The past 3 days, doe and fawns have been very active.  All I had to do was go out on the back porch and start taking pictures, but a real high point for the month was that Sunday night we had a .5 inch rain and a great lightning show!  This doe and her fawn were browsing along when I took this picture.

Algerita bushes are common to the south Texas plains and the Edwards Plateau and Mills County lies on the northern portion of the plateau.  What do algerita bushes have anything to do with outdoors pictures.  The answer to this is, the holly like leaves are an outstanding deer browse and like everything else in Texas, they either stick, (the algeritas case), sting or bite a person, but the deer on the ranch are definitely taking advantage of it! Cattle, goats, sheep and humans can eat the young, tender leaves and wine and jelly can be made out of the berries, plus the wood and roots make a yellow dye that the Indians used.

The first picture is of a doe with its head stuck into one of our many algerita bushes.  The second picture is of 2 doe and their fawns working on the same bush, look closely because one fawn is hidden in the grass below a doe and the other is just below the doe’s neck.
    
One of our many algerita bushes is pictured below, the second one shows the fruit of the bush.  Prior to December 2011, the end of our crippling drought, the deer had stripped off most of the leaves of all our algeritas!
    
Early yesterday morning this doe and her fawn were headed in the direction of the same algerita bush, but the flash scared them and they went back into the tall grass, so I kept on with my breakfast and only took this one picture.

Sorry, but I have to relay some bad news.  You may remember the “Comedy Group”, originally there were 4 baby coons and the mother.  Fate has intervened and now there are 2 babies and the mother, the 4th being lost early and 2 days ago I found the remains of the 3rd.  Those remains were not 25 feet from the water trough and from their looks the felon was probably a bobcat!  Below is the last “shot” of them at the corn feeder on the night of July 11.  Now there are 2!

On a lighter note, Randy Pfaff from southern Colorado sent me this picture he took on one of his excursions, a picture of a group of big horn sheep, really nice ones!

Another friend from the Austin area, Billy Hill, sent me these 2 pictures of coyotes coming into water.
    
You know, it’s funny that I have no “shots” of bobcats or coyotes coming into the water trough, but with the closest water being over 3/4ths of a mile away, maybe they’re using it?

We got lots of fawns around here!  The doe have, and are still, dropping fawns, but that should end soon.  One thing though, we are in a drought situation, we had a small rain shower last Friday, maybe 8 or 10 drops in the rain gauge and our forecast for the next 10 days is zero rain and zero percent chance!  Who knows about fawn survival? Hearing on Fox News today that 55 percent of the country is in a severe drought, mostly in the heartland, means woe for our pocketbooks, grocery prices and especially corn prices will go up, up and up and we still have to feed the deer!

But, we still got a lot of fawns this year.  Day before yesterday evening, Layla and I were sitting out on the back porch (in 95 degree weather), musing about the heat, when the doe and their fawns started coming out, so I ran into the house and got my camera and took these pictures.

First out, a doe and her 2 fawns and the doe looked like she could have 2 more, really she’s the oldest doe on the ranch, she’s a wild one and if we get a shot, we’ll get her this hunting season.   Notice these came out by some mesquite trees.

The 2 more fawns showed up, by an oak motte, along with another deer, a young one, probably last years crop of fawns and their doe was hanging out in the thick stuff.

As it got darker, a single fawn and its mom were grazing along the fence

Almost dark, then 2 more fawns showed up and their mother doe was coming up right behind them.  At that distance, the lens wasn’t wide enough to get both the fawns and the doe in one picture.

No bucks showed up this afternoon, they’re quite camera shy, but there’s some real good ones!  This “one buck only” game law and the horns must be outside of its ears, have done wonders for the quality of the bucks.

The comedy group is still with us, but one of the group is not around.  Who knows what happened, but right now, one is missing, maybe cats, or a coyote or even another coon?
    
Fawns, right now I have a bunch, but it’s hard to pair up a fawn with a doe, so I’ll just group the “shots” together.  You know, a doe will bond with another doe’s fawn and take over mothering.  Another thing that I’ve noticed, mature doe are only having a single fawn this year, because of last year’s record drought.  Doe that came into estrus during the first cycle, the time of the drought, are only having one fawn.  By the time of the second cycle, mid December, the weather pattern had changed and we got the much needed, rain.

The last “shot” on the 16th shows a fawn “getting a drink”, while the doe she’s nursing looks like she’ll have another one, could this be a “bonding” issue?

This deer season, 2012, is shaping up to be a winner!  Around here, Mills County, Texas it will be a good “horn” year, there has been a good fawn crop and all of last year’s doe and fawns made it to this year.  Last year, until late December and its rain, we were facing an epic drought, not only Mills County, but all across our State and the southwest.  Conditions are much better now, good rains through the spring, but we could stand a couple of “gully washers”!

Last week, we had gone to Auburn, Alabama to play in a Senior Softball tournament, but the game cams kept “shooting” away.  Bucks are grouping up and will keep doing this until deer season as this “shot” of  5 bucks coming to water shows.

Two days later, 2 more, one a nice one, came in.

The next day, a 7 and 8 pointer came in, followed later by this really good 10 pointer!
    
Two days later this big deer that I’d not seen before came to water, he was a new one and quite camera shy and later these bucks, a 9, 8, 8, and 8 pointers came in.

Then, early the next morning, a doe, spike, a 4 pointer and a pretty good 8 came in followed by a real nice 8.
    
Looks like deer season will be a good ‘un!

Checking the game cam on July 3rd, around the feeder, it appeared that one of the comedy group, a little one, had met its demise, coon versus bobcat equals dead and eaten coon.  But then, on July 7, at the water trough, what showed up, but the momma coon and 4 little ones.
     
Meanwhile, back at the water trough, we’ve been going through a prolonged dry spell, rains on the way, but the wildlife is congregating around the water.  The doe are regularly dropping their fawns now and this “shot” shows 2 doe, 2 fawns, a spike and another doe, either getting a drink or getting ready to.

This “shot” is of a roadrunner and what looks like a spike to be, the spike to be being hesitant to water, but the bird acts as if he owns the place!

Finally, late in the evening of the 7th, the bucks showed up.  The first “shot” is of a nice 6 pointer already well outside of its ears.  What’s bad about this one, he was a 6 last year, a 6 this year and it’s my guess he’ll be a 6 next year, survival is questionable! In the background of the first “shot” a real good 8 is hovering around and he finally comes up after the other bucks have moved off.  He’s outside of his ears too and a much bigger deer than the 6, he’s probably 4 years old, will be 4-1/2 by winter and shootable!

This doe in the background is irritated about something, who knows what?  Maybe the other doe is a stranger?  Maybe she’s eating out of turn? Maybe, maybe maybe, but who knows?

Switching to the water trough, everything needs a drink and this bobcat starts it off.  You know it’s funny that when goats and sheep start dropping their young, bobcats show up, the same with doe, they’re all dropping fawns now and the bobs know it.

Right after the bobcat, up shows the comedy group, a coon and her young, all the animals are reproducing their species now!

Later in the afternoon that day what shows up, but a buzzard.  You never think of them needing water, but they must.

The big bucks are growing their horns!  The first one will be an 8 at least and the second a wide 6, maybe both will add some points when they fill out?
    
And finally, of all things, a snake, unknown variety, shows up and probably makes this very pregnant doe hesitant to get water.  This is the first “shot” of a snake getting water and I know that the last 2 weeks have been extremely hot, but we had showers the last 2 days, cooling things off, but a snake getting a drink, that’s a first!

It’s been over 2 weeks since we’ve had rain, but the 1.5 inches we had 2 weeks ago Thursday came in the nick of time.  Now, the hay is growing the fields are green and, with another rain, we’ll have a good crop!  However, many of the doe are still carrying fawns, 2 are pictured below.
     
The horns on the bucks look good and it appears we’ll have a good “horn” year.  The buck on the right is already well outside of his ears, but it looks like they’ve already gone nocturnal and they aren’t coming to the feeder either.

Finally, a fawn showed up!  Here’s one with her doe going to water.  The doe looks like she’s carrying another fawn?  If you look close on the second “shot”, the spots show.
    
Doe are usually fairly docile, but this one is letting the doe on the left know something is wrong.  Maybe she’s browsing on too much corn?

Just toward dark Friday, a week ago, in the field behind my house, I saw a drama played out.  Two hundred yards away, a turkey hen was moving her brood, 6 poults, 12 to 14 weeks old, that I’ve spotted before, across the field.

A yearling doe that had not been bred the past season got too close and bedlam erupted, I’m sure the doe was just curious.  While the brood took off for the thick cover, the turkey charged the yearling, almost flying into it,. The yearling, pictured below, still looking at the turkey, scampered back under the fence, escaping her wrath, while another doe was staring at the ruckus.
    
Of course I didn’t have the camera, but I ran to the old house and picked it up quickly and started taking pictures.  A picture of the turkey shows her neck stretched out looking for a fight.

And finally, another doe is looking at the turkey, being behind a tree gave me pretty good cover, but the older doe saw me move.

Having never seen this happen before, I was amazed by the turkey hen’s aggression.  When the yearling doe got too close, she exploded into it, giving no thought that she was outweighed by, at least, 40 pounds, but protection of her brood, instinct, was the most important thing.

The game cams keep clicking away, I probably had 400 “shots” to look through, culling them out and came up with 5 that were different and interesting.

The first “shot” shows a coon walking away from the water trough and I call this one “A Coon In The Afternoon.”  Further thought on the “shot” leads me to think that this coon may be rabid, why, because he’s walking away from the water, a rabid animal will not drink water and the game cam would have taken the “shot” if he’d watered.  There’s been a warning around here for rabid skunks, but rabies is readily transmitted and just one bite and the coon’s a carrier.

The next “shot” shows a doe that’s really pregnant and will drop the fawn soon.  Then 3 doe come to the feeder and, of course, they’re showing too.
    
Then 2 bucks come by the feeder and their horns are growing, both will be fine bucks this year, one is almost 4, the other is only 3.  By hunting season the first buck will be 4-1/2 and huntible, he’ll be scarce then!

Now for the real question, what is this animal?  Is it a hog?  Is it some kind of a dog?  No tail is visible, it doesn’t seem to have much of a coat and from the height of the water trough, it definitely is not a deer.  My guess is a young hog, maybe 50 pounds, but it could be a chupacabra?