Deer Turf War

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 94, low 73)

It was a strange day weather-wise yesterday.  We took a drive to look at a small outboard motor that Al had found on a Craig's List posting.  He wants a “kicker” for our boat, so that if the main motor won’t start, we can get in without having to call Sea Tow.  On the way to east Tampa, to look at the motor, we kept running into really hard rain, with bright sunny skies.  No thunder and lightning, just rain and sunshine.  Sunny skies and hard rain was common when we lived on Guam, but rare here. 

 

We ended up buying the motor, so Al can quit “whining”  :)

Weather permitting, we try to sit outside every night for happy hour.  We have so much wildlife here, we can always count on seeing something interesting.

Our campground is very close to I-75,  and in fact our site is less than a quarter of a mile away from the interstate.

Despite the close proximity to civilization, it’s amazing the amount of wildlife that lives in the greenbelt area right behind our site. Unfortunately, it’s probably because they don’t have anywhere else to live.

So last night, we sat there armed with adult beverages and my little Canon camera.  I ended up regretting not having my big Canon with the faster shutter!

When we first got to this site, we occasionally saw a group of 4 deer.  Unfortunately, we’ve seen a few deer along the sides of the road that had been hit by a vehicle. 

Lately, we’ve seen only one deer and we thought that was all that was left.

Two nights ago, right before dark, the female brought her baby. We were sure glad to see that.  Unfortunately, it was getting dark and I didn’t have the shutter speed set right, and it was running, so I couldn’t get a good picture. 

Last night, we sat out again, hoping to see the fawn and get a better picture.   We never did see him, but we saw something even better.

The deer we think is the Mama, was there for a while, but the baby never came out.  Mama will come out into the open, but it seems she doesn’t want the baby in plain site.

A few minutes later, I noticed a deer coming from my left, towards Mama deer.  She looked up and it appeared she was getting upset.

Before I knew it, the two deer were charging at each other and ended up rearing up in what appeared to be a short fight.

That’s when I wished I had my BC (big Canon) that doesn’t have a delay when you press the shutter!

It was an amazing site, but unfortunately, not such an amazing picture.

A few minutes later, several more deer ran by and into the woods.  It appeared there was a new group trying to invade the territory of the old group. 

We think we saw 8 different deer last night.

We had to figure out what caused this type of behavior.  We always see groups of deer hanging out together and have never seen any  disputes.  This little tiff appeared to be a dispute over territory.

My theory is that the groups that hang out together are family.  Mothers with babies from previous years and their offspring.  Never any fights.

I’m now thinking that the other group was another family and the first family was trying to run them off. 

I can’t wait to see what happens tonight.  You can be sure I’ll have my big Canon Rebel with my big zoom lens!