Twin Fawns

This year's crop of fawns are now exploring the neighborhood.

I was at the cabin property, working on another project, when I found these two fawns checking out a field I'd just mowed.

Later in the day, on my evening wildlife drive, I found the twin fawns with their mother.

The fawns were constantly moving and hard to get a photo of them together.

The wobbly legged newborns of spring are now speed demons.

Online Hunting License

It's time to renew my hunting license for another year. I have a lifetime license which can be renewed online, but this year, for the first time, the antlerless deer can also be purchased online at the same time. I logged into the web site to place my order and see there are 70,839 people ahead of me. Maybe I'll wait until tomorrow (or next week).

Supper Time

On this evening's wildlife drive around the cabin property, grandson Reed was able to observe a doe nursing its fawn.

Possum Wrangling

Some animal has been eating plants in my garden and I set a trap to catch the animal.

I had expected to catch a rabbit but caught this possum (opossum).

Grandson Reed checking out the possum.

Time to relocate the possum to our cabin property.

Propped the trap door open and waited for the possum to escape.

After a short wait the possum emerged from the trap and into the woods.

The Deer Whisperer

Grandson Reed, "The Deer Whisperer", making friends with one of the local deer. (BTW - REED spelled backwards is DEER)

Reed Finds a Turtle

Grandson Reed found a turtle in the road near the gate to our cabin property.

After several attempts to pick up the turtle, Reed was able to get a close look of the turtle.

It was an Eastern Painted Turtle.

Time to release the turtle in safer place than the road.

School's Out For The Summer

Grandson Reed's last day of kindergarten was yesterday and now he gets to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa until the start of summer daycare.

Reed wanted to go fishing and the first thing we needed was bait. We started looking for bait in the small creek behind our house.

The search for bait soon turned into exploring the creek.

Somehow Reed got water in his boots.

Maybe there's bait in this rotten log.

No luck finding bait, he did find some interesting rocks.

"Look grandpa ... the water is almost to the top of my boots ..."

"The water's even deeper over here ..."

"There's water in my boots ... "

Eastern Newt

It has been a long dry Spring in this neighborhood and after yesterday's 1.96 inches of rain I found this Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) enjoying the moist morning conditions at our cabin property.

Weekend Wildlife

I was working on some projects at the barn and cabin properties this weekend and got these photos of young wildlife.

A young buck with antlers in velvet. Not a "wall hanger" yet.

A pair of young fledgling mourning doves on the barn wall.

A young fawn exploring the neighborhood.

A hen turkey with four young poults (chicks). These poults are old enough to fly short distances.

Twin Fawns

Found this on the West Hill game camera.

Roadside Fawn

This is my fifth fawn encounter this spring. As we were returning home this morning, we saw an animal cross the township road in the distance. I thought it was a fox at first, but I soon saw the white spots of another young fawn.

The fawn stood at the edge of the road as we approached and I was able to get out of the car and walk closer.

The fawn walked into the weeds along the road and stated to make soft bleating calls for its mother. It must be feeding time.

I was able to walk within 3 feet of the fawn, which looked to be more concerned with its next meal than with me. It continued to walk into the brush as I headed back to the car.

Black Bear Mating Season

It's the start of the black bear mating season and the bears are on the move, looking for love. We spotted this bear along route 187 today about noon time.

I stopped the car along the road and walked back to get this picture.

In between photos I was trying to slow down the traffic so the bear could cross the road. A large semi truck didn't see the need to slow down and came within a few feet of hitting the bear.

Another Fawn

Grandson Reed and his dad were here to visit for the long weekend, so we went for an ATV ride this afternoon.

It didn't take long before we found this newborn fawn.

This fawn was less than a day old and Reed was able to get close. The fawn was sleeping so we left it after a few photos.

When we returned after an hour the fawn was still in the same location, but had its eyes open this time.

Spring Fawns

Today started out with a plan to do some road work at the cabin property, but I soon was distracted by newborn fawns.

While hauling a load of stone into a wooded area I saw this little guy wobble through the woods and bed down.

I was able to get some photos of this fawn before it got up and wobbled off to a new location. This fawn was 3 or 4 days old.

While hauling another load of stone to the road project I noticed a doe repeatedly return to the same area in some tall grass. It didn't take long to find this fawn.

This fawn was much smaller and the blue tint in the eye color would place this fawn at about a day old.

Young Bucks

The young bucks are starting to get their first set of antlers.