# MoPac's Baby Deer Day Care is open



## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

This is at least the 5th year in a row I have had baby deer in the back yard. Has not always been.
I have 2 living in the back yard. They are about 3 weeks old. They grow fast. Other mamma deer
drop their babies off in the morning and come and get their babies in the evening. The other day
I had 3 mammas and 5 babies. The babies were about 2 feet behind my picture wall. Should have
got the camera. Here is a pic of nap time at the day care today. There are 3 of them laying down for a nap. One is already out.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Dang, they are SOOOO cute!! Do they do any damage to your yard?


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

They really don't. I have a few bushes and plants and they never do eat them. My neighbors have
trouble with them. Last year one of them spent all day planting plants and the very next morning
the plants had all been eaten. They can certainly be destructive.

I get a kick watching them. The first one I saw this year was funny. Mamma deer was
walking around the yard and some kind of animal was following her. it was close to the ground and I thought it was a rabbit. Nope, it was a new born that could not even stand yet.
They are funny to watch when the babies realize they can run fast and jump. They run and jump like idiots. LOL, they are in that mode now.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

They are liking the tall grasses, good cover for them.


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## Andy57 (Feb 7, 2020)

Nice picture. Some years the deer eat more of my garden than I do. A few years ago I set up my game camera to see how many deer were coming around. This is one of the photos I got. I didn't know I was missing any pears.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Deer, the other white meat!!!!.. I gave up hunting back in 1982, and gave all my guns to my younger son.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Andy, is that a coyote? I have seen one in my yard and it was the middle of the day. My wife called
the conservation dept and wanted to know if the coyote was a threat to our golden retrievers. They
told her a coyote would be more apt to be playing with the dogs. They did say a small dog could be
in trouble.

Nice pic.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Tom, I do let the back yard grow for them. Another 2 or 3 weeks the deer will be gone and I will cut the back yard.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

We have coyotes out here and they do not play with anything, they are hunter-killers. During the day lone coyotes can be seen scouting their territory. They will take small dogs from yards and are a threat to small children on the wilderness hiking trails. One in a while one will even stalk and threaten an adult. At night they will hunt in packs. In the still night air their howling can be heard for a quarter mile when they take down a prey. They are extremely smart and can be seen during the day brazenly crossing one of our 6 lane high speed local streets. They casually weave through cars going by at 60mph. They do a good job of eliminating the population of nuisance rodents like rabbits, skunks and squirrels.
I get tired just thinking about cutting that yard above your wall. I would be tempted to hit it with Roundup twice/year.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Definitely a coyote picking fruit. My female chihuahua thinks that the apple trees around us are growing balls for her to play with, and she picks about a bushel a year.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Animals, sometimes they are a pain. Tom, my John Deere will take care of the hill. I tried a cheaper, lighter duty mower and it just did not work. In fact, it was dangerous. it would not hold the hill. It would slide half way down the hill and tear up the grass. The Deere is sure footed. Its heavy and never slips the wheels. Its an all terrain tractor. X500 I think. Its not a Home Depot mower. Stupid thing cost me 6,000.00 but it does the job and will last me 20 years. My last tractor lasted 20 years. It was a good one also. First year I lived here I had a walk behind mower. I was a young man then and still could barely do it. The hill is a booger. Not sure what I was thinking when I bought this place. Never, Ever buy a house on the side of a big hill. When its all mowed and trimmed it looks nice here.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The right power equipment makes a big difference.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

When I was a kid on the farm we had coyotes around all the time out in the timber. 

I have a cousin up in Michigan who has a lot of coyotes around his small farm. Those things howl all night long. When one pack takes down their prey, there are others somewhere else howling. Goes on all night. He has a square of evergreens near the house which are a mile on each side that he and his wife hike around every evening after supper when the time changes and there is more daylight, a 3 mile hike around. They each take a 30-30 rifle for not only coyotes but black bear also. He gives me a 30-0-6 to carry. Since the evergreens are pretty tall anything can hide in them. There are always all kinds of critter tracks in the walking trail plus bear tracks. I've made that hike with them often. The coyotes and bears are usually further out in the pine tree timber but obviously since there are tracks in that walking trail, they do come in closer thus the need for the rifles. 

Kenny


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Not sure why but Missouri released black bear a couple years ago. There is one that keeps getting spotted
about 1 1/2 miles from me. He will find my back yard. I have at least one of probably every critter in my yard
that is in Missouri. My son had an armadillo in his yard the other day. They are moving north.
The animals have nowhere to go. They keep building houses everywhere. The animals are
learning to live with people.

There is a family of ground hogs living under the front porch next door. And I have those
metal eating squirrels. I don't live in a rural area. The yards around me are kinda rural.
Each house has an acre. Its zoned that way. Fine with me. I used to shoot a gun off once
in awhile. Unlawfull here now. I can still burn here. Not leaves though. Remember that smell
of burning leaves. Now that was fall. Now it bothers people. It didn't when I was young. The
guy next door got a ticket for burning leaves. He also got a ticket for too big of a fire. Fire size is limited to 4 feet across. He had a big shed he wanted rid of so he sets it on fire. It was
about 10 or 12 feet across. They got him. Both of his tickets came in about 1 month apart.
I told him the rules but he didn't listen.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

My younger son is plagued with red squirrels. They are mean and destructive.. I gave him one of my hunting pellet rifles, a Benjamin NT, it's clocked at 946fps and it's fairly quiet.. Better and faster than a .22 short.


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## Andy57 (Feb 7, 2020)

Yes it is a coyote. As you can see a very healthy one. They all are in this area. They are many, but not much of a problem. Interstate 35 runs through this county and is a toll road, (turnpike). Back it 2004 or 5 a farmer planted alfalfa for about a two mile stretch east side of turnpike. There was so many road kills (deer) it slowed traffic. The turnpike could not keep up picking up roadkill. Everyone had to drive around dead deer. There was made a "gentleman's agreement" between the turnpike and area farmers that no alfalfa would be grown within a mile of turnpike and roadkill would be dragged to farmers fence and left for coyotes. This agreement has cut way down of road kills and keeps coyotes out of farmers small stock. I did not know coyotes ate fruit.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I didn't know they ate fruit either.

I have thought about a good pellet gun also. Mine are gray squirrels. Damn tree rats. They sharpen
their teeth on my chain link fence. They have chewed up the gas line on my truck again. Last time was 500.00.


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## Andy57 (Feb 7, 2020)

$500. Ouch. I think that would bring me to a war with them. Best of luck.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Insurance took care of it. They will not be happy with another one. Part of the gas line is rubber, part is
metal, part is like a nylon material. The nylon stuff is made out of corn syrup. That draws the squirrels.
I was going to try and patch the line but its in the nylon part. Its insane.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

Mopac your place gives new meaning to the word "wildlife". Can't believe all the trouble you got there in Missery, I mean Missouri. An armadillo??? I haven't been around one of those since Arizona.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Kenny I grew up in Texas and they were everywhere. I have seen them in southern Missouri. But like I said they are heading north. I have heard those big pythons in Florida will head north. That's all I need, a 17 foot snake. Maybe they will eat the squirrels.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

The babies are growing. Mamma must be weaning them. They are eating grass now. Won't be long and they will leave here and join the heard. 2 years ago the babies came back maybe twice a week for a visit for a few months. I think the heard is in the park up the road. Maybe a mile north of me. Its not that big of a park but they say deer do not need much area. There are woods there. They are fine around here if they stay out of the road.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

A mamma and 2 babies were right by my picture wall. They really do not mind me being on the patio. Anybody else they will run. I was going somewhere the other day and I had a ball cap on when I came out the door. Mamma got all upset till I took the cap off and then she was fine. Sometimes I can not believe I have animals this big in my yard. Last couple days I have had 2 big hawks hanging around. Hope they get a couple of chipmunks
and maybe a squirrel or two.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I mentioned the hawks. Just went outside and lo and behold there was a hawk standing on the bird bath.
Got a few pics. They can hang around all they want.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Nice pictures. We have hawks that live in the slope areas behind the houses, they do not land in our backyards, but they spend their days riding the thermals above the slopes. There is apparently some distribution of rights between the scavengers (large black crows) and the predators. It would be nice if the hawks would clear out some of the crows.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Some years we have a bunch of crows. They are loud sometimes. Very few this year.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I saw a crow flying with a small rabbit a few years ago. For some reason rabbits are scarce around here. My youngest son lives about 2 miles from me and he has lots of big rabbits. I looked up hawks in Missouri and best I can tell, mine are called Broad wing Hawks. They are considered a small hawk. They winter in South America. That's a long trip.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

My town is mostly all residential around me. House next to house.
A few blocks north of me is a golf course. There used to be a big farm that dated back to the revolutionary war days.
There was a little known Battle back up on that farm, we lost the battle but held off the redcoats long enough for George and troops to get into the mountains, they were trying to trap old George and he almost fell for the trap. If he did the USA might be a whole different place now. Battle of Short Hills. Battle of Short Hills - Wikipedia
The farm was huge, 3/4 500 or more acres or so. It was huge. The street that runs along it is Woodland road. Many years ago it was all forest.
The farm was sold and now there are a ton of 5 million dollar houses built on what used to be the farm.
No hunting for many many miles. The wildlife is quickly multiplying. Mainly deer.
Used to see them late at night or early in the Am. Now we see them all day long. I think they send out scouts in the daylight to comeback for Midnight raids on our plants.
These to guys were left by their mother to learn the way of life.
They followed me from the front yard to the back yard for half a day while I was doing yard work.
I guess the mom got hit by a car or something as she never came back, they finally got tired of watching me and wandered away.
At night the deer walk down the street here like a street gang, they do eat a lot of plants the ucks.
I treat my plants with a product called Deerout ( not Deeroff, the Deerout sticks on the plant longer then then off). Works great and last fairly long. They leave mine alone as they tasted the stuff and don't like it. I guess the word got around among them. 
I wished I had a few hawks like that in my yard to get the damn Chipmunks.
We do have them but not like out in the boonies.

My buddies. Sooooo cute when they are young.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

They are cute when they are young.


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