I don’t know what it is about this season, but the deer are eating plants that they normally aren’t much interested in. We’ve had plenty of rain and there’s plenty of new growth. I’m thinking of calling our joint the Emerald Isle Ranch—something like that. Leaves and grasses are prolific and the streams are swollen. Yet, the deer are eating things like Astilbe—only the flowers, however. They’re also munching on the Holly leaves, something the deer will readily do in winter but this is the first time I’d seen it in summer. The oddest thing of all is that they’re eating the tiger lilies and the coreopsis, usually nipping the tenderest parts, the buds.
I’m not angry at the deer and like them very much, enough to be willing to share our plants with them. I do have some pretty excellent deer repellant, made of an organic compound, but I’ve been hesitant to spray it because it hasn’t stopped raining. Here in Pennsylvania, we’re having a regular monsoon season.
But it’s nice to see the little fawns in spring, even though they are plant predators. The deer are one of the happiest things about Pennsylvania, second only to the variety of plant life. There is an article I wrote for Associated Content which may be of interest. Take a look at it by clicking on the headline of this article. Or pop it into your URL line.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/978654/ten_deer_resistant_plants_for_deer_pg2.html?cat=32
Piliated Woodpeckers are notoriously shy so it's rare to see them, let alone two of them at the same time. The photo is blurry but I thought I'd post it anyway. In our part of Pennsylvania, we are lucky to have so many of these large birds. I've encountered them up close several times, but those are fleeting moments. I'm not fast enough to get a close shot. These photos are blurred b/c they were taken from our living room window. The PIliated Woodpecker usually feeds on insects in dead trees, often on the ground. I've seen them at work tearing up the wood and sending chips flying. Do these birds know something I don't? I think that tree is still alive but maybe their appearance is prophetic. We'll see..
