another home video for your viewing pleasure

(Video runs 1.29 min.)


My husband shot this video of one of the deer who dine (usually at night) at the bird feeder filled with cracked sunflower seeds. It is just outside our kitchen window and we hang it low in the bush so they can graze there.

When I saw the mid portion, with the deer going potty in our front yard, the music to accompany the video came immediately to mind. This rendition of Home on the Range is from an album my parents had when I was a kid. Titled Home on the Range: an Evening of Western Hits, the group singing is The Bar -X Chorus. Never heard of them? Probably not! They must have been one of those groups formed by record companies to grind out theme albums in the late 50s/early 60s. The music is as corny as it can be, but I absolutely love it for the rush of memories I have when I hear it.

I bought more birdseed and dry ears of corn for our wildlife menagerie at our local farm store yesterday. There were hundreds of baby chicks under heat lamps for sale so I lingered to see them and to watch the expression on a little girl's face as she studied them, and studied me studying them. Down a side aisle I noticed large, putty-colored rocks and wondered what they were so took a look. The store is selling these huge salt rocks for people to offer to their horses. It seems to me that our deer would probably like them. If any of you have had first-hand experience concerning deer salt licks please leave me a comment. 

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Willow watches some redheads and a deer feeds near the willow

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It has been a week of sadness with the tragedy in Tucson and the ongoing memorials and funerals, which is why these two really short clips that my husband shot from our kitchen window on Friday morning were such a beautiful escape.

Some of you have seen other clips of Willow, a few of them right from the same window. In this new one she is uncharacteristically still as a House Finch flies from the bush at the window while a Red-Headed Woodpecker snacks on suet at the feeder. But the House Finch changes his mind and returns to sit on the window sill and peek inside (those House Finches are such clowns).

In the second clip you will see the suet feeder swinging in the breeze, while below it is another feeder that we keep filled with cracked sunflower seeds. Deer have discovered this enormously healthy treat and have been cleaning out the feeder on a nightly basis. But Friday morning one deer wanted breakfast.

You can't see it in these clips but just feet away from the bush by the window is a weeping willow tree that the birds love, of course, and the deer seem to feel secure under its protection. They don't sleep under it, however, preferring instead the greater shelter under the Sequoias in our backyard. I tell ya, sometimes it is just like a Disney movie around here!


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