A pear draws three #phenology

Yesterday afternoon a doe and two yearlings came to visit the pear tree. The helped themselves to some of the lowest leaves. Why? Perhaps pear leaves taste better than maple saplings, or new oak leaves, or aspen or... The reality is, we've no idea. While this hangry threesome were closer to the house, several other whitetails were nearer the back edge of the property, checking out whatever is growing there. This is the first time since Winter that we've seen (m)any deer on or around our property.

yearling noshing on pear tree

Photo by J. Harrington

As yet, there are no fawns to be seen. They'll probably show up in a month or so. We suspect that one of the reasons all those deer appeared yesterday is that we've recently had a rather large hatch of mosquitoes or gnats or some other biting, flying insect. We first noticed them earlier in the day yesterday, while we were spraying some poison ivy. Our guess is that the deer moved out of the woods into more open fields to enjoy a breeze that may have helped hold the bugs down, or at least away.

fawns appear in early June

Photo by J. Harrington

Watching wildlife is one of the major pleasure of living where we do. We watched the deer browse on the pear tree until the yearlings wandered down to taste the forsythia and the lilac. Then we yelled at them and the scampered away. In addition to the appearance of deer, several species of dragonflies arrived in the yard recently, probably related to the emergence of flying bugs that can serve as dragonfly dinners in addition to annoying whitetails and humans. See, it all works together, somehow.

Vision

Robert Penn Warren, 1905- 1989

I shall build me a house where the larkspur blooms
        In a narrow glade in an alder wood,
Where the sunset shadows make violet glooms,
        And a whip-poor-will calls in eerie mood.

I shall lie on a bed of river sedge,
        And listen to the glassy dark,
With a guttered light on my window ledge,
        While an owl stares in at me white and stark. 

I shall burn my house with the rising dawn,
        And leave but the ashes and smoke behind,
And again give the glade to the owl and the fawn,
        When the grey wood smoke drifts away with the wind.

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