Shed Antler Mania or Covid Isolation Neurosis?

Saturday was ok but on Sunday, I was considering building an ark.  I was out looking for antlers both days anyway.  You have to be a little daft to do that in a constant downpour.  Good test of the raingear.

Our newer puppy, Violet, came on the camera tour with me this week.  She hasn't had much off-leash practice.

Grooming this week so I was allowed to get her dirty.  She had a blast. Super Short Video of Violet

And she found this "poop of the week".

The deer are still working on the turnips and radishes.

On Saturday I found three shed antlers. The first two were near the pines.

A couple broken points but huge base.

Deep in the woods I found this one which is from the buck that I called Split.

He also has really nice bases.

Couldn't believe a blooming dandelion in February.

Every where I turned there were more rubs.  Here's a sampling.

I read recently about a fungus that is hosted on cedars and apple trees.  Not good for the apples.  So I'm removing some cedars near my orchard.  I got a couple out by the roots but also broke a couple of them off.  Lots more to do when not so wet.

Just an interesting fungus that I saw on my walk.

It rained all Saturday night and all day Sunday.  Pond overflowing.

I put the raingear on and headed out to keep looking for antlers.

The creeks were unreal.  Video of Culvert Running

I had to rescue a couple of my culverts that were blocked.

Creeks that are dry most of the year were raging.

New waterfalls.

I didn't find any more antlers for the couple hours that I walked around in the pouring rain.  Here's some of the activity at the sunflower seed pile that I put out by the barn.

And the crows also hit the sunflower seeds out by the pond.

The bucks, with or without antlers at this point, are still quite frisky.

And the ones that are still holding onto their antlers are willing to pose.

Deer at the sunflower seed pile by the barn.

And out in the emerging clover field.

How many can you count here?

The usual suspects - coyote...

Kitty cat?

Tom turkeys.

Fox.

And mystery beast,

Joan ventured out for a tour last week in the snow.

All of the snow is gone this week due to the rain.

Flash Update - Mystery Solved!

 Property recovered - found in a set red pajamas in LaGrange IL.

If you're confused, it's a reference to the previous post.

Tracks in the Snow and Shed Antlers

In the last week, we had 6" of snow followed by 1/2" of ice followed by 2" of snow.  That left an interesting structure where some critters scurried across the top layer and others "post-holed" thru to the bottom.  But the traffic patterns in undisturbed snow are always so interesting.  Some of the critters that are around this week

Bobcat and red fox.

Coyote

Here is an almost white skunk showing the track path.

And a gray fox.

Our new puppy, Violet, has taken to watching the bird feeders.

And we've had a lot more than birds at the feeders of late.

I followed these tracks from the feeders right into a stand of pines.

And there was a ton of traffic and some deer beds in the pines.

And look what I found in the first bed that I came to - a fresh shed 5 point antler.  Notice the blood on the snow.

From the pines, the tracks went either to the woods (oaks) or to the barn field.  In the barn field, they've been digging up the few remaining greens under that crusty snow.

I'm pretty sure that these tracks are rabbits.  There are a lot of them around.

More deer tracks and beds in the pines on the other side of the field.

And, at the pond, some brave souls have been tracking across the ice.

A few were deer but there were a lot of others ones too.  The aerator keeps some open water but most of the ice looked pretty sturdy (how do they know)?

This track was near the pond - it just started and stopped like whatever it was flew in.

And this looks like a canine of some sort.

Out to the main field pines and more beds.

I gave up trying to identify all the tracks.  Deer, rabbits, canines, cats, and a lot of smaller stuff (moles, voles, mice, squirrels, possums, skunks, coons) where everywhere.

It was interesting that most of the pines had deer trails and beds but several stands of pines did not - wonder why.

It was a cold day to do the camera tour on foot and the snow structure made it more challenging than usual.

This persimmon tree had been loaded with fruit that was turning prunish.  A flock of robins descended on it and were having a feast. Robins on Persimmons

More deer beds on the edge of the pines along the driveway.

And a track leading from the field into the woods.

This looked like several size canines to me - fox and coyote?

This track had the classic bunny pattern but they were huge and quite spaced out.

I followed another trail out of the pines by the barn and into the woods.  Sure enough, more deer beds.

And look what I found in one of them - more sheds.

Within 5' I found the other side of this pair. 

They were also quite fresh with some blood showing on the roots.

I put a little sunflower seed out this week - we'll see if they like that as well as the corn.

Some of the touring shots on camera from Elliott and Eric's visit.

I'm still finding the buttons and switches that Elliott pushed.

And he seems to have locked Joan's sewing cabinet and misplaced the key.  The little stinker loves knobs, buttons, keys, and switches.  And especially remotes.

You can see where the deer have been digging for clover.

I've been using trekking poles on my walks.

Some of the camera activity.

I did move a camera up to the porch to look over at the bird feeders.  These deer are just outside the dining room.

I put some seed on the ground too which might have created this conflict.