Deerly Beloved

Here's some evidence that we've got at least one good-sized buck on our farm. He's rubbed all the bark off the trunk of this sapling. He was so busy rubbing the velvet off his antlers that he forgot his hat.
While posting the eastern half of our land on Sunday afternoon, I spooked a great horned owl out of a giant beech stub where it was roosting. What was really interesting about this is that the owl, when it flew away, kept the tree trunk between itself and me. Some of my ivory-billed woodpecker-seeking friends have described this same evasion behavior from the Lord God bird.

Once the deer-hunting season is over, Julie and I will check out the beech stump from a spook-free distance to see if the owl is merely roosting there or has plans to nest there. We've heard a pair of GHOs hooting to each other from our east woods,the male's lower-toned hooting sounded pretty romantic....

Phoebe made this sign for our front door. It's her contribution to my posting effort. Our local schools are closed on the opening day of deer season because if they tried to hold classes very few kids would be present.