Winter is here!

I was out doing the front walk. No more than that. It should rain on Saturday! 

Looking up the driveway, I spotted a doe. She has a limp. She wasn't afraid of me. I knew she was a regular.

Hauling out a deer feeder, I threw a handful of bird see there. She is one we've fed before, she wasn't afraid of me at all. I feel so badly for her. 

She went straight for the feeder – after I pulled it out.

I suspect that this is our deer friend, Maggie. Or a new one with a broken leg. We'll call her Maggie!

It snowed some more. Not a surprise, as it is December. What weather we've been having. Snow, graupel, then rain. Clouds across the continent.

What worries me is the rain expected on Saturday. An overnight low of -1 C., after that. Oh my. 

😷COVID-19

Sadly, our COVID–19 number are up, here in our health unit. It's discouraging. December 1st we had 26, by December 8th, there were 39 cases. We jumped to 60 on Thursday, Dec. 9th.

I fixed our kitchen light, and found another issue. I'll have to remove it the durn thing, maybe fill the hole? Find some more anchors. These just fell off. Maybe I can just tie the curtain back. I just don't want to go shopping, not sure what I need to do.

There are two neighbourhood homes for sale! 

1. Nearby house for sale
2. Another house for sale

Maggie deer, buck, coyote

Maggie

We've had this deer come around for several years now. Hubby is verklempt! She stood there, while he went and put deer food in the manger (you can see this on the photo series from the trailcam). She remembers him, and brought her yearling. In 2016 she had twins, a male and female. This year, a singleton.

JB adores this deer. She couldn't fight off the others, and was at-risk from the coyotes with her dislocated leg. She would wait around until the other deer had a bit of a feed. He would spot her, and go out to make sure she had some feed of her own.  You can see the bad leg in the sixth photo, below.

This is her archive:

Hunting season rolls around again... – Nov. 2016
Maggie, the dear deer – Dec. 2016
Maggie: Broken-legged deer video – April, 2017

May 7, 2016 – JB talks to her all the time. She's not afraid of him.
 

Deer scrape

Meanwhile, down at the other trailcam, with the buck scrape... Here is the freshly scraped spot. I'm thinking it's the big buck. This is where they mark their territory.


It's funny that the coyote frequently runs across this spot.


This morning, they were down at the scrape, and ran away when they heard me coming. I think, with the timing, it must be Maggie and her yearling.


Then there are the bucks playing at the scrape! I could see these two sparring from up on the deck. Happily, they pranced right in front of the trialcam! They were right beside it.

Maggie: Broken-legged deer video

We usually have one deer each season with a broken leg. This one has managed a long time. I first spotted her on Sept. 27th.Maggie, the dear deer.  We had a coyote kill in the depths of winter. Busy times in the forest I figured it was her, but she is still around.

These are trailcam images. Momma had twins. They have survived.
 She's quite unafraid of us. This is fine, as the others have dispersed to the deep forest, where munching is better. We seldom see them in the summer.

I heard, and saw, a buck killed on the highway. There was another one we were told about late in March.

She waits for food, which we are glad to give her. The grass isn't growing, yet. I have no hostas to donate to the cause! They love my hosta!

Broken leg deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Maggie, the dear deer

It's interesting following the deer. I can ID them by their behaviour, or their habits, or their antlers (for the males). Sometimes all I find is evidence of the deer. This is a spot where they hunkered down in the snowfall for the duration.

We had a small storm, a cm or two.





This doe broke her leg sometime before Sept. 27th (below, right). I've chosen to call her Maggie.
I photographed her, additionally, on Nov. 8th, and Dec. 10th she came into the yard.

Sept. 27th

Dec. 10th 

Here she appeared on the trailcam.
Here she is peeking out at me from down the hill.
Broken-legged deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Nov. 8th

She trotted into the yard, without her twins. (See below.) She had a male and female.  She and her twins visited on Nov. 8th. It's a good sign, she has taught them independence. You can almost see the antler buds on the deer on the right.


She was limping much more back a few months. She's holding her own, Nov. 27th.