Month: August 2020

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First, the good news is that I saw the doe with the injured leg the day after my last post, and she is no longer limping, although she favors the one leg a little. (The doe above is not her.)

And I finally saw a poult (baby turkey)! One poult with its mom, too far away for a photo. A single poult, the only one I’ve seen this year. The photos below show some of what I usually see in August. Another strange thing about 2020. Oh! And there was that earthquake that hit last Sunday while I was having my coffee.

More fawns are showing up to eat. One morning there were four! Spooky’s twins are venturing out of the woods more, and sometimes they play with other fawns. This year’s oldest fawn (Friendly) is losing its spots; it comes very close when I feed. It comes with its mom as part of the regular breakfast group (with Bambi, Bro, Lil, and a few others) that often waits for me to bring the morning corn and apples. Sometimes the ones that arrive late (like Spooky and twins) decide to find something closer to the house.

I see at least one box turtle in the creek almost every day. Although they are often buried in the mud, they usually come out for a ramble after a rain. I found another tiny one near my compost bin and have seen a few other small ones on my rambles.

It’s been a busy week around the house. I had two small patios built and had hoped to post before-and-after photos, but I had to to cover them until they “settle” to protect them from the rain we finally got. I’ll post  next time, but I’m not sure when that will be. One of the muchachos managed to climb behind my primary computer (an iMac) and knocked it over onto the keyboard shelf. Fortunately, the computer still works (I’m using it now), but the screen is badly cracked. I’m taking it in to be repaired and have no idea when I’ll get it back. I’ll post again when I can.

Wear your mask and stay safe!

These chronicles of my rambles are usually filled with things I find to be beautiful and/or interesting. Of course, as we know and have experienced all too much in the past few months, life is sometimes harsh. I’ve written before about death in the Hollow; every year I’ve seen dead turtles and at least one dead fawn. Usually these have been roadkill (speeders on the highway have claimed the life of a fawn this year), a few have obviously been killed by a predator, but sometimes there is no apparent (to me) cause of death. Was the animal sick? An orphan too young and weak to survive on its own? I’m left to wonder, to mourn, and to be reminded once again of the circle of life.

Today I found a dead fawn. I think it was one I had seen by itself several times recently and now suspect it was the orphan of a doe with an injured leg I saw several times last month. It was a sad reminder of the fragility of life.

I had thought this post would be about mushrooms. We’ve had almost 2.5″ of rain in the last week, and fungi have appeared in many places in the Hollow, although the Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) that I followed so closely a couple of years ago has not returned. (The one below is across the creek.)

Five turkey hens have begun showing up regularly; sometimes they are with the two gobblers and sometimes it’s just the girls, even in the rain.

Spooky’s twins show up but don’t get close. (I was relieved to see both of them today; last year she lost one of her twins.)

Bambi, his brother, and Lil (last year’s fawns) continue to grow, and politics among deer have gotten rough.

The muchachos get rough, too, but theirs is just play.

Now they’re ready for supper, and I’ll leave this post. It was a hard one to write.