A Fawn in the Fall

Hunting season is here

and I have seen this little fawn

a couple of times now

all by itself.

 

 Looking for food,

 

 

Sniffing for "man in the forest."

 
 

Looking for a place to lay down.

 

Time for a nap.

It snuggled up in a big pile of leaves.

It was really hard to see.

 

 It keeps one eye open

--just in case--

 

 

It heard my husband go outside

and jumped up.

 

It's a long way down into Cedar Canyon.

 

But it decides it has to go.

 

Hope it comes back!

It is so precious and little to be on its own.



One Year Later -- New Head Gear

Last year in September.

I posted a blog about three young deer

that visited our yard in the afternoons.

 

 

Well, they are back.

While last year all we saw were the spots on their backs,

we now know, there are two bucks and one doe.

 

 

The doe poses beautifully, as she did a year ago,

and has such a sweet face and large beautiful ears.

(The two guys seem to have made her their "lookout.")

 

 

The lighting was not the greatest yesterday,

so none of my pictures of the two bucks

turned out very well.

But here are a couple of pictures of each one

with their lovely sister

showing off their new head gear.

 

 

Wishing you a beautiful day

filled with good surprises!

 



Ground Feeders and the "Big Bird"???

Today I was watching some of the

ground feeding birds

outside my sewing room window.

 

 

There are some birds that seem

to prefer to eat what the others

have tossed down from the deck up above.

 

 

Most of the time they get along,

however, this little Snow Bird

seemed to be having a few words

with Mr. Cardinal.

 

Suddenly, I noticed something large

outside the window.

 

 

Not a big bird,

but another creature looking

for a little food.

 

The wind chills were in the -20's today,

and I can see deer down in our valley

trying to find something to eat

under the deep snow cover.

 

 

It was not as big as many of the deer we see.

 

Oh, oh, she saw me!

 

She reluctantly wondered off,

but returned a little later with a couple of friends.

 

 

 

I wonder if she is sleeping down in the valley

where I often see some of them in the mornings?

 

 

Just a couple more portraits.

 

I put out some corn tonight..

Maybe she will come back tomorrow.

 



Deer Passage

Recently, every afternoon around 3:30 pm or so,

three young deer take a stroll through our yard. 

 

 

 

They still have their spots,

but obviously their mom

has sent them off on their own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing them is always a thrill.

 

Their presence, to me, is a

special gift from God.

 

 

The "Deerest" of Them All

Last week during the really hot weather,

my husband called me to come quickly and bring my camera. 

There were two baby deer standing a short ways from our barn.

There was no mamma in sight and

they seemed to be trying to decide where to go.

"Maybe there is something good to eat around here."

"Those hostas we had over there were pretty good."

"Did you hear something?"

Look at the size of those ears..

And I like the way the two siblings are posing exactly alike.

Soon they headed towards the road.

Mama must have taught them to aways look both ways

and sniff the wind in case "man is in the forest."

I had to look twice at this picture.

It looked like a deer with two bodies and one head.

At last the leader of the two

decided it was okay for them to walk down the side of the road.

Accidental Lifers at Eagle Marsh

Most of my birding pictures have been taken right from my own backyard. Since not much new has been happening here,

I wanted to expand my horizons.

Yesterday morning my husband and I went to an area south of

Fort Wayne that has been recently reclaimed as a wetlands area.

It is called Eagle Marsh and the picture below tells some of it's story. 

This valley has in the past been very important in the transportation history of our area.  At one time the Wabash-Erie Canal ran through here and after that the Interurban Railroad.

The first thing you notice as you enter this area

are the beautiful wildflowers

growing in the meadows and along the marsh.

 

The first waterfowl we saw were these ducks.

The sun was so bright, I could hardly see them in my viewfinder.

I thought they were probably just some mallards,

but I'm not sure.  They are kind of dark on the tops of their heads.

What do you think?

We worked our way around the end of one marsh,

and walked on a narrow path with marshes on each side.

We then saw a Great Blue Heron flying over

and watched where he landed.

It was so far away I really could not make out

what I was taking pictures of,

but just tried to point my camera in the right direction.

I did manage to get some Blue Herons

What I didn't see until I got back in our car

and started looking at some of the pictures

was the white spot hiding in the cattails.

Can you imagine my surprise to discover

I had actually taken a picture of a

Great Egret without even knowing it!

(Because I was so far away,

I thought it was just another Blue Heron)

Our attention then shifted to the marsh

on the other side of our pathway.

There was a lot of spashing and birds flying everywhere.

This sweet deer somehow ended up on one of the

drier places in the middle of the marsh.

There were also some Killdeer and other birds

that I couldn't distinguish out there.

Further down towards the end of that marsh

were more Great Blue Heron.

However, one looked much different from the other.

He seemed to have his neck tucked in

and also may have had more plumage.

Maybe he was an older adult.

If you can shed some light on this, let me know.

This one stood more erect and was walking around.

As we headed back between the two marsh areas,

we saw these ducks---at least I thought they were ducks.

After searching the internet for ducks with white bills,

I discovered they were American Coots.

(Another bird I'd never seen before.)

But the biggest surprise was yet to come!

We saw a Blue Heron fly into some water in a channel

next to where we were walking.

I though just maybe I could get a closer picture

or at least one of it in flight as it took off.

Well, the heron did take off,

and I aimed my camera in the direction I thought it was going.

When I got back to the car and checked my pictures,

there was not a heron flying in a single one of them,

but there was this picture below.

(My second big surprise of the day!)

A Belted Kingfisher sitting up above

watching everything.

Our walk back to the car was through a meadow

that was bordered by electric wires.

I really couldn't tell what most of the birds were,

but I just took their pictures.

Here is what I ended up with:

A Redwinged Blackbird

A Couple of Bluebirds

A pair of House Finch

And this sweet Tree Swallow

More Beautiful Wildflowers

And my husband's back

heading back to the car.

(Did I mention I had my camera on full zoom.)

He did really good for his first day of birding.

I think...he can't wait to go back with me.