A Winter Visitor

This guy stopped by yesterday to steal seed from the bird feeder and grab a handout of horse apples. He is a regular and a member of our core backyard herd. His antlers make me laugh with their single points.

The chipmunk is tucked underground but the squirrels are still bouncing around and being extra squirrely in the snow. Our cat is loving that they and the birds come so close to the screen door to get sunflower seeds from the feeder. It's such a simple thing, but I love this little nature show that is playing out in our backyard.

Fall

My daughter was explaining "Fall" to me this weekend. "The leaves fall and so it's Fall and we have to hurry up so we don't miss it."
She's very excited to rake and make leaf piles. And indeed the leaves have started to fall suddenly.

The long grass under the cedar trees has turned golden brown and the deer have moved in from the back woods. Now they are spending their days resting together in the grass. They chose their spots, sometimes shifting configurations a few times, before settling in. It's almost like a scene from a safari, all these elegant heads and long ears sticking up in the grass.

The male deer are suddenly very visible with their antlers fully grown. Jousting playfully or just making a grand entrance. Surprisingly they often show up in pairs or small groups as well.
The twins that were born this summer visited this weekend, their spots are completely gone and the edges of their ears have turned black. Their coats have lost the burnt reddish brown of summer and are now like mocha - a sure sign of fall.

Hopefully this great weather will hold so that they deer can enjoy sunny naps and we can enjoy deer watching and jumping in lots of leaf piles.

The Twins

This weekend we finally got to see the baby deer up close. For a while this spring and early summer it looked as if their were no fawns around. Then we spotted these two being escorted through the back woods at a distance. They were with a group of females so it seemed like it could have been a deer "play date" of sorts.

Turns out they are twins and belong to the most daring of the females in our local herd. Momma deer is always the bravest in the winter when we throw out apples or horse corn during the toughest months. Now when she goes through our yard, she always looks through the back sliding door into our kitchen looking for a treat.

We sacrificed our peaches to her and she brought the little ones over for a few minutes before heading back into the woods for bedtime. No peach pie or cobbler but it was worth it.