Deer Family Outing - with Fawn!

Last evening four deer and a fawn came out of the back woods and walked around. It was so exciting to see the fawn! We see these deer all of the time and thought one probably has a fawn. This one looks like it is only days old. Its fur under the spots is much darker than the adults'. It was chasing Uncle Buck, the young buck that hangs around (see previous post). The pictures aren't that good because it was getting dark and I had to take the pictures through the screen window. They went down into the pasture and played around but my camera battery went dead.

Sunflowers

I planted sunflowers inside the garden fence this year because otherwise the deer eat them up! I love sunflowers and enjoy looking at them, even if they have to be caged!

Little Buck

We have two small bucks that come to the feeder. One is a "button buck" and the other one is getting pretty nice-sized antlers. Here's a picture of the larger buck. We just hope and pray he doesn't get shot this hunting season since we have watched him "grow up!" He won't get shot on OUR property - at least there had better not be any hunters on our property! We think the doe in the picture is the larger buck's mom.

Turkeys Again

Three, sometimes four, male turkeys have been coming to the bird feeder this summer. Last fall we had 17 turkeys, many of them young, coming to the feeder.

Milkweed and Butterflies

A couple of years ago we were along the Blueridge Parkway and came upon a field with nothing but milkweed growing in it. It was in the fall of the year and I gathered some of the seed pods, brought them home and scattered them. We already had a few on our property but I wanted MORE!! because I learned that the Monarch Butterfly lays its eggs on the milkweed plant. The Monarchs come through here, so I wanted to help them out in their reproduction efforts. Well, I think the seeds I scattered must have taken because each year we see more and more milkweed. (I'm trying to convince my husband that he needs to mow around each milkweed plant that he sees, but he's digging in his heels on that one! Ha!) Today I happened to go by with my camera when there were dozens of butterflies (no Monarchs yet) on the flowers.