As the end of our special, extended doe and spike season nears, (Sunday, 30 minutes after sunset), a lot of wildlife, deer of course, come around the corn and protein feeders.  Young bucks come by, some after dark like this young 8 pointer.  He’s been seen before, in fact I’ve seen him twice, both times when I hunted (camera less) out of MaMaw’s blind.

The squirrels and dove come around regularly, but this “shot” shows 2 birds that I can’t identify.  The back one may be a female cardinal, but I’ve not seen any of them around for the past couple of weeks, however, the one in the foreground has me stumped.

This “shot” is of a coon bowin’ up to a red fox, the coon, in spite of its bluster, beat a retreat, leaving the field to the fox.
    
This young buck, a 6 pointer, has figured out that if he wants corn, to raise up and balance himself with his forepaws, then use his nose, or tongue, to turn the feeder spindle, making the corn come out.  This feeder, by the tree stand, is nearing empty, so the buck’s efforts may be to no avail, but this fellow has a lot of practice rooting the feeder in front of MaMaw’s blind.
     
Finally, this cottontail rabbit stopped by to try the corn that is very scarce at this feeder.

On Dec 26, (Boxing Day in some parts) 12 dove are feeding.  They sure don’t look like 12 drummers drumming either!

The big wounded deer was “shot” just after 8:00 AM on Dec 23, with a wound on his brisket.  Then he was “shot” a little after 1:00 PM (still haven’t set the clock back) on the 26th going after a doe.  Judging by the width and makeup of the horns, this is the same buck shown on Dec 23rd “shot”, however, in this picture, the wound doesn’t show, but maybe, just maybe, he shows a nick on the front left.  The “shot” on the 26th is the last time that he’s been around, hopefully, he’s survived the last week of the season!
    
Just after 8:00 AM a Bobcat came by the corn feeder at MaMaw’s blind on Jan 4.  Two weeks ago, I saw this one in the County Road and still I can’t tell what variety it is, my guess a female.  Two years ago, on the last day of deer season, see my post on January 3, 2010, “[Wesley Breaks The Ice]”, we both scored, he collected a nice doe and I claimed a big, male bobcat.

Probably the last spike, game cam “shots” showed we had 4 coming around the feeders, 2 have been harvested, one ran afoul of a barb wire fence, so this is the survivor.   Tuesday morning, Mickey Donahoo is coming over to try his hand on a spike or doe and his rifle is resighted in, so no miss this time (hopefully).

No collection of outdoors pictures would be complete without a picture of the big buck that Colton shot on Christmas Eve, not the “shot” of a happy hunter beaming over a good buck, but a European mount (to be) of the old deer.  The picture also includes Colton’s knife and his bloodstained truck.

More pictures of the young buck, now named the “reacher”, that definitely has broken the code and figured out how to maximize his “chow time”!  He’s shown reaching his nose and mouth into the feeder mechanism and getting his fill and punctually, every morning around 8:00 AM, he comes by and helps himself. Daily, we count on him coming by MaMaw’s blind and putting on his show, but this morning, Wesley and I were waiting in ambush at the blind, the “reacher” came by, but no show.  We both wondered if shooting the big buck scared him some?
    
This time of year, driving by the stock tank on the corner of Highway 16 and County Road 406, I always look over and check to see if any ducks are present.  These “shots” shows some northern shovellers, Anas clypeata, AKA, spoonbills, spoonies, smilin’ mallards, heads down, using their spoonbills to browse and a widgeon drake, a pretty duck that almost looks like a decoy.  He was the only widgeon on the stock tank, obviously waiting for more of his breed to show up.

Wesley, after his successful buck find for Randy, sent me a “shot” of the buck he killed on November 10th.  Notice the date of the “shot” is November 9th.  Wesley is on his way to becoming an excellent deer hunter and tracker.

One of my Senior Softball buddies, Billy Hill from the Austin area, sent me this shot of a nice backyard buck taken on the day before the rifle season opened, November 5th.

The same day I got some “shots” of a really big, 5-1/2 year old, buck and a young 6 pointer.  We have seen the big buck once since the opener, right at dusk/dark, at 220 yards, moving through the thick stuff. We’ve seen the young 6 chasing doe several times.  It’s funny how the really big ones seem to know when the rifle season opens and then just disappear when the shooting starts!

Yesterday, on my way home from town, one of my neighbor’s stock tank held a bunch of early arrival, widgeon ducks and using my telephoto, got this “shot”.  Thinking at first that the 3 ducks with yellow bills were female gadwalls, they also are a light color with a blaze of white along their shoulders, maybe they are a widgeon/gadwall hybrid?  They definitely are traveling with a group of male widgeons.

What’s “Meep, Meep?”  That’s the sound the roadrunner made when being chased by the coyote in the old “Looney Tunes” cartoons.  When I was a kid, all of my pals and I would eagerly wait for the latest “Looney Tunes” cartoons and hope it was a new one featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, they were our favorites!  Around my ranch in central Texas, there are lots of roadrunners, but these don’t make the “Meep, Meep” sound, but a sound much like the cooing of a dove.  The “Meep” sound in the cartoons, according to Wickipedia, was recorded by a man named Paul Julian.

However, Monday afternoon while I was going outside the rock house to continue my chores, I looked up, and of all things, a roadrunner was standing in the driveway.  Running back into the house to get my camera, the bird had moved a little, it happened to be looking the other way and I got this “shot”.

Roadrunners are ground cuckoos, geococcyx californianus and eat lizards, mice, scorpions and snakes.  In fact, roadrunners are so fast they can catch, kill and eat rattle snakes!

Monday’s roadrunner continued hunting around my front yard catching 2 grasshoppers and by standing real still, moving only my arms and the camera, I got these 2 “shots, one on the rock wall in front of the old house and the other in the front yard.
    
After posing for these “shots” the roadrunner ran out into the field and continued  hunting, but it never said, “Meep, Meep.”

Getting to know the feeding habits of the many deer using my 2 feeders is one of the benefits of game cameras, one remains at the feeder by Ma Maw’s Blind, the other is on a game trail near a tripod stand.  One buck, a nice 8 pointer, but with scrawny brow tines, keeps showing up around Ma Maw’s feeder, showing up with several other bucks and any day now, the fights will start!

On the 12th, he was with a young 8 pointer.

Then on the 14th, early in the morning when it was still dark, he showed up with another buck, horn size unknown.  Then 3 hours later he was staring down a cottontail and another hour passed he then showed up with the wide 6 pointer.  Notice in this “shot” his neck is filling out.

Just before sun up on the 15th, the young, scraggly 8 pointer and our pot bellied buck are staring down a coon.

Just before sunrise on the 16th, our big, buck and another unidentifiable deer are feeding, while the wide 6 is outside of the feeder enclosure looking on.

At almost the same time the next day, the 17th, our big, buck is teamed up feeding with the young, scraggly 8 pointer.  His neck is getting bigger too!

For the past 14 months, besides enduring extreme heat, our southwestern states have undergone a severe drought!  The heat and lack of rain has taken their toll, especially on the formation of buck’s horns.  Our rain of 2 weeks ago has brought a real “greening” up of forbs (broadleaf weeds), a mainstay of deer’s diet, with fruit and acorns making up much of the balance.  Around here, central Texas, we’ve had a very poor season for acorns and pecans, fruit, when the deer can find it is a bonus, but with the lack of rain, fruit trees didn’t produce either.

All of this leads me to say that I may not shoot a big buck this year.  With our one buck, with the horns outside of the ears, limit this year, maybe I’ll hold out for the 9 or 10 pointer that I’ve gotten 2 “shots” of earlier, but a young spike for the table and several doe for the unfortunate of our community, may max me out this year.

Monday night I had gone to the Goldthwaite High School Booster Club meeting to watch the film taken October 10th of us playing Reagan County in football.  We won the game (again), but when I got home, Layla told me that she had counted 29 deer browsing in the field behind our house and that’s a lot of deer!

We had 6, plus inches of rain last Saturday night and Sunday morning, not a real drought breaker, but enough to fill the stock tanks, get the creeks running and even getting the Colorado River flowing again!  The rain revived the Johnson grass in our field and, in turn, stimulated the forbs and deer browse, drawing the deer like magnets.

Thursday night, sitting on our back porch, I got these “shots” in total of 19 deer, since the camera lens wasn’t wide enough to capture all them.  This “shot” is of 5, not joining the big “herd”, browsing along the fence line.

This “shot” shows 14 deer, count ‘em, out in the field.  Every evening there are anywhere from a dozen to the 29 that Layla saw, they come from all around!

One big buck coming into a feeder is unusual, two big bucks coming in is really unusual, maybe the secret is the protein pellets I’ve added in equal amounts to the corn!  The past month the big, pot bellied buck has regularly come into the corn feeder close to Layla’s blind, or “Ma-Maw’s Blind”, as everyone calls it.  He shows up every day around 7:30 AM and on the morning of the 3rd he showed up at 7:25 and started feeding at 7:27.
    
On the morning of the 4th, 7:09 found him feeding again.  He kept at it until 7:22.
    
Then after 6:00 PM on the 4th a big new buck showed up. He could be anywhere from an 8 to a 10, heavy horns, with good mass judging from his left horn.  The pot bellied buck is in the foreground, his face is shortening up, his neck is already getting thick and notice how “trim” the new buck is, really good for a low fence place, but in two to three weeks both will be competing for doe.  My money is on the new guy on the block!

Either of these bucks would be a “wall hanger”, either buck would probably give anyone in central Texas buck fever, so lets see if they keep coming around the corn feeder and maybe somebody will get lucky.

Last Saturday, while working on my food plots (where’s the rain?), I pulled both my right and left quads in my back and have been laid up since then, not even knowing there were any quads in my back, I tried to keep going, but finally, I couldn’t even stand up straight.  Monday, the doc advised me to keep heat on the back and he gave me some stretching exercises for the muscles, but it hurts like heck getting in and out of bed!

After breakfast Wednesday morning, still laid up, I happened to glance outside and a spotted fawn, it seems late for them to still have spots, was walking in the backyard, right by the house and hurrying (slowly) back to get Layla’s camera, raising the blinds and through the window and screen, got this “shot” of the fawn walking in the backyard.

Then the fawn walked the length of the house, turned around and started browsing and I got these “shots” through the back door.
     
Then the fawn did something most strange, it walked over under a big mesquite tree and lied down, giving me this “shot”.

Hunching down, the only way I can walk now, I shuffled over to the old, rock house to scan the pictures of the deer and out of the corner of my eye, as I walked, stole a glance and the fawn was still under the tree, happily snoozing!

Later in the afternoon, as I was walking back to the “big” house carrying my camera, glancing over, I saw the fawn had moved and was sitting in the shade of the grand kids playhouse and I got this “shot”.

Thursday afternoon the little deer was back under the mesquite tree.  Looks like it’s got a new home!

Over the last week we’ve had .7 inches of rain, not a drought buster, but certainly well received! The rain has caused the forbs and little greens the deer eat to come out and browse more, but some big bucks have been frequenting the new feeder.  The first to come up on the 24th of last month was this tall 9 pointer.  This was not the 9 pointer shown in my post of September 15th, “[The Water Trough]”.

Later that morning a wide 8, another new, husky buck, showed up accompanied by a younger 6.

On the 25th a scraggly 8, seen before, came in to get a bite.

The morning of the 26th a 7 came in, then a little later a wide 6 showed.  Both of these deer have been “shot” before,
    
Finally this “magnificent” spike, 2 curved horns and all, came in.  This one shows vivid results of our prolonged drought!