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.

Wildflower - Fringed Polygala

I was doing some clean-up in a wooded area of our cabin property and found a small patch of Fringed Polygala (Polygala paucifolia). This elusive native wildflower goes by the names Bird-on-the-Wing, Flowering Wintergreen, Fringed Milkwort, Gay Wings and Gaywings. This small, 1 to 1.5 inch, strangely shaped flower might fool someone into thinking this is a member of the orchid family, but is part of the Milkwort family.

This Year's Fawns Are Arriving

It's that time of year when the deer are giving birth to a new crop of fawns. I was at our cabin property and spotted this doe and fawn across the valley behind our barn. After a few minutes of looking, found this little one in the grass. I think this fawn is 5 to 7 days old since it was able to get up and wobble away when I attempted to move a blade of grass out of the photo.

Neighborhood Turkeys

Since I was successful in bagging my turkey on the first day of the spring turkey season, the other neighborhood turkeys are less fearful of me now that I'm out of turkey tags. I was out digging a drainage ditch with my backhoe yesterday and had turkeys walk within 60 yards and watch me dig. I found this big bird dancing for the ladies near our cabin this morning. I was able to drive within 60 yards of this guy as he walked up the road to the cabin and into the woods. Of course the turkeys may also know that 60 yards is pushing the maximum distance for a 3 1/2 inch, 12 gauge turkey load.

Eastern Painted Turtle

I found this Eastern Painted Turtle at our cabin pond looking for some sun to warm up. After 2 inches of cold soaking rain this weekend, we had intermittent squalls of rain, snow, sleet, ice pellets and other forms of frozen precipitation most of today.