Monday, August 05, 2013

Deer Turf War

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 94, low 73)

It was a strange day weather-wise yesterday.  We took a drive to look at a small outboard motor that Al had found on a Craig's List posting.  He wants a “kicker” for our boat, so that if the main motor won’t start, we can get in without having to call Sea Tow.  On the way to east Tampa, to look at the motor, we kept running into really hard rain, with bright sunny skies.  No thunder and lightning, just rain and sunshine.  Sunny skies and hard rain was common when we lived on Guam, but rare here. 

 

We ended up buying the motor, so Al can quit “whining”  :)

1998 6 hp mercury boat motor

Weather permitting, we try to sit outside every night for happy hour.  We have so much wildlife here, we can always count on seeing something interesting.

Our campground is very close to I-75,  and in fact our site is less than a quarter of a mile away from the interstate.

Despite the close proximity to civilization, it’s amazing the amount of wildlife that lives in the greenbelt area right behind our site. Unfortunately, it’s probably because they don’t have anywhere else to live.

So last night, we sat there armed with adult beverages and my little Canon camera.  I ended up regretting not having my big Canon with the faster shutter!

When we first got to this site, we occasionally saw a group of 4 deer.  Unfortunately, we’ve seen a few deer along the sides of the road that had been hit by a vehicle. 

Lately, we’ve seen only one deer and we thought that was all that was left.

Two nights ago, right before dark, the female brought her baby. We were sure glad to see that.  Unfortunately, it was getting dark and I didn’t have the shutter speed set right, and it was running, so I couldn’t get a good picture. 

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Last night, we sat out again, hoping to see the fawn and get a better picture.   We never did see him, but we saw something even better.

The deer we think is the Mama, was there for a while, but the baby never came out.  Mama will come out into the open, but it seems she doesn’t want the baby in plain site.

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A few minutes later, I noticed a deer coming from my left, towards Mama deer.  She looked up and it appeared she was getting upset.

Before I knew it, the two deer were charging at each other and ended up rearing up in what appeared to be a short fight.

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That’s when I wished I had my BC (big Canon) that doesn’t have a delay when you press the shutter!

It was an amazing site, but unfortunately, not such an amazing picture.

A few minutes later, several more deer ran by and into the woods.  It appeared there was a new group trying to invade the territory of the old group. 

We think we saw 8 different deer last night.

We had to figure out what caused this type of behavior.  We always see groups of deer hanging out together and have never seen any  disputes.  This little tiff appeared to be a dispute over territory.

My theory is that the groups that hang out together are family.  Mothers with babies from previous years and their offspring.  Never any fights.

I’m now thinking that the other group was another family and the first family was trying to run them off. 

I can’t wait to see what happens tonight.  You can be sure I’ll have my big Canon Rebel with my big zoom lens!

10 comments:

  1. I know what you mean on the shutter delay with the small camera. Many times I wish I had set it for 'Continuous' so I didn't have the delay. Still - I like the pictures you got - they still tell the story!

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  2. Wow, that's very interesting. I thought only bucks fought. Shows what do I know?

    Good luck with tonight's adventure, just don't get too close or you might get dragged into the fight! :cO

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  3. Wow, very cool! We've just had a small buck, and two does here. No fighting ensued. They're too busy eating the flowers out of the bed and munching on the wild blackberries :)

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  4. Even though that photo is blurry, you can still clearly see what is happening - amazing! I wonder if there was a baby nearby that the mom was protecting, so she fought off the other deer.

    I hope you get some good shots tonight. That must have been really cool to see in person.

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  5. That is how our male llamas and alpaca determined who was the boss that day. Besides chest butting they would neck wrestle each other to the ground. Fun to watch,

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  6. Those are still great pictures but I know what you mean about too slow. That's the story of my life. I am really trying to make myself shell out the big bucks for a decent camera but then I'll be afraid to take it anywhere with me.
    Your backyard is just amazing!

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  7. You all had quite a show last night!! It is so hard to get good pics of wildlife but you captured the show very well. :-)

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  8. I never knew Deer fought. Can't wait for the next episode!

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