Sky Watch Friday-A Cold Front Brings Relief

The passing of a cold front on Tuesday evening, brought a welcome relief from the recent heat and high humidity. Wednesday morning was clear and beautiful with an invigorating tang in the air before warming at mid day.

Canon 40-D: 17-40mmF4L

I have sighted a lot of wildlife lately, but have not had another good opportunity to photography fawns. I did see another doe with a fawn in a wooded area, but had no chance to use the camera. I noticed the chipmunk in the photograph below as I was driving a narrow, winding back road. He ran under the log when I stopped, but I got the camera in position, and he soon returned for a good photo op.

Canon 40-D: 100-400mm L at 365 mm-1/125sec. f5.6 ISO 800

The woodchucks have been frequent visitors to the meadow. The first shot is of the mother, while the second is a juvenile. They have grown quite a bit since the post where the entire family was pictured in one shot.

Canon 40-D: 500mmF4 L -1/350 sec. f5.6 ISO 100

Canon 40-D: 500mmF4 L -1/180 sec. f8 ISO 100

I hope to have more encounters with the fawns soon, but they are the ones that set the agenda and all I can do is to be prepared and try to make the best of the situation when it happens again!

For more sky watch photos visit Tom at Wigger's World

The First Fawn Of The Year

The First Fawn Arrives

Surprisingly the doe I featured in the last post has not yet given birth, but some of the other does in the herd that visits the meadow apparently have. It can be difficult to tell for sure because some of the older does that have had fawns several times before may still appear pregnant if one looks only at the distended abdomen. It is best to look in front of the hips. If that area is sunken and the ribs and other bony structures stand out, it is certain that birth has occurred. The doe in the photo below illustrates this well, but few deer show it to this extent. This deer is eight years old and in good health. She has had one or two fawns each year since 2003 and always looks thin and bony in the summer.

Canon 40D: 100--400mmL at 310mm 1/90 f5.6 ISO 500

She missed coming to the meadow on Thursday evening, but I saw her at a distance and her flanks appeared to be sunken. On Friday evening she brought a fawn to the meadow. I videotaped the fawn nursing at very close range and then went to get the still camera. The deer had moved off some distance when I returned, but I was still able to get a good photograph with the 100-400mm lens.

Canon 40D: 100--400mmL at 400mm 1/250 f5.6 ISO 400

On Saturday morning she came to the meadow without the fawn and stayed a short time. When she left I followed at a discreet distance with the video camera on the tripod and the 40D on my chest with the 300mm lens attached and the 75-200 in my camera bag. The doe went through some thickets and woods along a roadside so I was able to walk in the roadway. Eventually I saw her stop in some thick brush and then I saw a little head bobbing about. I spent the next fifteen minutes or so taking video footage of the fawn feeding.

Eventually they went in to a more open area and I carefully followed behind. At one point I recorded them interacting at close range. Soon I had a satisfactory amount of video so I changed to the DSLR and took several shots with both lenses. Only a few were keepers, as the light was less than ideal in many instances and the animals were continually moving in and out of areas where plant growth interfered with getting a good composition.

Canon 40D: 70-200mmL at 200mm 1/180 f3.5 ISO 500

Canon 40D: 300mm F4 L at 1/180 f4 ISO 500

We were almost back to the meadow by the time the last photos were taken. This is classic whitetail behavior in that the deer did not return to the fawn directly but took a long, looping route to go to it, while it was hidden only a short distance from the meadow if she had walked straight to it.

At this point it is not clear if she has just this fawn or if there are twins. The does hide twins in separate places for the first few weeks after birth to increase their chances of survival. (A coyote or bear would have to find each one in separate encounters, rather than being able to kill both in one instance)

Sky Watch Friday-Wildlife In The Meadow

The weather has been very unsettled lately providing many opportunities for photographing unique cloud formations. I spend most early mornings and late evenings at this time of year at a favorite meadow, which I described in the previous post. I captured these beautiful cumulus clouds as I was leaving the area on last Friday Morning.

Canon 40D: 17-40mmF4L at 17mm 1/750 sec. f8 ISO 100

Late May and early June brings exciting action to the outdoors. The young of many species are born in this time frame. A family of woodchucks made the day on the morning of June 1. I had loaned "Salty" of Country Captures my 100-400mm lens since I seldom used it. He liked it so well that he purchased one recently, so I pressed mine back into service and I am finding that it works much better on the Canon 40D than it did on the 10D. I had found that this lens would not stand up to severe cropping on the 10D while the superb 500mmF4 and the 70-200mm 2.8 would. Salty used the lens on a Canon 30D and it was obvious that this lens performed much better on that camera. I am pleased with the results so far on the 40D. This lens is not as sharp as the 500mmf4, but one misses a lot of opportunities with that lens because of the difficulty of getting it in action unless one is on stand with it mounted on a tripod, waiting for wildlife to appear. The 100-400mm allows one to take the quick shot of a situation that is not going to last.

Canon 40D-100-400mmLF3.5-5.6 1/180sec. f5.6 ISO 400

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first newborn fawns. This is perhaps my favorite doe. She is totally acclimated to me and spends a lot of time feeding near my stand. She is six years old. She had a single fawns for two years, but had a set of twins last year-one a buck and the other a doe. Judging from the size of her distended abdomen I predict that she will have twins again this year, but I may or may not see them. It is common for deer to lose one or all of their fawns due to problems in the birthing process or predation. In this area the most common predators are coyotes and black bears. Does are more likely to lose the fawns at birth following a severe winter as the strain of survival can negatively impact the fawns development. Since it was a mild winter the chances for survival are excellent.

Canon 40D-100-400mmLF3.5-5.6 1/180sec. f5.6 ISO 400

In all likelihood she will give birth in the next few days. This morning I noticed that she did not follow her fawns from last year when they went to the mountain to lie up for the day, but slipped into the brush near a stream. This is a good indication that birthing time is quite near.


I hope to be able to post photographs of the newborn soon, but they do not always co-operate. I have seen fawns within a day of when they were born, but sometimes it is a week or more until they appear. (One can tell birth has occurred by observing the doe closely. If she looks like the doe above one day and appears the next with sunken flanks and a smaller abdomen, one knows the fawns have been born.)

For more Sky Watch photographs visit Tom at Wigger's World

Planting A Meadow For Wildlife

There are likely several approaches that work quite well in planting a meadow for wildlife, but over the years I have adopted an approach which we shall discuss today.

One must have access to land and equipment in order to pursue a project such as this. I use a farm tractor to prepare the land. First it is plowed and then disked to work the soil into suitable condition. At that point I put seed into a broadcast seeder which mounts on the tractor's three point hitch and plant the basic mixture which serves as a cover crop during the first year. After this planting, I then repeat the process using Ladino Clover which will make an excellent forage crop during the second year.

If one has a grain drill, these operations can be combined into one operation, but drills are so expensive as to preclude buying one solely for this purpose. Many use a no-till drill to perform the same function. In this case the land is sprayed with a herbicide which kills the original vegetation and then the ground is seeded with a drill which is able to place the seed into the earth. I have never felt comfortable with this process as I do not like the idea of killing vast amounts of vegetation with chemicals. It doesn't seem that this is best for wildlife or humans either! This approach has taken over much of modern agriculture and is actually pushed as a soil conservation concept. A Plow turns up the soil, leaving no root network, and gives the maximum potential for soil erosion if done improperly. Treating the soil with chemicals leaves the root system intact and thus prevents soil erosion.

My favorite mixture is composed of oats and Essex dwarf rape for cover crop. The oats grow tall and ripen with a head of seeds, which is the same as the light colored seeds in the picture below.
This crop is a favorite food of whitetail deer, turkeys, and many varieties of birds. It usually ripens sometime in July. Essex dwarf rape is the small black seed, it is primarily a forage crop for the whitetails. In an area of low deer population this plant will also develop a seed head in addition to providing forage throughout the winter. A large amount of it will likely re-emerge in the following spring. In an area with a large deer population such as where this is planted, it is mostly eaten by mid-summer.

Essex Dwarf Rape and Oats

Perhaps the key ingredient for my intended use is Ladino Clover which grows in the understory of the grain field during the first year, but turns into a carpet of nutritious grass the following year.

Ladino Clover Seed

Oats and Rape-soon after sprouting. The oats are the long, thin stalks

Ladino Clover in the second year

The above photo shows a meadow, as I like to see it in late spring and early summer. A meadow such as this should host a thriving wildlife and insect community.

The tall plants are thistles. They give my farmer friends nightmares and they can't understand why I don't remove them. The thistles will provide food to bees and butterflies when it blooms and gives superb photo opportunities, but the farmers are correct in their case as these cause problems when they grow in hay or pasture fields. They may also be a problem if they are not controlled in a wildlife meadow. They may become so thick as to kill the grass. I usually implement a judicious mowing policy to keep the thistles and tall grasses under control. It is a delicate balance. If the grass and thistle, are too thick and tall it is impossible to see the wildlife that visits, but a field that is mowed closely provides little food for wildlife and is an unattractive background for photographs as well.

Mixture Planting Information:
Oats: 2 bushel per acre
Essex Dwarf Rape: 2 lbs per acre
Ladino Clover: 8 lbs. per acre
Fertilizer: about 200lbs. per acre

This should be planted from early April through early May if possible to have the best chance of succeeding should the weather turn dry in the summer.