The Circle of Life begins anew . . .
 

. . . with this new addition to the neighborhood.

great picture and the circle of life goes on as you said...sring and early summer lets us see the circle....charlie

What is that?

It's a White-tailed deer fawn, no more than a few days old.

The days old fawn shown above also has a sister. The momma and her two fawns have been daily visitors since early June. Here they've ventured close enough to see the glint in their eyes.

The pic you've posted Phil has got me scratching my head in wonderment of how that deer got in that predicament?

Here is its twin.


http://parkerguns.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1504043807

Here is the top and back side of picture 1

http://parkerguns.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1504043954

Here is a tidbit of knowledge I bet you did not know. I know I did not. Penn State has an ongoing deer/forest research project. They have a blog site dedicated to the work they are doing. They have dispelled so many old wives tales it is amazing. According to a post they had a while back if you see a doe with a fawn(s) after they are weaned, which is generally by mid July, there is only a 50% chance the doe is the mother of the fawns. Apparently fawns will hook up with another doe and run with her a while. I never would have guessed.

There is a whole bunch of good stuff on the research blog site. A recent post had to do with moon phase and deer movement. According to their gps data analysis the moon has no effect on deer movement.

Pretty neat information. Here in AZ our Coues Whitetail are just now fawning. I think its natures way to have the young born when its slightly cooler and the monsson rains have come and greened things up. Our mule deer in my area dropped about a month ago.
Gary do you have a link to that site?

To those with an interest, this should be a link to the blog entry regarding moon phase.

http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/p...Forest+Blog%29

I believe you can access all of the posts via the site but there are several years worth of posts.

This big bully has been terrorizing the neighborhood for the past few days. It appears he maybe getting in the mood for the circle of life to begin anew.

He's a bruiser and will run off a number of smaller bucks until he meets his nemesis.





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Look what showed up in our backyard this morning!

The squirrels are having a field day in the oak tree feasting on ripening acorns while the doe and her fawn are cleaning up remnants of what the squirrels are leaving behind.

I have a few shagbark hickories in my pasture. It seems that a squirrel or two will check out the nuts periodically and then all of a sudden they proclaim them ready. That occurred this week and now there are mobs of them cutting and eating. Drives my dogs nuts.

The amazing thing is that the deer eat what the squirrels drop to the ground. Amazing because those nuts are wickedly hard. It takes quite a whack with a hammer to break one but the deer grind them up one after another.

Watermelon, as an attractant?
 

It was the very 1st time we've ever put out a piece of watermelon -- and within minutes look what showed up . . . a nice eleven point buck! It's the 1st time we've seen him this summer and he brought the whole fam-damn-ily along with him!

Here's a little tip for you. Wild Skies' Tip #219: When venturing out into the woods with bow or gun this fall seeking that once-in-a-lifetime buck, don't forget to include a roll of toilet paper and a watermelon. It works the very 1st time. Everytime. Proven here.

Our horses LOVE watermelon rind. It's one of their favorite treats. So, I'm not surprised the deer are attracted too!

I happened to see a doe and three fawns crossing the road on the way to work this morning. Right in the middle of a residential area I go through.

Sara

We've been feeding our deer watermelon for yrs - they love it but won't eat the whole rind. Toss some pears out sometime and watch the deer step over just about anything, including apples, to get at them.

Yes on the pears, when they start to fall, we have deer under the tree every day. And there are apple trees on the property too.

After munching on some newly fallen acorns twin fawns of the year wash them down with a drink of fresh water.

The alpha male of the neighborhood looks after his likely offspring from last year's breeding while surveying the potential for a repeat breeding in this year's fall rut which is just getting underway here locally. These two cell phone pics were taken just moments ago.

Nice buck!
 

That is quite a buck there, looks non typical and a big one. If that was in my hunting area, I would be doing allot of hunting.
Stan

This little guy/girl greeted me as I stepped out of the trout stream this spring.

Maybe these two views will offer a little bit better look of his rack and body.

Stan, if that was in PA someone would have smoked that buck after dark, cut the head off and let the body lie by the road. :banghead:

This is the other Stan, but I have to agree with you Mike. And, it's going on right here, too. I have had several bucks killed on my property at night, the head removed, and the carcass left in my crop fields to rot. Game wardens want them really bad, but so far they have eluded them. It's really frustrating, because we know who they are. They ride a Polaris UTV with a rifle and a spotlight.

SRH

We should gave an open season on poachers. Some people refer to them as bad or unethical hunters. They are not hunters at all - I refuse to have them even associated with the word “hunter” - they are CRIMINALS plain and simple.





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SRH, about 8-10 years ago there was a poaching gang in our area. Within a 2 mile radius of our place they killed over 20 buck in less than a month in late summer-early fall. They cut the heads off and left the carcass by the road. The PGC eventually caught them. It was a group of 8 pipeliners from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas that were renting the same farmhouse. They received hefty fines and lost their jobs and were sent back to their home states to poach there. It really affected the deer herd for two-three years around here.

I'll bet it affected the herd for longer than that with inferior bucks now doing the breeding.





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Mike, here it's a couple of brothers that are only about 18-20 yrs. old. They have a family member that is a taxidermist, and he pays them for the heads. One of the brothers is in jail right now for DUI. He was driving a UTV, drunk, with a young woman as passenger. He wrecked badly and the young woman is paralyzed. He won't be jacklighting any time soon, but his brother and a cousin are still at it. They've threatened farmers and others here, pulling a pistol on them. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they've been found dead in somebody's field, shot with buckshot. They can't do much with buckshot at the ballistics labs. People around here aren't going to take a chance with them.

Sad stuff. SRH