Friday, November 19, 2010

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.