The Wild Life

Actually just wildlife.  We have an abundance of wildlife in our neighborhood.  There are Whitetail Deer, Gray Fox, Raccoons, Ringtail Cats, Possums, Coyotes and numerous birds including birds of prey, Great Owls, various hawks.  These are the ones that I have actually seen.  Others here have taken and posted photos of Bobcats, Mountain Lions and porcupines.  Sorry no Chupacabras yet.  Oh and at least one wild Turkey many years ago in my back yard, beautiful.  

We live next to the Camp Bullis military facility.  It is huge and has many acres of undeveloped land that harbor a lot of this wildlife.  I am not sure how they get through that fence though.  

Deer are the most dense.  We could do without a few hundred and you most likely wouldn't see much of a difference.  As beautiful and fun to watch as they are they do present their own problems.  They will eat everything you have growing.  If you want a lush yard with lots of shrubs and flowers it will be a battle.  The deer will win.  Even the deer proof stuff gets eaten during years like this.  Then you feel sorry for them so you feed them 'deer' corn.  FYI, deer corn is just corn.  It's not formulated especially for deer.  They love it, yes.  But it is basically just candy to them.  It attracts them and you get to see them and feel good about helping the deer when they are hungry because, 'well gee, they were here first'.  Well guess what, you aren't helping them at all.  They get no nutritional value from corn.  You also make them less fearful of humans.  This is dangerous for the deer.  You'll have to think bout that, I won't spell that out for you here.  They also leave us a lot of presents in the yard.  You can't walk around out there watthour stepping in it if you're not careful.  With the yard as dead as it is now, it really shows up.  Taller grass at least hides it.  Luckily there is no smell most of the time.  Sometimes it's not so great.

This morning I found this little one, just born last night or this morning.  Can barely walk yet.  Don't ask how I know.

We have also had some issues with hawks in the trees in our yard.  They perch there and wait.  The feathers of their victims are there for us to see.  There were at least 3 running together when I saw them first.  Probably an adult and two young ones.  One was huge.  So we have to go outside with the dogs so they don't become a quick easy meal every time they want out.  I have no doubt that the big hawk could carry off Abby at 12 lbs.  Maybe not but I'm not ready to live with the idea she got eaten by anything.

Abby trying to boss me around:

Abby not happy I am trying to ignore her

Then there is the family of foxes I have seen the last month.  They have been seen playing in the front yard.  They are probably the ones marking the top rail of the fence with their scat.  Probably at taunt to the dogs barking at them.

Sorry no hawk photos they are too keen of eyesight for me to get close enough.

This is getting long so I will stop today.

Happy Trails