tail of the deer is up in the last picture? That's what deer do when they are getting ready to run. He didn't think I was so cool anymore. I stepped out in the open a little too much and let my body language become a little aggressive, and he didn't like that. He quickly ran into the forest.

I later heard him rummaging around in another part of the forest. But I haven't seen him since. It was a good day.


Nature Center Magazine - Your starting place for nature!

The Advantage Of Silence

I went to an old favorite nature park to be a little bit more by myself. I thought after a little while that I had maybe picked the wrong time. When I got to the creek two people came noisily up from behind me. This isn't a short walk, and I wondered why they would spoil it by making so much noise.

There are so many things to see for a person who remains silent. I waited about five minutes after the people passed me by, then I continued my slow journey. After about a quarter mile I heard some sounds in the forest to my left. I turned to see four white-tailed deer peering through the brush at me.

The deer were trying to be quiet too, but I was even quieter than them. My silence helped me discover this family of deer. I was able to get a look and a few pictures before they decided to get away from the trail. I am always quiet while out in the forest. It gives me an advantage over everyone else.


Nature Center Magazine - Your starting place for nature!

Then A Deer Walked By

Well, would you look what I found! I was out at the edge of the meadow minding my own business taking more pictures of bees when I heard a strange noise on the other side of the meadow. When I looked up from the tall weeds in front of me I saw this deer walking past.

It didn't know I was there because these weeds between us were almost as tall as me. I lifted my camera to take pictures when I remembered that I could also do video. The video was the clear winner because the video quality is almost as good as the pictures anyway, and screenshots are easy to do.

So all of the pictures you see here are from the video below. I did have to fix them slightly to make them a little clearer, but they're still okay. And the pictures are here just in case you either don't want to see the video or you can't. The video is great though.


So we have a new episode of Rat TV! I watched from behind the tall weeds as this deer walked the length of the meadow. It stopped and looked in my direction a few times, but it was having trouble seeing me where I was standing. It knew there was something there, but it didn't quite know what. You can see the fear and confusion in its face as it walks past.

When I had to walk a little ways to catch up I lost the deer for a few seconds. The weeds were just too tall to see it in some places. I was also making a little too much noise because there were a few dead leaves on the ground that were unavoidable. The deer heard me, but it couldn't see me.

The deer was looking right at me when I found it again. I was still well hidden, but it knew I was there. The deer was reasonably sure that I wouldn't be a threat because the tall weeds were like a barrier between us, so it never moved any quicker than a walk. I then watched as it walked into the forest and was gone.

If you have ever seen deer very much, you can see a bit of worry in her face here. She was trying to keep an eye on me but still get where she was going. She couldn't resist looking over at me a few times to try to see where I was.

She knew right where she was going though. The forest she entered is where her and a few others live. They have a good hiding place in there on the other side of the treeline. This meadow is their home, and I find them here very often.

I threw in this last picture as a bonus. If you look closely you can see that her tongue is out. She is licking her lips in nervousness. She knows that she might be in danger, but she has to make it all the way home. I did my best not to scare her, but she was wise to think any other big creature was a threat.

Watch the way she flicks her tail in the video after every time she looks at me. You'll see it just after she turns away. That is a sign of her fear. She knows I am there, but she is trying to keep from panicking. I've had all sorts of reactions from deer, from a panicky run to aggression, and everything in between. I've even had a few try to be my friends. This was just another average, but fun encounter with a white-tailed deer.


Nature Center Magazine - It's time for another Nature Site Of The Week. This week's site is very special to me, WiseAcre Gardens. WiseAcre was my very first friend here in the blogging world. He came over and helped me out when I didn't know what to do yet. I have always been very grateful to him for that. And he has one of the most entertaining blogs I have ever seen. His blog is one you will definitely want to see.

Wayward Babies

I found quite a surprise when I got close to home recently. There were two baby deer out there in the grass having a good time playing and eating. They had obviously gotten away from their mother because she was nowhere in sight.

These little fawns must have been only a few months old because they were very small. In fact, they were not even old enough to have time to develop a healthy fear of humans. They had come right up close to the small road that runs along this place. Luckily the speed limit is little more than jogging speed.

I was able to watch them having fun right from my truck. They didn't mind at all that I was there. They did keep watch, but it wasn't really enough. I think they watched out more for their mother, knowing they had disobeyed orders and gone off by themselves to the human area. Hopefully she gave them a good lesson when she caught up with those little rascals.


Since they were out there for so long I had a good chance to get as much footage as I wanted. I was even able to get some video of these very small fawns. So my newest episode of Rat TV features these two fawns looking very hungry, getting their fill of grass. This one can be viewed in HD.

This is actually one of the first pictures of them. They were still running around enjoying their freedom in this wide open area. I'm glad they at least knew enough not to come out into the area that is full of human structures and vehicles. They seemed content to stay on the grass running and playing.

After their good romp they began to get hungry. They soon started eating grass as if it was going out of style. Every few seconds one of them would look up towards the forest as if they expected something. I assume that was their mother they were watching for. I went back a little while later and they were gone.

I'm assuming the mother came and found them. Hopefully she gave them a good talking to. This was not a wise thing for the babies to do, but they did get a good sized audience of humans who all thought they were adorable.

It's good to be so young and carefree. Isn't that what we all want? I hope these two wayward babies have a long and happy life, wherever they are.


Nature Center Magazine - Do any of you live in Indiana? Have you been to Indiana? Maybe you want to visit. Copas will show you the way to all the nature Indiana has to offer.

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!