deer finding some warmth
 

It's -6F here this am and the deer have found a warm spot.
Compost layer of leafs. :)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643979709.jpg

Life finds a way. Amazing.

I thought they'd bolt when I slid the window open for the pic.
Instead they just watched...too comfortable!

Oh dear .... they've learned that two legged critters aren't a threat. My Lab will chase 'em if I don't intervene, but even that doesn't deter them from being in my yard or the woods behind it these days. Sometimes when chucking a tennis ball back into the woods in the middle of the day, I'll see a deer or two sneak by within 50' of her... she's focused on finding her ball and doesn't seem to care either :D. They are in those woods almost every early morning .... dawgy goes "woof, woof" and then goes about her business....

Years ago, a deer would have smelled us from a few hundred yards away and a person would never, EVER even see one here.

Very cool :)!

When we walk through our woods in winter we'll typically spot several "deer beds," usually under hemlock trees - where the snow has been partially melted to a hardened crust. We had a very cold January, with many nights in the -20f range (and its gotten as low as -37f here in the past)...and I sometimes wonder how these critters can survive this (a few actually don't).

While the deer do act as vectors for the spread of Lyme disease, I still make it a point to leave lots of "drops" (fallen apples) on the ground to help these deer get by in winter...and on some really cold nights, I'll raise my binoculars and look under those trees - and there they are, pawing through the snow in the moonlight. Pretty magical for me to see this...but still very hard on them!

Many people misunderstand deer.

That are actually the spawn of the devil himself.

I thought feral hogs held that title. I don't mind the deer at the "Armadillo Ranch" but would not miss the hogs if they all disappeared.

Must be a great morning for wildlife. Just after the sun's rays shone on the deer, they left. 5 minutes later, this hawk was in the same tree 'that the deer were under':)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643984942.jpg

Huh.

I did not know deer could climb trees. More evidence of their evility.

Way back when my daughter was 7ish we were on our way up to the lake to go fishing. She said she "really likes deer, they are pretty and taste good too".

Steve are you sure that's not a grouse? Just its shape and the fact that it appears to have hopped into a thicket of branches...with no clear flight path (which hawks need). But maybe the compressed (telephoto) perspective is throwing me off here.

^^^ I couldn't get a good side view to show its beak...but it sure looks like a hawks.
I took the pic with my phone on the eyepiece of my spotting scope. With tripod legs on carpet..it was almost impossible to even get the bird in the screen.
It's about 20 ft up and that tree overlooks a down-sloped field.

I just did an image search for ruffled grouse and I didn't see any that had a mostly white breast. This one has brown flecks in the breast, otherwise white.
The rest of the bird is brown. I don't know.
It's been there for over an hour now.

I just read somewhere that in Europe, they are using compost piles for hydrothermal heating systems . Seems like a really cool idea .
I just recently started composting , and am always amazed at how much heat is stored inside that pile

Four-legged locusts.

We usually call them 'rats with antlers'

Around here, the mountain lions call them food. My wife woke me up a couple of months ago asking me if I heard the "loud crying sound." In the following days, local social media reported a mountain lion kill of a deer near where we live. It was quite the subject of discussion. A local store owner has a metal sculpture of a mtn. lion on the front of his building. For Christmas decoration, he put one of those lit up deer in the mouth of the mountain lion. That drew protests from all around.

My flaky neighbor used to get immense joy out of feeding the abominable beasts. Now that she discovered gardening, her joy is lost.

I've got an agreement with them.
They can sleep on my warm compost pile anytime....as long as they don't decide to jump across my road in front of my car. SmileWavy

Cats warming on a Satellite dish

Or are they phoning home?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1644009534.jpg

^^^^ LOL ...the TV reception must be cattywompus!

When we lived in northern VA, 15 minutes from DC, our next door neighbor was going deer hunting in western MD and almost ran into one when leaving our neighborhood. He got out to the boonies and never saw one all day!

^^^ That's true...the best place to bag a deer is on the road. They love to jump out in front of a car.

Why is the dish pointed straight up? Do you live on the equator?
If so...that's a lot of snow for there.

Starlink dishes. There are thousands of tiny satellites up there.

No HBO?

My cat.
Always waiting for the chance at a bird.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1644012052.jpg

A cat-bird feeder

There's nothing a cat likes more than a fresh bird.

Deer- I call them forrest rats they are everywhere around here . Yeah cute to look at but can strip flowers/gardens/trees in nothing flat 😡

Wrong!

There’s nothing cute about the disease-ridden, amazingly stupid vermin.

We're thick with mule deer here in the northern NM mountains - they eat everything and clog the roads. I'm surprised we don't have more poaching (lots of hunters here in our bit of suburbia) and given the damage they do I suspect nobody would hear a 30-06. No need to use a bow.

I've got some good ideas for venison charcuterie...

Customer's kid comes to shop with his front end skrunched ('04 Corolla) from a deer.

I look at it and say, I got some black basecoat and economy clearcoat and we can get a hood at Pull-a-Part, yadda yadda.

When did you hit the deer? 4:00am. You just get off of work? No, just out. Out, like drinking out? No don't drink. I was driving by my girlfriend's house because I have control issues.

^^^ lol...there isn't much good that happens at 4 am on the road. :)

Wow ... how old is this kid? He's got issues for sure.... but not just "control issues" imo. That's some seriously nutzo behavior :(.

Hopefully any firearms are locked up in that kids house . It's bad enough that he's driving ! His face may end up on the post office wall ☹️......... hopefully not .

Look what I found in the front yard today. Deer like to bed there. This one froze. Buzzards stripped him in no time. I'm hoping if I wait a couple of days something will take care of the rest -before the neighbors complain.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1644094128.JPG

Circle of life. Here, the Foxes will be on that like a loose ball.

The last two plus miles of the paved road to the entrance to my farm are wooded and full of deer. There is also a lot of deer chow.

In the 26 year we have live here I have had a few close encounters of the deer kind...no hits (yet) because I drive really cautiously through the woods at specific times of year and the day.

Five times, after I have pulled over on the sweeper before the road enters the woods to let faster cars pass- there is room, the other cars have met Bambi in a not so Walt Disney way.

Oops. The road:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1644099287.jpg

Years ago while driving down the Natchez Trace, as dusk approached, they all came out. I set the cruse control at 50 mph and hovered my foot over the brake. Had to mash it a few time.

Dusk and rut, after snow storms: It is like a Broadway Show.

After pulling into my farm:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1644100120.jpg