Remembering Muff, and the Ending of Autumnal Colours~

It's been a rough couple of days for me. Not a human, but a little buddy since I met him some time after his mom died. His twin sister came with him, but didn't attach like he did. He was 16 months old and this week he was killed on the new road, right across the street from where he always came to greet me. I called him Muff, or Muffy because he had larger ears than the other fawns that made him look like he had on earmuffs. I was able to get a 100%ID of him today because of the many images I take of each buck as they grow their antlers. In velvet he looked amazing. He's only the second buck to have a name and to follow me around.  I was looking forward to seeing him in his darker coat out in the snow this Winter.  That won't happen now. I wish that people would pay more close attention to the road and watch for them. Anyway this is when he was younger and was following me around.  

Remember to double click on the first image, to view a larger slideshow presentation after    you have read the narratives~

I am joining in the fun with Eileen at:

Saturday's Critter

http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/

Anni at:

http://id-rather-b-birdin.blogspot.com/ 

I'd Rather Be Birdin'

 Linking to I'd Rather B Birdin' 

   

Angie at:  

Mosaic Monday

https://tentoesinthewater.blogspot.com/

 Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global 

   http://communalglobal.blogspot.ca/

& 

Stewart for:

Wild Bird Wednesday

http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/

Some of my favorite remembrances from this buck. He appeared around mid July of 2017 with a twin sister. There was never a Doe with them. After a couple of months the sister went missing and the little buck was by then nearing 5 months of age and all alone. He would come to get handouts of cracked corn and fruit. One day I was getting ready to cross our narrow wooden bridge and Muff stepped up on it from the far side. I had to gently coax him off. He seemed to trust me and yet I never got close enough to reach out to him, as I always respect that they are wild. He came to visit a few times every day and then a couple of times and then every few days. I noticed that the Does would take and hoof him if he tried to eat in their space. The young twin fawn bucks were also after him and trying to chase him away.  He was special because he fought such a hard, lonely battle to survive and at the young age of 15/16 months, he was hit and left on the side of the road. I was able to pull him over into the high grasses, and when I drove away, the Vultures were lined up to do their job. My heart aches for the loss of this amazingly wonderful creature. I guess I can admit that I loved the chap.   

That's beautiful Muff on the left looking at the twin bucks, also his same age~

The other day I called the state highway department in Frankfort, the Oldham County Road Department ( they assured me that they would contact Frankfort and get signs up weeks ago) and they cannot get any "Deer Crossing" signs up on the new parkway. I also called Oldham County Judge/Executive David Voegele's office. The gentleman that I spoke with felt very bad about all of the deer already killed including my Muff as well as a Great Horned Owl, 1 Wild Turkey and two Box Turtles in just the few weeks since they opened it.

The I got a phone call. The signs are going up hopefully by this time next week! If they are not up by then, I was instructed to call them and let them know. This is a very wide four lane parkway, with plenty of wide landscape viewing, to where hitting a Deer, or anything is absurd, unless someone just doesn't care. I would imagine that the Deer hits are from larger pickup trucks. There is also going to be a better police presence to make sure that the drivers obey the speed limit of 45 mph~

All of the images of the Autumnal colours and the songbirds were taken on Tingsgrove, our little two and a half acres~

Male Cardinal~

American Robin~

Female Cardinal~

We are enjoying the colours for as long as they last. Many of the trees this year both on Tingsgrove and beyond have turned brown and fallen without the colours that we all look forward to. Rain washes the leaves and when they are still wet they are even more vibrant. I have a few left on the camera to upload, but here is another set taken just after the rains came~  

Eastern Towhee~

Chickadee~

Last week I began seeing the Red-tailed Hawks a little bit more as the canopy of green turns colours and falls to the earth's floor.  This was an incredible looking bird~

Turkey as well as Black Vultures are always ready and waiting road kill~

This Red-tailed Hawk was on Tingsgrove~

This Red-tailed Hawk was hunting and had missed it's prey and only snagged dirt and grass on this attempt~

Of all places...I have been visiting the world famous and beloved Cave Hill Cemetery since I was a young child, some 65 years ago.  This is the first time that I have ever seen a deer there as it is inside the Louisville, Kentucky city limits.  Not only was there this big chap, but two more were running with him...it's rutting season~

The other day from 1:18 to 1:56 PM, I had a visitor...oh and yes about the timing...I looked at my first image and then my last one taken on my camera of this Sharp-shinned Hawk on Tingsgrove. It landed right above where I was and stayed for 38 minutes. I told it how beautiful it was and it was nice to stay awhile and let me get over 400 images, yes you read that right. I eliminated the total by half and then down to a couple of shares for this post.

I received corrections from two folk on Facebook birding group pages that my original guess of a Cooper's Hawk was wrong. At first I thought it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk because it was only about the size of say...a Blue Jay. After observing it for so long and seeing it from all sides, the tail feathers didn't look squared off, or straight across like a Sharp-shinned, but rather scalloped to the tip like a Cooper's Hawk, or so I thought.  This is indeed a Sharp-shinned Hawk and my first ever that was not flying way far away from me looking like a bleep in the air~