"A Sand County Almanac"

"THERE ARE SOME WHO CAN LIVE WITHOUT WILD THINGS AND SOME WHO CANNOT."
"FOR US IN THE MINORITY THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE GEESE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TELEVISION.".....Aldo Leopold




"LOOK DEEP INTO NATURE, AND THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING BETTER".....Albert Einstein


“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves”.....John Muir


Friday, September 21, 2012

Summer Is Quickly Coming To An End

There are many indicators that summer will soon be ending. Perhaps the most obvious is the changing of leaves from green to red, orange or yellow...


The ferns are still a vivid green, but they will be turning yellow and wilting in due time...

 
This Eastern Fox Squirrel is storing nuts for the winter.  I watched him foraging across an open field and carry his bounty over 200 yards to his den tree...
 


This fawn looks so shaggy because it is losing its summer coat...


The doe in the lead is shedding while the other already has its winter coat...


During the summer months the antlers of bucks are covered in a highly vascular skin called "velvet" that brings oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone...


By fall the antlers reach their full growth, and the velvet shrivels and is lost by the bucks rubbing their antlers on bushes and trees.  This buck displays the dark brown antler color that is an indicator of recent velvet loss...


Does become more sensitive to odors carried by the wind.  Perhaps in anticipation of the approaching breeding season...


Even though the time for breeding is more than a month away, this young buck is showing interest in a doe...





These two bucks are not fighting in earnest.  They are just sizing each other up and doing what their instincts tell them...

 




And just to show there are no hard feelings, the bout ends with an affectionate touch of noses...

 
 
Thanks for visiting, and I hope your summer ends just as you would like it to.




 












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