black-tailed deer ~ 11/17/13 ~ at home

 Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

I have yet to figure out if there's a seasonal pattern for when the different groups of deer visit the end of our drive, because it all seems so random. In the past, I've seen groups of females and singular older bucks this time of year. These two young bucks, a first for November, lolled around all day on the barely-there green grass patches and occasionally tangled antlers together.  The day after I took this picture, a third young buck joined these two.  They made me very nervous as they stood at attention only 10 feet from where I was trying to get into the garage.  I've heard various stories of local folks getting into tussles with the deer, to the detriment of people, pets, and cars.

As I was rereading up on Columbian black-tailed deer this morning from all the links I've provided in past IDs, I want to offer kudos to the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife for their excellent "A Sportsman's Guide to Improving Deer Habitat in California".  It's very well written.

black-tailed deer ~ 05/19/13 ~ J's place

Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

Cindy @ Dipper Ranch reminded me to keep an eye out for fawns.  I spotted the last pregnant deer at home about a week before her blog post in the second week of April.  Every year the deer seem to disappear from view for a little more than a month, reappearing with fawns in tow.  I was at a friend's house, 1.4 miles as the crow flies across town on the other side of the Peninsula, when I saw my first 2013 fawn.  It has much darker coloring than any of the ones I've seen at home. And, sure enough the next day, I saw my first fawn at home, which fits right into my late May, early June first sightings.  My friend said that she usually starts seeing fawns in mid-April, but they were about 2 weeks late this year.  I'm fascinated the deer in town have a seasonal presence, as if they mini-migrate from yard to yard.

black-tailed deer ~ 06/16/11 ~ at home

Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

posted 07/03/11 - I had to show off this fella's impressive fuzzy rack. He hung around for a couple days, even tolerating this year's twin fawns as they frolicked around him. It seems to me the deer roam through their territory, aka our neighborhood, and stay at various places at different times. After spotting a pair of adult females without fawns on 06/25/11, I haven't seen anymore deer here for a week now.

black-tailed deer ~ 06/06/11 ~ at home

Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

posted 06/23/11 - There are twins fawns again this year. I can't believe I haven't seen them before now. I really like the first picture of the spotted fawn against the dappled oak leaves. Poor mom couldn't get any privacy.

ps 06/28/11 - In response to the comments about fawns with lumps, here's an informative website Jennifer recommended: www.fawnrescue.org.

tree year project 2011, #6

Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

This poor deer was grazing underneath the coast Douglas-fir tree, so I am including it in this year's Tree Year Project. Despite the total lack of photographic merit in the 2nd and 3rd photos above, I wanted to show this buck's torn ears. Indeed, his right ear is nearly torn in half with the outer edge flopping about, and the left has a decent sized notch in it. I'm assuming this is fairly common, as Jim Coda featured a torn-eared buck in a recent post. Those annual antlers must be a pain! I'm wondering if this is the same buck I saw back on October 28, 2010, especially considering I haven't seen another buck around home in 5 years.

http://thetreeyear.wordpress.com/tree-year-posts/life-on-the-tree/mammals/

black-tailed deer ~ 11/19/10 ~ at home

Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

I believe these three are the mother and her twin females that I spotted back in May of this year. The buck that visited at the end of October stayed around for a couple days and is now gone. I'll admit, I was a little nervous taking out the trash for a few days, because he liked to hang around under the oak tree next to our bins and he'd startle me as he quickly got up from his rest.

Three things to note: 1) the deer seem to love the end of our driveway as a gathering and resting spot, 2) notice the bright green grass in November, and 3) notice the darker winter coat than the chocolate brown in spring.

ps 01/23/11 - For those friends who have dismissed my research into figuring out which subspecies of deer we have on the Central Coast of California, I present this great CDFG pdf, with much thanks to Jim Coda.

black-tailed deer ~ 10/28/10 ~ at home

Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

It seems that all the fashionable nature blogs are featuring deer this fall season, so I thought I'd join in on the game.

Does and fawns are regular visitors, but this is the first time we've ever seen a full-grown buck on our side of the Monterey Peninsula, let alone in our driveway in the 4 1/2 years we've lived here. The horned fellas usually seem to stay on the ocean side around Asilomar and Del Monte Forest, where there are reports of a pet-eating mountain lion every few years. In fact, some people put up posters in their yard saying, "Go away, mountain lion!" as if the big cat could read sharpie and crayola home-made signs. OK, I live in a funny, little town.

This guy looks kind of young, no? The sun was just coming up, so my pics are a bit dark. Plus, I wasn't too eager to head down the stairs to get a closer look and collect greens for my caterpillars, as I've heard the bucks can attack women unprovoked. It's probably local lore, yet I wasn't about to take my chances.

I believe I have finally correctly ID'd this local deer down to subspecies. According to the USGS, there are 11 subspecies of Odocoileus hemionus. For a nice summary of black-tailed deer by Keith Smith, click on the scientific name above. There's much debate about names and subspecies. Mule deer seems to be a generally accepted common name for O. hemionus. I still don't quite understand the antler descriptions between the species/subspecies, but I picked pics to show off this fella's antler shape and huge ears. Interesting to note for those of you not from around here, the common North American white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is apparently not found in California. I'd appreciate hearing if anyone knows of better information.

ps 11/21/10 - For more information on male mule deer, check out this blog post from It's Time to Live. They definitely look different than what's around here.

black-tailed deer ~ 05/21/10 ~ at home

black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

We have twins again this year. Couldn't get the other one in a pic as it was frolicking through the brush. So, it makes me wonder why babies of other animals are so incredibly cute to us humans? As an aside, I'm noticing how dry the grass is already despite a decent amount of rain this spring.

black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

It's always surprising when I go downstairs to take out the trash and find these large deer foraging so close to the bins. I think I surprised them, too!

black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

LOL! This fellow looks like one of those plastic lawn ornaments. Granted, he's on one of the very spendy Spanish Bay golf holes with the hotel rooms in the background.

We learned from a friend in Pebble Beach that the reason most people there have insanely high fences and gates is to keep the ever-present deer out of their gardens. Since it's a gated community anyways, they're not as concerned about security or privacy. I had to laugh. Here in PG, we had a bush planted next to our garage and the deer found it within a few days; I suspect there'll be nothing left of the plant by next week. : (

black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

I finally grabbed the camera fast enough to catch a fawn below our balcony. It's late in the year and has grown quite a bit now. I miss seeing the twins that regularly visited last year. In my previous post earlier this year on March 11, I called the pregnant female a mule deer. Take a note at how lush green the grass was back in March compared to the dried mess that we have here in August. Thanks to another quick Google search, I found an old CDFG report, which identified our local deer as black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus) - so, I managed to get the scientific name correct in the first post. However, Wikipedia has differing opinions on whether what we have in the area is more closely related to the mule deer or the Sitka deer (see link in the common name above). I know so little about deer that I can only present the information I've found. If anyone has better information, I'd be happy to hear about it. Thanks!

black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

This pic of a pregnant deer was taken from our balcony. I actually don't know the local species of deer that inhabits the local cities, so I'm making a wild guess here. I know they're the gardener's enemy of anyone who desires to have a decent garden in the area. Great lengths, such as temporary high, black, mesh fencing or that liquid fence made from egg-whites, are applied every year. Some people simply follow trial and error and see which plants the deer don't seem to want to eat. Sadly, our deer in town tend to look very undernourished. It makes me laugh a little to see tourists in their big SUVs in our driveway trying to take pics of the deer.

ps 10/28/10 - After much research and asking around, we have the Columbian black-tailed deer here, which is a subspecies of Odocoileus hemionus, aka mule deer, and looks very different than the standard mule deer.

black-tailed deer ~ 04/18/06 ~ at home

deer and pride of Madeira
Echium candicans
Boraginaceae

These are probably the very first pictures of deer I have from home. It was so exciting at the time to see them in the park below our balcony... but now it's a bit mundane, so much so that we get a bit peeved when tourists block our driveway in order to take pictures of the deer. The purple flowers are pride of Madeira.

ps 11/19/10 - Now that I look at these pictures again, I wonder if these were triplets with their mother.