Wildlife in the City

The deer have won!  Earlier in the spring, we had been able to keep the deer from eating the tulips,  but I never dreamed that they like roses so much.  Every single rose bush in the front yard  had all the new buds neatly chomped off right where the bud meets the stem.   I just hope we get more buds on the plants this year so I can enjoy the roses, too.

Although we live in the city, we have a lot of wildlife in our neighborhood.  Just this morning, right outside the kitchen window, there was a doe and her two tiny fawns, grazing in the neighbor's yard.  (Maybe she was the one that ate my roses; if so, that's OK.  She has to take care of her babies.)  There are at least two bucks in the immediate neighborhood, one of which is a really big boy with a very large rack, maybe 10 points.   Last fall, I was walking through the back yard and he was out by the lake bank with several does.  He turned, looked at me, put his head down and pawed at the ground.  Guess who went the other way.  

On the day in May that we moved the Norfolk Island pine from inside the house to  outside in the back yard, two mourning doves (Scarlet and Rhett) set up housekeeping in the next to the top branch of this tree.  So far this spring, they have had two sets of twins; the latest of which has just hatched.  There is also a robin's nest on the house next door sheltering a growing family.

Last  fall, while walking the dog, I saw a fox on the other end of the block.  He was there for well over an hour and didn't seem at all intimidated by people.  Of course, there are the skunks,  raccoons, squirrels, ground hogs, opossums and rabbits in addition to all the different birds.  It is exciting to see a bald eagle fly along the lake bank, and even more so to spot an osprey.  But I also like the blue herons and the flittery kingfisher.  

And did I mention the coyote?