A New Crop of Fawns

Our neighborhood deer have been giving birth to a new crop of fawns for over a month.

During this evenings wildlife drive I was finally able to get some good photos of fawns.

The Goslings Have Grown

The baby Canada geese from this Spring have grown a lot and are now hard to tell from the parents.

Unfortunately, one of the young geese has suffered a head injury from an unknown source. My guess is a large hawk or eagle may have tried to grab the goose by the head. This injury may have caused damage to the goose's left eye since it now has a problem pecking at corn on the ground. I am now the young goose's friend and it well peck corn out of my hand.

Time to Make Hay

Our neighbor was making hay at our barn property today. Their daughter Hannah got to drive the tractor for the first time and did a very good job of raking the hay.

This little guy wasn't too happy to see the hay removed.

New Rhubarb Patch

It started out as a desire to create a new rhubarb patch next to my compost bin and a "frog pond". I ended up with my rototiller in the "frog pond".

Another lesson in physics, Newton's second and third laws of motion. When powerfull rototiller contacts an immovable object (large rock), the rototiller is accelerated in the opposite direction of the immovable object (and into a "frog pond").

A local resident of the "frog pond" was not happy.

If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger tool.

I may have found the immovable object.

What's Bugging You

Times are tough for some of our local deer. Not only has the temperature been into the 90's while the deer are waiting to give birth, there is the issue of swarms of flies.

The flies are everywhere but like the face and eyes.

Power Line Clearing

The local power company is in our neighborhood clearing the power line right-of-ways with this chipper/grinder. Our property was on the schedule today.

Last fall the brush and small trees were sprayed to kill the vegetation.

Small trees don't have a chance against this machine.

Tree gone.

The pine tree will be gone soon.

Before clearing.

After a couple hours of clearing.

Woodchuck Pup

A couple of young woodchuck pups were found in the township road today. The woodchuck pups were about 6 inches long (not counting tail).

No sign of Mama but there must be a hole very close since they were not able to run very far. I am not a big fan of woodchucks of any size and have a blog titled "Woodchuck Reduction Program" which documents 15 years of reducing the population of woodchucks.

The Voodoo Lily is in Bloom

Our Voodoo Lily (Dracunculus vulgaris) is starting to bloom. The Voodoo Lily has several unusual characteristics. It has a very large flower, it is only in bloom for a day, and it stinks.

A couple of the flowers as they open and an unopened flower to the left.

Even being next to some blooming roses doesn't mask the smell of this flower. The Voodoo Lily has a smell of rotting meat to attract flies as pollinators. It smelled like week old rotting fish guts to me and could be smelled 10 feet away.

How Deer Cool Off

It was another hot day in the neighborhood and these three yearing bucks were cooling off in our pond.

Staying in the water reduces bug bites (sometimes).

"Tag ... Your It."

This deer was cooling off in the shade of the gas pipeline. Since the gas in the pipeline is around 55F this is a cooler place to hang out.

Mushrooms

After temperatures in the 50's with 2 inches of rain last week, today's 90°F temperature has brought out some mushrooms. I found these mushrooms while doing battle with an invasion of weeds.

The Baby Geese Have Grown

This year's young geese have grown a lot and come running at the sight of my truck (and an easy meal of corn).

Mama goose stands guard as the little ones gobble up some corn on the ground.

Mama goose telling a curious yearing buck to "BACK OFF".

Wildflowers - Siberian iris

Siberian iris are native to Europe and Central Asia. It is considered a fast-spreading invasive plant that has naturalized in some parts of North America.

Siberian iris is most often violet-blue but we also have a white variety. Our Siberian iris grow in rocky/hard soil such as the edge of the township road.