We Caught a Spotted Fawn

Look what we caught on our game camera this week.  A spotted fawn!  It passed by the camera a couple of times and we got several good shots, including that second one of the newborn gingerly stepping over a log on brand new legs. Our speculation that at least one of the local does was pregnant has been confirmed. This baby can't be much older than a week. Hopefully, we will see more than just one this spring.

Strange, we did not see its mother.  Probably the doe passed by the camera too quickly. My main complaint about this camera is that it takes several seconds after the motion sensor is triggered before it takes a picture.  Many times we see just the tail end of an animal after it has passed nearly through the frame.  Other times we get pictures of nothing but the ground and the flora, because whatever triggered the camera is long gone by the time it snaps a photo.  In fact, we get 5 or 6 pictures of nothing for every photo of an animal.  If it was quicker, we would have a lot more photos to share.  Hey, Moultrie - if you are listening, please improve this! And anyone who is buying a game camera, be sure you consider this factor.

We also got this picture of  a squirrel, a first for our game camera.  I think we will leave it in this same location for another week and see what else passes.

Tree Squirrels

Love them or hate them?  They have adapted well to the urban landscape.  The squirrels we have around our house are fox squirrels (Sciurus niger), and as the photos show, they are cute.

They can be fun to watch, I used to unwind in a hammock in my backyard on warm evenings after work. They would scurry about in the trees above my head and scold me with their chattery voices.  Every once in awhile they would run down a branch and take a flying leap to a branch in another tree a few feet away.  Quite a sight.  Sometimes I kept my camera with me, hoping to get a picture of these aerobatics, but I was never quick enough to get a good shot.

These guys can do some damage.  They chewed a hole in our roof and made a nest in our attic.  We could hear them running around up there almost every day.  The roof was quite old and needed to be replaced anyway, but we worried that if the roofers simply closed up the hole, the squirrels would be trapped in there to die.   The roofers assured us they would be working on the roof for a couple of days before they closed up the hole, and with all of the banging and pounding, the squirrels will leave on their own accord.  And they did.

Although they are excellent climbers, I saw one fall about 15 feet to the ground from a tree branch, while fighting with another squirrel.  I say they were fighting as they were making an awful racket with their clucking and chucking.  I can't translate what they were saying, but I am sure it is unprintable in 'G' rated blog.  In any case, the downed squirrel picked itself up off the ground, looked a bit dazed and confused for about 2 seconds, then ran back up into the tree.