Fawn

While driving along Beach Drive on my way back from Willows Beach I had to stop when I saw two Blacktail fawns browsing with their mother on lush grasses of the Victoria Golf Club. Victoria has just the right number of deer. You see them fairly often but rarely enough so that it is always a special occasion.

Young Buck

I took a spin up to Walbran Park this afternoon for the view and was rewarded by being able to spend a pleasant half-hour with this young Blacktail buck. Though he kept a wary eye on me he allowed me to come quite close. As you can see in the photo to the left, I'm not the only one who is fond of Camas Lilies.

Walkway Wildlife 3

A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of a Blacktail Buck in the Ross Bay Cemetery. Here's one I saw last week in the Matson Lands, a bit of preserved Garry Oak landscape that is on the West Bay Walkway just above Sailors' Cove. This buck was following an attractive young doe.... Must be that time of year.

Ross Bay Cemetery

Regular visitors here will know that I often like to browse among the graves in our oldest colonial cemetery on Ross Bay because so many of the city's founding citizens are buried there. I spent a few hours there on Sunday and passed a part of the time with this splendid Blacktail Buck. Some people consider deer in the city to be a problem. I love to see them, especially when they are as calm as this one. He seemed quite unperturbed by passersby even when they approached quite closely.

Out of Season Fawn

While stalking the Steller's Jays through the bush yesterday I was suddenly confronted with this fawn. This is a little strange since this little deer looks like it's just been born and foaling season for these Black-tailed deer is May and June. I hope this one's late arrival doesn't mean he will have a hard time of it this winter. At least while he's living at Fort Rodd Hill he won't be bothered by predators and the weather here is generally mild enough so that he should be able to find something to eat until spring.

Blacktail Buck (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)

In yesterday's post I promised we would look at ducks today but I had such a wonderful meeting with some young Blacktail bucks out at Esquimalt Lagoon yesterday I have postponed the duck post until tomorrow. I was in a deserted old orchard on the backside of the lagoon happily snapping away at either a Hairy or a Downy Woodpecker. (I haven't figured out which yet.) As usual when I am focused on photographing a bird I am pretty much unaware of anything else. So when I looked up from the camera viewfinder I was surprised to see this young buck strolling past. I just stood there and he took a good look at me then went on with his browsing, apparently deciding I wasn't a threat. A few minutes later another young buck joined him and they both nibbled the nearby greenery for about twenty minutes. These small deer are becoming so numerous around here and in some parts of the city that some people consider them pests. But whenever I see them like this I always feel like I've been given something.

Blacktail Doe (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)

While on my way out to Witty's Lagoon the other day I couldn't resist stopping to photograph this lovely Blacktail Doe browsing in the bushes at the edge of the road. She's still a little thin, probably from feeding one or two fawns but is now concentrating on fattening herself up for winter.

Peaceful Co-existence

In my first post about my recent deer sighting I wanted mainly to show all four of these deer because I have not before seen four deer at once in the city. However, perhaps more extraordinary than their number was their peaceful acceptance of a human (me) relatively close and visible. While they initially spent a few moments watching me closely they then went back to browsing and grooming themselves in a relaxed fashion. It's very pleasant to be acknowledged without fear by wild animals.

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Shortly after I posted yesterday's photo (scroll down) of the Fawn Lily, I happened to be reading in Emily Carr's "The Book of Small" and was delighted by her description of these same little lilies:

"...the most delicately lovely of all flowers - white with bent necks and brown eyes looking back into the earth. Their long, slender petals, rolled back from their drooping faces, pointed straight up at the sky, like millions of quivering white fingers. The leaves of the lilies were very shiny - green, mottled with brown, and their perfume like heaven and earth mixed."

Deer me!

I had planned to continue this anniversary week with some kind of retrospective posts looking at the last five years but I was happy to have my camera with me on yesterday's morning walk along the West Bay Walkway. It was one of those situations when you are looking for something - for me it was spring flowers - so I was focused on the ground. Suddenly I became aware that I was being watched and when I looked up there were all these deer - four of them. It looks like three does and a fawn to me. This is an urban area - it's within the Victoria city limits and just below a large condominium development in a well settled residential neighbourhood. I've seen deer here before but four at once is unusual. (I did spy some spring flowers - tomorrow!)

Young Blacktail Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)

I mentioned the other day that I always enjoy seeing wildlife on my walks through my part of this city and I was rewarded again recently by being able to observe two young Blacktail Deer browsing on a hillside above the West Bay Walkway, one of which is pictured above. While keeping a prudent distance, these deer seemed nonetheless to be used enough to humans not to panic or race off in fear as I approached.

Blacktail Deer

A trip to the Fisgard Lighthouse and Fort Rodd Hill always yields some good photos of the lighthouse but I often see deer and other wildlife when I am out that way. The Esquimalt Lagoon Bird Sanctuary is very close and Fort Rodd Hill is also surrounded by quite an extensive forested area that is home to this deer and others. They are quite tame although they discreetly move away if you approach them.

Peek-a-boo

When I came across ghostly Indian Pipe featured a few days ago I was actually looking for deer because about 50% of the times I visit Fort Rodd Hill I see a deer (sometimes two) on the road. Usually my camera bag is safely locked up in the luggage carrier on the back of my scooter. This time I decided to stop before seeing a deer, get my camera out, set it up properly and put it around my neck so that when I spied a deer I would be ready. Here are the results of that planning. Though these deer are wild, they are quite tame and will tolerate you if you don't move around too much or approach too closely. Fort Rodd Hill has some quite large areas of forest and is adjacent to Esquimalt Lagoon and the Royal Roads University Campus, which also have large contiguous areas of forest so it is not surprising to see deer there. Similarly for a beautiful young buck I saw a few weeks ago in Mount Douglas Park, another fairly expansive area. The most surprising deer I've seen in the city though was one I saw along the railway tracks here in Victoria West, pictured here, and more recently one I saw in Highrock Park, which is a very small park in a densely populated residential area. Yet no matter where I see one of these graceful creatures it's always a treat. This is a young Blacktail Deer.

Blacktail Buck

I went out yesterday to photograph some old brick. A few blocks from my house is the marshaling yard of the E & N Railway, which has several large old brick buildings. It is surrounded by new condominiums and is soon to be developed as a heritage mall and social area. While I was lurking around in the bushes in the back of these buildings trying to find some good shooting angles, I heard some rustling. I looked up to see this beautiful young buck disappearing around a corner of the building. I followed and the result is this photo. I took a few others but the buck is not so clear although the skate board park shows up well (off camera to the right in this photo).

What is amazing about this sighting is that this neighborhood is very near the city center, not rural at all and not even on the edge of any bushy or forested areas. I suspect he must have come in at night along the railway tracks from outside the city, perhaps in pursuit of a doe since this is rutting season. I worried about him getting mixed up with city traffic but then I realized that he's probably safer here than out in a forest full of neanderthal Nimrods with big guns. Hunting season on blacktail deer opens next week.

Animals

Today I cycled out to Esquimalt Lagoon because I wanted to photograph some deer and I saw one near there when I was out at Fisgard Lighthouse a little while ago. Esquimalt Lagoon has an odd history: At the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago a big chunk of ice about 100 meters thick was left by a receding glacier. Sand and gravel piled up around its edges and when it melted it left a depression that is now the lagoon. The lagoon is also the site of the first European landing in this area. Spanish explorer Don Manuel Quimper anchored here in 1790. The birds in the photo above are the indigenous Great Blue Heron and...a Mute Swan. The latter is not indigenous but is native to the UK and has naturalized itself here and in a few other nearby coastal locations after escaping from Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. However, what first attracted my attention to the lagoon was the little fellow below.I thought it was a Sea Otter and had visions of how I could ramble on about the history of the fur trade but when I checked it out, I realize it must be a River Otter, which species often inhabits coastal areas and is a known resident of the lagoon. He was very shy and I had to follow him along the shoreline for some time before I could get close enough to snap the above shot. That was when I saw the other swan, below.Deer - yes, on the way back from the lagoon, there she was posing beautifully by the roadside and my camera in its bag. Pull up, peacefully assemble apparatus, and catch a last glimpse as she disappears into the bush. Ah well, still a splendid morning on the outskirts of Victoria.