Despite the dogs’ best efforts to deter them, sometimes the mischief comes from wildlife! We have White-tailed deer in our area, and since my hubby started our yard clearing project to reduce the fleas and ticks (which, by the way, seems to be working, but more on that in another post), we’ve been seeing some regular visitors to our yard. They’ve always been there, as evidenced by the destruction of my hosta lilies and some other flowers, but we didn’t usually get to enjoy seeing them.
The dogs spend a lot of time on watch for the deer, but sometimes they bark at them and sometimes they don’t. Luke has been pretty good about barking and scaring them away in the morning when he’s seen them in my flower garden.
But this lady made a visit in the middle of the morning on Saturday, and no one ever barked at her. I was alerted to her presence when Cricket’s nose went in the air (she was in the house) and she went running to the door. This happens a lot….they smell them probably more often than they see them! I was able to grab the camera and get some photos. I actually walked all the way down to the fence and though she kept a close eye on me, she didn’t run away for a while.
I think this is the same one we’ve seen several mornings, and she often has a little one with her (I need to get some photos of that fawn too).
It seems kind of funny that most of the time when Luke barks at them, it is when they are in my flower garden, and they all often ignore them when they’re just down in the yard munching on the edge of the woods! The deer also have luckily so far stayed out of my vegetable garden area, even though they could easily jump the fence into it. Hopefully they’ll get barked at then if they ever decide to try it!
Thank you to Bev (FozzieMum) for the inspiration for this post (her wildlife includes kangaroos) and to Mrs. Deer for actually showing up when I needed her to!
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Wow you got some great pictures. You are also lucky the deer are staying out of your veggies. 😉
Thanks! Yes, we are very lucky about the garden. We haven’t been seeing the deer as much recently though, I’m not sure why.
Glad to hear the doggies are protecting the plants, or at least trying! 🙂
I hope you’re having a fun day,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
They are doing their best! Thanks, Snoopy!
We never see any deer around here, at least not yet. You sure do a great job on deer watch!
They do their best! The deer really are pretty to see, we are lucky to have them around (other than the eaten plants that is).
Hi Jan! What a great post! I wish we’d have a few deer (no major flowers to eat this year) so Mommy could take photos. We loved your photos of your awesome pups “keeping watch”, the deer and even your poor plants. Hope they recover. Hope you are doing well!! BIG hugs to you from me & Mommy Jenny.
Love, Pixel
Hi Pixel, so nice to hear from you!! I’m so glad you enjoyed the photos. Those plants will recover and come back up next year, just to be eaten again (I guess that’s why the deer keep coming back). Hugs back to you and your Mommy…I’ll be by for a visit soon!
Great post, we live in the county and have pastures around our house so we see all kinds of deer. The dogs love to chase them and we try to stop them but sometimes we can’t.
I imagine ours would chase them if they could, but I’m afraid Cricket would just keep going off into the woods and not give up! Kobi got away from our neighbor once to chase a bear! He was on a leash and got wrapped around a tree not too far in the woods though.
Great photos of the deer. I am never quick enough to snap a photo. I had one pop out behind me on the road on one of our morning walks. Thankfully the dogs were looking forward and I heard the noise and turned around, and there she was. She and I stared at one another for a bit, then she turned and high tailed it out of there!
Thanks! Sheba and I ran into one walking once, and the deer wouldn’t run away!! I had to hold onto Sheba while yelling at the deer to leave….LOL.
Wow! You sure did get close to that deer! I love how she is showing off her tail. Sometimes I bark at critters and other times not…maybe we dogs “know” something you humans do not?!?
Happy Tuesday.
Oz
I think you dogs definitely do know stuff that we don’t, Oz!
That is so cool! My boys would go crazy if a deer ever got in our yard! Of course, so would we! LOL!
I think the dogs are getting more used to them now that we’re seeing them more. I’m so glad we decided to clear some of the woods out so we can!
That is so cool that you have deer so close to the house! We would love to have deer to bark at and watch out for all day long!
They are definitely good for entertainment!
Your plants look like ours! We get lots of deers coming through our yard. In fact, today on our blog we’re featuring one we saw the other day.
Those darn deers are everywhere, aren’t they??
Oh very pretty to look at, but I agree – I wouldn’t want them munching my plants or garden!
I guess we can’t have one without the other though!
Very cool! We have a small deer herd that visits us daily with their fawns. One bold mama does jump the backyard fence and strolls around. It is quite exciting 🙂
Nice! We’ve only seen the one fawn so far, though I know our neighbor has seen two.
Oh boy, I can’t imagine the excitement if they ever try to jump the fence!
So cool to have deer that close!
It is fun to watch them!
Deer are so beautiful. Gramma has problems with them eating her stuff too. We don’t have any in our yard, so no trouble here.
Their beauty makes up for their destructiveness. Kind of like a puppy’s cuteness makes up for theirs!
We don’t get any deer where I live, but if we did I’m sure Harley would want to go and play with them.
That’s probably what Luke would want to do too, if he could get to them!
We don’t see deer here but a lot of our neighbors have chickens. And I’ve seen a pony and geese and goats (yes, we live in the city).
That sounds like a farm, not the city! 🙂 Well, those are fun to see too! 🙂 Does Mr. N bark at them?
Oh I love when you can close enough to deer to take a good photo!
I saw one the other day, it actual began walking right in front of our truck as we were pulling out of the beach parking lot. But by the time I got my camera out to take a pic, it started sprinting and the photo is blurry 🙁
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
They’re so pretty, aren’t they? I usually don’t even try to get my camera, because usually by the time I do, they’re gone. I expected the dogs to bark and scare her away this time….but I got lucky!
I wanna see a deer! Woooowooooo, Ku
Come on over, Ku, but you have to promise not to bark (too much)!
Way cool! Why do deer love hosta so? We get bunnies. Lots and lots of bunnies.
We used to see bunnies occasionally, but haven’t for years now. I’m sure they would love to munch on things in my garden, so it’s just as well.
I don’t know what it is about hosta that the deer are so attracted to, but it’s definitely their favorite! They ate all my sunflowers one year too though, and I was less impressed about that.
Deer would be quite charming in the yard in spite of the preferences for flowers, All we get a gophers. They are not photogenic.
No, though we have seen some cute groundhogs around here….but I never felt compelled to get the camera. 🙂
I enjoy the deer in spite of their destructive habits!
We had lot of deer when we had our house. I bought plants that were deer proof….they still ate them.
Good to know that wouldn’t work. I’ve considered giving up hostas, but they are the one plant that always grows well, even in spite of getting eaten! The deer also love violets, but I have so many of them, they spread every year, plus they don’t seem to eat them until after they’ve blossomed….so I don’t mind that so much!
So cool that they will come so close to your yard. We don’t get to see deer where we are hear…too many coyotes I think.
We have coyotes in our area, but we used to hear them a lot more at night, now I can’t remember the last time I did. That may be part of the reason we’re seeing more deer the last few years.
You guys are so lucky! We would bark our fool heads off at them! Glad they aren’t eating mom’s garden!!
We love seeing the deer, and I think the dogs have just gotten used to them in time. Sometimes they’ll bark for a couple minutes after initially smelling them, but then they’ll stop!
I see another fab fence 🙂 and yes that is one beautiful deer..we are not in deer area..but we had them in our previous area…deer and roos quite adept at leaping tall buildings in a single bound! and it is gorgeous to see the pups hard at work!! i agree the boys usually smell roos before seeing them or hearing them..i hope your pretty friend leaves the flowers alone..the only plants the roos ate were ironically the Kangaroo paws growing down near the front gate! oh and one lone daffy they trod on..but it shows you can have wildlife and domestic animals living in harmony 🙂 loved this post..nice to wildlife of all kinds 🙂 hugs Bev xx
Thank you, Bev! I’ve kind of come to expect my hosta lilies to get eaten, just about every year it happens. You would think I’d stop planting them, but they are the one plant that grows easily and anywhere! It’s all part of living in the country, which we would never give up for anything!! xxoo
I agree Jan…i prefer the roos to be happy and if they stomp on a few things then so be it 🙂 small price to pay for life in the country 🙂 hugs Bev xx