Visitor next door

Is that white rump normal?

Keith Newton

As I was looking at it, I was thinking that something wasn’t right, but I’m not familiar with all the creatures out where the Buffalo roam and the antelope play.

Whitetail deer ~~quite normal

Close, but bigger...

John in NM

That is a medium sized bull elk. The rump is quite normal though, regardless of species. Most of the deer around here are mule deer, though I have heard there are a few white tail around.

We also get a lot of wild horses here, though they are less forward than the elk. Jean though this was a horse at first glance, but he's a bit small, then she saw the antlers.

That little tree he's nibbling is a New Mexican locust, they grow like weeds here, but that is good, they are great for stabilizing the soil after a fire.

Great picture !

Re: Visitor next door

William Duffield

I haven't been that close to a bull elk since I was out in Yellowstone. I did come that close to a white tail doe yesterday. She was eating all the leaves off my next door neighbor's squash plants and tomatoes. We're still working on security improvements.

white tailed deer

John K Jordan

>>>... white tail doe ... eating all the leaves off my next door neighbor's squash plants and tomatoes. We're still working on security improvements.

The best security I've found for deer is an electric fence. Put peanut butter on the fence every 4-6'. The deer smell the peanut butter, approach for a taste, then high-tail it for the next county.

We have a lot of deer here.

I took a few video clips of some little ones near my small orchard:

JKJ

Re: Visitor next door

John McGaw

Guess you have me beat. I had frequent moose and an occasional bear in the yard when I lived in Alaska but now it is just raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks and very occasionally a whitetail doe which brings her yearly fawns to the back woods. Used to have a red fox come by every now and then but there have been reports of coyote(s) on the ridge and the fox seems to have disappeared.

Inspirational

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I see chops, roasts, stews, chili .....I applied for a TN elk permit yesterday. We had one on the farm a few years ago. It was collared. Neighbor got the number and it was from KY, maybe on vacation.

Re: Visitors

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

We have a variety in our back yard.

This Big Boy

decided our place was good for chasing does. Neighbor bow-hunter took him the next year, but our herd is fairly stable at 18-20.

Then there's Smokey

who helps with tree pruning.

Wiley cruises through, usually when fawns are brand new, and the red fox family keeps the bunnies under control.

Re: Surrogate Doe and 5 Fawns

William Duffield

I doubt seriously they are all hers.

Pic taken about 5 years ago, in Greenwich Township, in a soybean field. They are more than plentiful around here, but I've only seen one so far this afternoon.

I've seen lots of twins here....

John in NM

But never quintuplets! Yeah, they aren't all hers

With the cows around here I often see the calves hanging out together, usually near a mom or two while the rest are off grazing further away. I wonder if deer do the same?

My dog loves chasing deer - he's 25 lbs and thinks they are huge bunnies since they run from him, a tiny dog. First time he tried chasing a doe with a fawn he got a real surprise - doe charged him

Re: I've seen lots of twins here....

John K Jordan

>>>But never quintuplets! Yeah, they aren't all hers

One of our peahens presented quintuplets today. Oh wait, that's different...

But kind of cute!

JKJ

Re: I've seen lots of twins here....

William Duffield

The hunters around here really, really don't like dogs that have developed a habit of running the fat off of deer.

My son lives in a gated community in rural Virginia. The deer are everywhere, are protected, and afraid of nothing. We've been visiting down there with our greyhounds. The new one is about the same color as the deer, similar physique and not much smaller. We've taken her out for walks, and she just stands there among the herd of deer as they wander past, sampling all the new ornamentals my wife has planted in my son's garden. It's obvious that on many occasions they have mistaken her for just another deer.

New Jersey?

David Weaver

William, are you in New Jersey?

We have a serious deer problem here in the suburbs in Pittsburgh - they are absolute property destroyers, which I don't mind some of when they're not out of control, but in my little neighborhood in the last 10 years, we've gone from about 3 deer to somewhere more like 40. I've netted everything and had to raise the garden fence height to 7 feet.

Knew a guy in jersey years ago in my sister's wedding party who invited me to come hunt with him, but I never did. Hunting laws must be different there than here as he'd gotten almost 20 deer that year.

They're pretty tame here - they don't let you walk up to them (and you don't want to), but if you're in a car, they will not walk away - they seem to not equate people in cars (even talking to them) as being much of a threat. Open the door and stand up and they'll walk to the next yard. They look mind blown when suddenly out of a car, a bunch of people appear.

Visitor next door

Tom Colligan

Hi John, was the picture taken from your phone? And, where abouts in NM are you? Thx., Tom.

Re: New Jersey?

William Duffield

Yes, on Cohansey Creek, to be specific. This is the part of NJ that gave it the name "Garden State."

An acquaintance of mine, when I asked him why he had such an extensive and complicated fencing system around his Hemerocallis farm, explained that deer can jump long, and deer can jump high, but deer can't jump long and high. To keep them out, he built a 4 ft. high perimeter fence, and 8 ft. inside it, built another 8 ft. high fence parallel to the first.

Hemerocallis farm?  William?

Barry Irby

Hemerocallis Is a word I have not seen in a while. For the uninitiated its Daylilies. I had hundreds of varieties and thousands of plants. Participated in Regional Garden tours. As a club, we traveled far and wide visiting gardens. I still have hundreds and they are blooming now. Represents part of my life that I am allowing to fad away but was huge for a while.

Knew people that had to grow them in cages to keep the deer out of them.

Re: Visitor next door

John in NM

Hi Tom,

Yes, phone picture. Zoomed in a bit, here's an unzoomed:

This is in southeast NM, in the mountains outside Alamogordo. I work at a nearby observatory.

View of White Sands National Monument from the backdoor of the telescope:

CSA near here...

David Weaver

(western PA) - there's a CSA farm that has about 150 acres of vegetables. This is an absurd amount - 150 acre commercial farms with row crops would be hobby by now, 150 acre commercial wholesale type vegetable farms aren't that unusual, but that acreage for a group that generally sells CSA and direct to restaurants is bonkers large.

At any rate, we toured their farm and they have an 8-10 foot high tension stainless steel fence around the entire farm. The fence posts are like small telephone poles. It must've cost a mint, but they aren't that far from the city (so they can get traveling deer from the burbs pretty easily) and said that it doesn't matter how many crop damage tags they get, and how many people they invite to hunt, they can't keep up.

If they wanted to, they could jump my garden fence, but I need to make it just enough of a nuisance here (where there are delicious landscape plants all over the place) that they won't bother to.

If we could figure out a way to get them and eat them here, it wouldn't seem like such a nuisance, but maybe they don't taste good when their diet is flowers, landscape trees and gardens. Where I grew up, you can expected a fairly reliable corn and soybean fed flavor

Puzzling fence concept

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

How does that fence logic work? Why doesn't the single 8-foot high fence suffice?

Re: Visitor next door

Stuart Johnson

That is a magnificent animal. Just think what he will look like as and adult if allowed to live that long. I'm neither pro nor anti hunting but a year or two between McDonald's and Elk burgers might not be a bad thing.

Re: Puzzling fence concept

walta

Deer have been known to clear 15 foot fence when being chased.

Most any deer can clear an 8 foot fence if motivated.

Walta

Re: Puzzling fence concept

William Duffield

While 2 4' fences 8' apart would not pose a problem, I guess they don't like the idea of coming down in "no deer's land" between the 8' fence and the 4' fence.

Re: Hemerocallis farm?  William?

William Duffield

I understand your obsession. When I was in Florida, I was very into orchids, even studying to be a judge, and also aroids and platyceriums. I found out later that one of the big growers and hybridizers that I knew in Florida later got into day lilies, and also in a very big way.