Month: July 2021

I started this post last week and have included what I wrote then at the end.

Judging from the number of views on my YouTube channel, only a few of you are interested in watching the day-by-day videos of the river and Dark Hollow, so I’ve decided to post the image comparison of the first and last days only.

If you could follow me as I ramble most mornings, you might see me watching the woods for a deer, stopping to listen to birds (and sometimes using the new Sound ID feature of Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab), stalking a butterfly, talking softly to a rabbit or maybe a deer near the road, or just marveling at the beauty of nature. Until this week, you would NOT have seen me stop in my tracks because of a bear headed toward me on the same road! We just looked at each other, and it went down the hill into the woods before I could take a photo.

Oh! You’d also see me looking for box turtles in puddles in the ditch and the stream. Sometimes they’re buried in the mud so much that it’s hard to even see them!

Although there appears to be plenty for the deer to eat (including the phlox and other flowers in my garden!), several are waiting to be fed almost every morning. The young bucks born last year are especially eager, but the mama does often chase them away.

And yes, there are fawns—at least two, maybe three. I know that Spooky and Jenny each have one one, and I think one of the more skittish does may have twins.

It makes me smile to watch them play.

I started this post last week because I hoped that writing it would help get it out of my mind, and it did help some. Here’s what I wrote then:

I’m glad I didn’t see it. Hearing the terrified cries as they faded was traumatic enough, and the sounds still haunt me. As I was feeding in the meadow one morning this week, a nearby neighbor texted that a fawn had just run by, closely followed by two coyotes. The fawn didn’t get away. I heard the gut-wrenching cries from the woods above me and then silence. I think I’ve written at least one post about the circle of life every year, and it always makes me sad to see a dead animal, but hearing it happen…

The memory has begun to fade. I still don’t know whose fawn it was; I do know it wasn’t any of the ones in the photos above. And I know that the coyotes have to eat, too, and they may well have babies of their own to feed. Nonetheless, it was a very hard day.

It was late June before I saw the first fawn this year, and I’ve seen only two so far. (I saw one twice.) I know that the pregnant does in the video have had their fawns, but they haven’t brought them to the meadow. I keep looking and hope they’ll show up soon!

The does still come to eat, although I never know when. I always take food down when I see one; they definitely have a fawn (or fawns) nursing and are always hungry.

Last year’s fawns show up more predictably; they’re usually waiting when I get up in the morning, and one or two emerge from the woods almost every time I take food to the mamas. Oddly, all six yearlings are little bucks; even Friendly finally grew antlers. The antlers in the posse are a variety of lengths, ranging from a few inches long to almost a foot, and one has forked antlers.

Meanwhile, the French Broad has risen and fallen several times since I last posted. (This video will play; I don’t know why it shows up looking like a cassette. I am still struggling with iMovie.)

When I ramble down to the river, I sometimes see some of the semi-resident Canadian geese in the field by the shore. This year they raised a gaggle of goslings!

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I pick up my newspaper (yes, I still read a print edition) down at the river highway, too. The box I put up last year was moved during roadwork, and the carrier can’t get to it easily any more, so they toss it nearby. It’s a good thing, too; some male Carolina wren decided the box would be a good nesting site!

If you’ve followed this (almost four-year-old!) blog for a while, then you know that I really like seeing box turtles. (In fact, I’m such a nerd that I regularly post my photos to the Carolina Herp Atlas.) So here are the ones I’ve seen since April:

I don’t usually write about anything but my rambles, but I had my house painted since the last post and wanted to share this! I love the new colors and fresh look!

I started this post yesterday and don’t want to wait another day to post it. Maybe I’ll finally learn how to use iMovie without getting too frustrated, and the next time will be easier. Until then, here’s Dark Hollow, across the ridge from us.