Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: 5 September 2016

Yesterday, 5 September 2016, was one of those days that I wasn't really feeling like bothering to get myself ready and go for a walk, but something kept 'telling' me to go. So, I drove over to Fish Creek Park, hoping that I would be able to find one of the Black-crowned Night-herons that people have been seeing recently. Last year, I was lucky enough to see a juvenile on a couple of occasions at this location. However, I was out of luck with the herons and everything else, till just before I got back to my car. I spotted a patch of tan colour way off in the distance, through the bushes. Stopping to take a better look, I saw that it was a beautiful doe and her twins. They walked up a slight hill and I was able to get a clear look at them. Yes, the photo is blurry, but I so rarely see White-tailed Deer fawns, so I wanted to post the image for the record. Love it when the young ones still have their white spots. Definitely worth getting lightly rained on : ) "White-tailed deer, the smallest members of the North American deer family, are found from southern Canada to South America. In the heat of summer they typically inhabit fields and meadows using clumps of broad-leaved and coniferous forests for shade. During the winter they generally keep to forests, preferring coniferous stands that provide shelter from the harsh elements. Female deer, called does, give birth to one to three young at a time, usually in May or June and after a gestation period of seven months. Young deer, called fawns, wear a reddish-brown coat with white spots that helps them blend in with the forest. White-tailed deer are herbivores, leisurely grazing on most available plant foods. Their stomachs allow them to digest a varied diet, including leaves, twigs, fruits and nuts, grass, corn, alfalfa, and even lichens and other fungi. Occasionally venturing out in the daylight hours, white-tailed deer are primarily nocturnal or crepuscular, browsing mainly at dawn and dusk. In the wild, white-tails, particularly the young, are preyed upon by bobcats, mountain lions, and coyotes. They use speed and agility to outrun predators, sprinting up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) per hour and leaping as high as 10 feet (3 meters) and as far as 30 feet (9 meters) in a single bound." From National Geographic. animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/white-tail...

Yesterday, 5 September 2016, was one of those days that I wasn't really feeling like bothering to get myself ready and go for a walk, but something kept 'telling' me to go. So, I drove over to Fish Creek Park, hoping that I would be able to find one of the Black-crowned Night-herons that people have been seeing recently. Last year, I was lucky enough to see a juvenile on a couple of occasions at this location. However, I was out of luck with the herons and everything else, till just before I got back to my car. I spotted a patch of tan colour way off in the distance, through the bushes. Stopping to take a better look, I saw that it was a beautiful doe and her twins. They walked up a slight hill and I was able to get a clear look at them. Yes, the photo is blurry, but I so rarely see White-tailed Deer fawns, so I wanted to post the image for the record. Love it when the young ones still have their white spots. Definitely worth getting lightly rained on : ) The black clouds and drizzle had rolled in, just in time for my walk and for the drive home.