Doris Finch dropped by today to report on her sightings of bear, coyote, coy-dog (maybe) and fox (past tense). Thanks Doris. We haven't seen anything with claws over here lately, but we do have a small family group of deer that graze our hillside. They are quite tame, so Norah was able to walk quite close to them and snap a few pics. Unfortunately the light was a bit low for our digicam so they mostly came out blurry. You can check out the ones that more or less came out here. (There are also some interesting recent insect pics to see at that link.)I have been wondering if we should try to frighten the deer so they don't become too used to people. I remember in the story of Gentle Ben (a grizzly), when it was time to send him off into the wild, the boy tossed fire-crackers and things to make him shy of people. I must admit, I worry about tame deer attracting mountain lions further down. Our new kitties are strictly indoor cats. We lost our two previous cats recently, suspecting coyotes, but as Isaac pointed out, it could just as well have been the mountain lions.
I recommend frightening the deer for a number of reasons, the cougar attraction being a big one. They can also be awful pests in yard and garden and their ticks do carry Lyme disease, though it is still pretty rare out here. My son, when hiking in the Sierra, was bitten by a deer tick [Ixodes pacificus, which I identified under the microscope] and later tested positive for lyme Disease antibodies. Luckily no symptoms. Lastly, have you been reading about deer attacks in other areas with overpopulations? One guy died of his goring. I've thrown away the NY Times in which the account appeared, but it was a pretty good source.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever get the coyote image from my house sitter, I'll pass it along.