Photo 1 & 2 in my yard in Pueblo West
Photo 2 would be a nice photo of a fawn if the chainlink wasn't in the way
Photo 3 & 4 in my mother's yard in Canon City.
Photo 3 she is eating a windfall apple
Photo 4 I'm not sure if she is looking at the water running past the tree, or looking for windfall apples.
Nice photos, pollengarden. We have regularly had deer in our backyard until the neighbors got their boxer dog. I can't see them well now because of the thick growth of the woods in the back, but I always know when they are walking behind the back fence area because the dog runs along there barking like crazy.
Deer are so sweet looking for being able to do so much damage!
My dogs stay inside the Chainlink fence, shown. My Corgi tries very hard to herd the deer on the other side of the fence.
You can tell the deer that were born and raised here from the occasional strays - some spook and leave, some raise their heads and look at the dogs and I, some don't even bother to look, and one fawn last year would actually come over to the fence. She and my Schnauzer would get almost nose-to-nose and wag their tails at each other.
I guess the dogs do some good - although a deer can jump a 6 foot fence, they have never jumped the 4 foot fence into the fenced part of the yard.
Doe munching on my little Pear tree with
Two fawns chasing around her in a big circle.
Pics a little blurry because I was taking them through a window and the fawns were moving fast.
I hope the pear tree survives the deer onslaught. :)
The fawns are loosing their spots and getting their winter coat.
They were in a group of trees and bushes in the front corner of my yard near a fairly busy street, so I didn't want to spoke them. I was taking zoom shots around the corner from the two opposite sides of the house - so there is odd bits of fence, utilities, wall, and neighbors driveway on the edges.
The deer here are Mule Deer, which have big ears but don't have the big tail of Whitetail deer.
I spray the apples and pears with "rotten egg" spray, which works okay as long as I remember to reapply it.
This message was edited Sep 10, 2013 8:23 AM
Thanks for the pics, pollen. Those ears are fantastic. Here we have the White-tail deer. I haven't seen any at all this summer but there has been some noise from a chainsaw so that might have scared them away. A fawn had her babies somewhere near here - twins. They came through together for a long time and then just the fawns. They jumped the fence in the backyard last year and were dining on something. They got spooked and jumped back out. I haven't seen them since.
I have a 4 foot chain link fence - an easy hop for a deer - but they've never jumped it. Of course, since the fruit trees are OUTSIDE the fence, maybe they never had a reason. The fox will jump up on the neighbors 6 foot wooden fence & tightrope walk along the top.
I just had 6 deer go across the yard and into the neighbors...she has dogs, but I do not. They have eaten way too much this past week....even with repellant.
I am going to move the damaged plants into the fenced yard...that is my next garden project...LOL!! And then fill the beds with what they did not bother.
Oh my, evelyn, do you think they are extra hungry because of the drought?
Maybe. They are hungry every year, especially at this time. They like to find gardens with nice soft plants as our native ceanothus and manzanita are rather tough, though they will browse them as well. We have drought most years. It does not usually rain all summer, and the spring was rather dry this year. Some years we get a lot of rain at that time.
I lived out there for a long time, mainly in NorCal. We had similar weather patterns where we were but not many deer. We did enjoy lots of rain during the cooler months and never really suffered a drought or a substantial number of years without adequate rainfall.
What part of Northern CA did you live? Near the coast?
Redding
Same gang, winter coats. We get the most damage during the winter, and more damage year round in dry years. A lot of folks cage plants in the winter because of rabbits. I am just going to have make bigger taller cages for deer.
Oh my. Looks like they're ganging up on you. :/
This pretty boy was taking a rest in my Mother's yard today. My sister says he has been more or less living there. We are worried about him - bucks that big with that nice of antlers usually don't die of old age.
This message was edited Jan 9, 2014 6:50 PM
Beautiful big boy. I can understand why you're worried. I hope he is able to stay around for awhile.
We have loads of deer in our yard every day. They need to somehow get things in balance. I have moved most of my ornamentals and all of my food plant into a garden area surrounded by a fence.
I am replacing some things I dug out with different varietites of juniper, santolina, euphorbia, lavender, rosemary and boxwood. There are already daffodils planted in there.
I have been feeding the birds cracked corn. I wondered how long it would take the deer to find it. On the bright side, I don't need my binoculars to figure out what is at the feeder. I let my Corgi herd them on out of the yard before they broke something.
I used to have a bird feeder, but it attracted wild turkeys...and they really like to make messes in the flower beds..
Do turkeys "scratch" up the ground like a chicken?
YES!!
The local deer are still around.
1 four in this photo, at least 5 more somewhere near by.
2 & 3 One had stuff tangled in its antlers - among other things, the antler off another deer. Good news is that I don't see any velvet on the antlers, so these are last years antlers that they were due to lose anyway.
We've been seeing a doe going and coming to the area of our pond. I went down there today and found these tracks in the mud by the water - the mother doe's track shows in the upper left of the photo.
The fawns she has hidden nearby must be tiny - their footprints aren't much bigger than a quarter!
Those are tiny!!
1 Some of this year's fawns
2 With their mother
3 A pear tree that the deer were stripping the lower branches, so I barricaded it with peach branches, which they don't eat.
4 Recent aggravation - I put in a new little cherry tree. They were picking the leaves off then dropping them, not eating them. I tried a different kind of barrier using fencing laying on the ground. The theory was they would avoid walking on it & it seems to have worked - the leaves an the cherry grew again. The plum on the right doesn't seem to get bothered, but they do eat the extra plums off the ground.
I've lurked a few times (and enjoyed) this thread.
Ozark - those are really little footprints!
Pollengarden - CUTE! CUTE! CUTE!
The deer visit our yard year-'round and it's definitely a juggling act. We love seeing them and they enjoy the corn...and leftover bird seed, but occasionally they also partake in the "buffet" of flowers and greenery growing in my garden. I try to mostly grow deer-resistant plants and spritz regularly with Liquid Fence.
One of our local does has been bringing her baby around on occasion. The first time (see pics below) the fawn was a newborn and all wobbly-legged. A couple of days ago the now, "little-bit-older" fawn was practicing running...back-and-forth, forth-and-back, over-and-over. I didn't get any pics, but it was funny and so cute.
These aren't the clearest shots, but I didn't want to scare them off and took most of the pics through a window.
That is a little one! Too cute! Our twin fawns are older.
I usually spray repellant on my fruit trees, too, but we were having some unusually wet weather. So I had to cobble together some barricades. They are even hungrier in winter.
1 a doe taking a siesta with a fawn "hidden" behind her. Mom is a bit scrawny.
2 closer picture of fawn. You can still see some of the spots.
Adorable pics, pollen!
