# Finally, conclusive photographic evidence that fearless creatures inhabit the forest!



## quads (Mar 6, 2011)

As I move around the woods from day to day, the deer follow me almost like cattle.  Often I will be running the saw, thinking that I am alone, when I look up to see a whole herd of eyes watching me.  I will cut a tree down, cut it up, split it, toss the splits in a pile, then load some of it up on the trailer and take it to the house.  In the 20 minutes that I am gone, the deer swarm my work area.  Here are a few pictures of yesterday's 'visitation'.  The firewood in the pictures was just cut and split an hour before.  I left to haul a load of it up to the house, and as happens all the time, this is what I saw when I returned:


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## davmor (Mar 6, 2011)

Nice pictures and good company out in the woods. Dave.


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## Adios Pantalones (Mar 6, 2011)

Cool!  They will, in some places, come to the sound of chainsaws because they'll get to eat small leaves from tree tops.


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 6, 2011)

Reminds me of this past week. For 3 days we had deer bedded close to the house. We could see them very easy. Between the house and the deer are my wife's bird feeders (4) plus a bird bath which she puts water in every day so the birds can get a drink. The deer just lay there and watch her. They do the same thing in the summer in back when she goes to pick raspberries. They will lay quite close to her and just watch. Not sure if she has named them but she does talk to them.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Mar 6, 2011)

When I used to do wildlife surveys, they would sometimes
a.  follow me
b.  get in my way when I was trying to hike and move more slowly than I wanted.  I would yell and run at them and they would just keep shuffling along.
c.  Come up and bug me at night when I was trying to sleep.  Come right up and sniff at me in my bag.   More than one night a bucksnort right above my head woke me from a dead sleep scaring the hell out of me.


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## wood spliter (Mar 7, 2011)

Great pictures Quads!  They will also eat any grubs or borers they might find.


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## begreen (Mar 7, 2011)

This dude was watching me today as we cleared out the garden. It was very close and didn't seem at all concerned by our proximity. Seemed to be asking, what's for dinner?


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## quads (Mar 7, 2011)

They're pretty tame all year, except for about a month after deer season.  In the Spring I can ride right up to the fawns, shut the ATV off, and talk to them for awhile.  Here is one of my favorite pics from last Spring.  These guys were no more than 25 feet away, playing and biting each other while I sat on my ATV and snapped pics of them.  I then started it up, rode to the other side of the woods, came back, and they were still there:


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## billb3 (Mar 7, 2011)

the deer here run far away at sight  or smell

only nosy critter I come across out in the woods are chickadees


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## PapaDave (Mar 7, 2011)

Guess I'm the only one who thought we'd have a clear pic of quads.
The mysterious man of the forest remains elusive.  :lol: 
Nice pics of the fawns.
I come up on some in the back field every once in a while. Sometimes they'll turn and stare at me for a minute, other times, they'll turn tail and bounce off into the woods.


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 7, 2011)

Great pictures, great stories quad. You are blessed. 

I have a theory. Those of us who are on farms, especially like quads. who work with cattle, the deer seem to be less afraid. Perhaps it is how we react when the deer are near. Just an observation.


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## quads (Mar 7, 2011)

You could be right Dennis.  The neighbors come up from the city and they wonder why they hardly ever see any deer.  And then during deer season, they sneak around, pee in a bottle, etc. etc.  I go clanging through the woods with my load of wood and ATV and the deer come running TOWARDS me!  HAHA!

billb3, chickadees are my favorite bird (and yes, they follow me around too!)


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## Hardrockmaple (Mar 8, 2011)

Some are very curious.


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## begreen (Mar 8, 2011)

Awesome shot hardrockmaple! Just like our deer they like to come right up to the windows.


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## Mt Ski Bum (Mar 8, 2011)

Hardrockmaple said:
			
		

> Some are very curious.



haha... that's awesome! Deer around here love our bird feeders in the winter, but are much more easily spooked...


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## quads (Mar 8, 2011)

Hardrockmaple said:
			
		

> Some are very curious.


WOW!  Really cool!  I used to feed shelled corn to the deer in the backyard by the bird feeders, but now that is illegal in Wisconsin.  The turkeys liked it too.


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## Boozie (Apr 7, 2011)

quads said:
			
		

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Couldn't you say you were feeding the squirrels or the birds?


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## quads (Apr 7, 2011)

Boozie said:
			
		

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Yes, but, when the feeder is on the ground and filled with corn, the wardens get suspicious....


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## Shari (Apr 7, 2011)

quads said:
			
		

> Boozie said:
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Aw shucks, Quads, just tell the Warden there's a group of Senior Citizens squirrels inhabiting your woods and you just hate to see them oldies have to climb for their food.


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## blades (Apr 7, 2011)

These 2 have been hanging around on top of the wood pile all morning.  Looks like I wiggled when I should have jiggled on the duchess.


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## Jags (Apr 7, 2011)

Boozie said:
			
		

> Couldn't you say you were feeding the squirrels or the birds?



I am not pro or con, but the theory is that feeding deer in groups helps to spread CWD (chronic wasting disease).  I am not taking sides, but if true, Quads is doing the right thing.


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## Adios Pantalones (Apr 7, 2011)

There are important reasons they don't want you feeding certain critters.  Please take them seriously.


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## firefighterjake (Apr 7, 2011)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> There are important reasons they don't want you feeding certain critters.  Please take them seriously.



That's right . . . my wife started feeding me regularly way back when on our Must See NBC Thursday nights when my friends and I would get together and play Mortal Kombat and then watch Seinfeld . . . and well . . . the end result is that she is now stuck with me.


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## Adios Pantalones (Apr 7, 2011)

See- leave out food and you might end up with a fireman in your house.


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## quads (Apr 7, 2011)

Yes, it's because of the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.  Not that the deer don't 'herd up' in the winter and feed all together anyway, but that's the reasoning behind it.  The price of corn nowadays, I hate to waste any on the deer.  The neighbor maintains food plots for them.

Nice Mallards Blades!


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## Adios Pantalones (Apr 7, 2011)

It's more than just CWD, and they don't eat from one pile when they herd up.  At feeding station EVERY deer eats from the same pile.  Feeding stations draw them away from good wintering yards.

See the link


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## quads (Apr 8, 2011)

Yes, you are probably right.  But it wasn't until the onset of CWD that the DNR decided to take a stance against feeding deer.  I don't feed them, and I don't hunt them anymore either.  I just take their picture and hit one once in awhile with my car.  :-(


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## firefighterjake (Apr 11, 2011)

quads said:
			
		

> Yes, you are probably right.  But it wasn't until the onset of CWD that the DNR decided to take a stance against feeding deer.  I don't feed them, and I don't hunt them anymore either.  I just take their picture and hit one once in awhile with my car.  :-(



Hmmmm . . . having "hunted" a few with a Jeep Wrangler I can attest that getting a deer steak with a vehicle can sometimes make for a pretty pricey deer steak . . . even if it is pre-tenderized with the bumper and seasoned with road salt.


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## quads (Apr 11, 2011)

firefighterjake said:
			
		

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You got that right Jake!  Have hit a deer with every car I own.....with the old Comanche wood-haulin' pickup, twice!


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