Lots of Deer!

 

I meant to write last week but time got away from me and I didn’t get it done. So, this week I’ll have extra pictures to show you!

Pap-pap and I were sitting on the patio when a doe came out of the weeds with her twin fawns. She grazed while the little ones played.

They chased each other back and forth.

            Aren’t they cute?

When a doe is old enough to have a fawn, she’ll have just one the first time. After that she can have twins or even triplets! I haven’t seen any triplets in a long time.

 When the kids were done playing, their mom gave them a bath. First, she licked one…

          Then the other one.

Then they walked around the pond and off into the weeds.

Another day we saw a doe with just one fawn. That means she’s a first-time mother.

She knew that Pap-pap and I were watching her, but as long as we didn’t move too much, she stayed put. The fawn suckled.

The baby finished eating and they walked away.

You can always tell when a deer is excited or alarmed. Their tail comes straight up! I don’t think I have any pictures of that.

Pap-pap and I walked down to the neighbor’s house.

On the way we saw a deer at the pond across the road. She didn’t have any fawns with her. Sometimes the mommy deer leaves her baby in a safe place while she goes to eat.

Deer aren’t the only thing I saw. I also saw two butterflies! They have the same last name, but a different first name and they are different colors, too.

This one is called a White Admiral.

And this one is called a Red-spotted Purple Admiral. I know you can’t see it very well in my picture, but it does have red spots on its wings.

          This guy looks like a big mosquito, but he’s not. Some people call them Mosquito Eaters, but they don’t eat mosquitos. In fact, they don’t eat anything at all! When Crane Flies reach this stage in their life, they have no mouth parts so they can’t eat or bite you! And they don’t have any stingers either, so they can’t hurt you. If one of these lazy fliers comes in your house, just gently cup him in your hands and put him outside. He’ll be food for a mama bird to feed her babies.

          Have you ever seen these bubbles on weeds? Do you know what they are? If you say, “It looks like someone spit there,” you’d be almost right. It’s the home of a Spittlebug.

          Spittlebugs are the baby of a bug called a froghopper. Froghoppers come in different colors. I think you can see a green one sitting on the leaf close to the spit. Even when he’s all grown up, he won’t be very big.

          “Why do the babies live in spit?” you ask.

          That’s a very good question. And the answer is to keep from drying out — and to hide them from bigger bugs that want to eat them!

 

          We lost Macchiato. He is old and blind now and he wandered away from the house. He was gone all of one day and one night. Pap-pap and I were afraid he had gotten lost out in the fields and woods or gotten eaten by a fox!

          We were sad.

          The next morning, when we got out of bed, Macchiato was home! We don’t know where he’d been all night long but now. I tie him up. He’s not very happy about that but at least he can’t get lost ever again!

                   Until next time, remember, you are loved.