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Monday 12 December 2016

The Guilty Party


Well, that was convenient.

I had decided not to post any more videos from my beginner camera because once they are uploaded here they are so small it's hard to see what's happening in them. And if I use the zoom feature when taking the video, the texture gets grainy.

But (whiny tone) I really, really wanted to share videos without spending a boatload of money on new equipment, which I have no intention of doing.

Then I caught a deer chomping on our rhododendron bush today.

(The same rhododendron bush which hasn't had a bloom on it for years, because the deer eat the leaves and buds off every winter. Rhodies are evergreens that keep their leaves for the winter and set buds for early spring blossoming. They are to deer what cheese-and-cracker packs are to kids (and me) - two compatible foodstuffs conveniently packaged in one container.)

The bush is quite near our house, so it was easy to get a very close-up video without using too much close-up button on the camera. I won't be able to tell until this post goes live if this is an improvement on previous videos, but I hope it is. If not, I'll have to decide if I'm game to use Youtube for my videos instead. (Using my one brain cell for learning new technology - ewww!)

Goodbye rhododendron. I'm sorry, but the deer have to eat something. And our town just passed a bylaw forbidding residents to set out food for wildlife ........ but they never said anything about growing snacks for them .....


If you have the sound turned on, you may hear one of our cats purring, and near the end the clock is chiming ... just so you don't worry that you're hearing things, if you hear things.

Here is another video, even closer:


I don't think this is one of "our" three deer that often visit. While driving through our neighbourhood, I have occasionally seen a single deer making the rounds. The one in the video here has stockier legs and a somewhat shorter face. And he was all alone for over an hour in our back yard, first eating, then settling down for a rest, then eating again. You can see one of "our" deer up close in that post I linked to just above. Our three always travel together; as I've mentioned, I think it's a mama and her two spring babies. Perhaps "our" deer includes a fourth now.

A photo for those who don't like to click on videos:

He looks a bit like a donkey. Hmm. Purely coincidence, I assure you.

Update on my last post ... the sun came out less than twenty-four hours after I posted, and it helped lift my mood, thankfully. I'm taken aback to be so affected by the gray skies after spending my whole life not minding them. Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and helpful suggestions. It must be a very hard thing to deal with depression on an ongoing basis. I've had a glimpse, a mere blink, relatively speaking, and I feel more than ever for all those who struggle.


28 comments:

  1. Loved your videos - and the purr and the clock add immeasurably to them.
    Deer and homely sounds...
    Ahhh.
    And yes, depression is a vicious beast. And a skilled liar. Anyone who lives with it permanently has my respect. And awe. And sorrow. I am very glad that the sun came out for you, literally and metaphorically.

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    1. Yes, and yes, and yes ... I've seen how it affects my family members, among others, and have that respect too.

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  2. As much as I love the deer in our garden they do quite a bit of damage to the plants and trees. I couldn't hear the cat but I did hear the clock. Was that a hearing test for all your readers? :D

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    1. Hah! Well, if you didn't hear something, yes, yes it was :)

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  3. For some reason my work computer won't let me watch the videos -- I get a "missing plugin" message. (Which means it's my fault, not yours!) But the photo is great! You should be glad you're providing for the deer in winter, I suppose. (Kinda like me with our pigeons.)

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    1. True, although one rhododendron isn't going to last very long :)

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  4. Wow, the were really sucking those leaves back. I did hear your lovely homely sounds.

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    1. I watched him for quite awhile; he really had to yank the leaves off. They must be firmly attached :)

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  5. Deer are such beautiful creatures. Videos are nicely done and I heard the clock chime!

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    1. Well done, Geo. :) Deer are considered destructive, too, but ... humans can be so much worse, without a good excuse a lot of the time. Deer just want to fill their empty bellies!

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  6. Steve: You have to have Flash to watch those videos. I don't use it normally, as it is not secure, so I can't watch them in Firefox, so I fire up the Microsoft browser and they play just fine it that.

    My father always cautioned against feeding wild animals. He seemed to think it would distract them from their normal strategies for getting food and turn them into persistent pests. I did, however, notice him leaving a row of alfalfa standing after we harvested the rest of it to "attract the deer".

    The sun came out today here also, so I get to walk this afternoon. I grew up in Eureka, which is on the shore of Humboldt Bay, and it is persistently foggy there, I think even more than San Francisco. It was always depressing in the summer there, as you could drive five miles in any direction (except West) and be in 80F sunshine go-swim-in-the-river weather, and then on the drive home you round that last corner and there's the fog, sitting right there where you live. My mood improved a lot when I moved to Oakland for various reasons, and that was definitely one of them.

    -Doug in Oakland

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    1. Hmm. I wonder what the suicide and homicide rates were like in that pocket of foggy weather. Seriously.

      We've never fed the deer but one of our neighbours used to do so. Well, I might have put some apples out once or twice when I was cleaning out the fridge ...

      Hope you enjoy your walk! We're holding a snowstorm here at the moment, so I don't need to feel guilty about not being able to walk ...

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  7. Aw, cute! I always love seeing deer, which doesn't happen very often unless we drive on the country roads. But we do get lots of other critters visiting our backyard, which is always fun. The most destructive are the rabbits. They eat anything and everything. I don't really care. I think I grow most of the plants for them!

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    1. I think rabbits would be fun to have around! Better than skunks, at any rate :)

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  8. i think your camera is doing fine .
    deer looks great and an invited guest as the way he is eating .
    after my marriage it's been more then twenty years that i live in a city and miss my native village so much .wild life wandering around makes one feel much related to nature

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    1. Thank you, baili. An invited guest - haha! I don't mind them eating the plants.

      You are right, it is much easier to feel connected to nature when you can see the trees and animals up close.

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  9. You are so lucky to have animals come into your space to snack. Your camera and sound are fine and I say grow snacks for them. They have to live and eat too. Regarding the other issues, wait till your foot heals and take one thing at a time. Otherwise you may drive yourself crazy and what good is that?

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    1. It really is nice to see the deer up close. I don't mind them eating and even pooping - they're vegetarian, after all, no worse than a horse and less of it :) Good advice; thanks, e.

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  10. The deer have to eat, too. A Canadian friend from not-too-far across the border always referred to them as "ditch donkeys". The videos turned out just fine.

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    1. I hadn't heard that name for them before - but it's true they tend to jump up from the ditch to cross the road ... unfortunately.

      The secret to the videos was to get up close and personal. Easy to do through a window. Not so easy to do in person :)

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  11. Cute video! I love wildlife visits. In our neck of the woods we get giant jackrabbits. We use them to predict the weather.

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    1. It's a thrill to see wildlife up close (as long as a person is safe), isn't it? I don't know how to predict the weather except to read the forecast. You need to write about that - if you haven't already ...

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  12. So exotic to see deer. We are used to kangaroos eating around us, although they tend to eat the grass. I suppose that is exotic to some! I see the deer heard the clock chime too. xo Jazzy Jack

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    1. Kangaroos would be exotic here, for sure! The deer eat the grass here, too, until it dies back in the fall. Then they eat more leaves because they are more accessible. I feel sorry for animals here in the dead of winter. Food becomes a big issue. Thanks for visiting, JJ.

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  13. I love deer.We saw some beautiful ones the other day when I was home in Maine visiting family.Not as close up as your videos, though.

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    1. The ones you saw were likely first cousins of ours - you were just a holler away from us!

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