Trap Lines

Every year a doe has twin fawns under our lilac bushes. I don’t know the life span of a deer but I can’t imagine it’s the same one returning after so long. My guess is it may be a daughter or granddaughter making use of our maternity ward. I love seeing the fawns and at the same time, they make me crazy. The first time I discovered a baby deer in the yard, I was outside with our dog when a large ferocious doe came racing toward us with her hooves flying. I’m pretty sure the dog and I set personal records for speed.The mother lets the babies get uncomfortably large before she encourages them to leave the nursery, when they are barely able to squeeze through the squares of field fencing surrounding the property so they’re here for a while. Now I know to check before venturing through that part of the yard in the spring. Each spring, robins build nests on the crosspiece under our deck. The males are aggressive toward their own reflections so I resort to hanging blankets and sheets on the glass doors to keep them from bashing out their brains. Baby robins are not known for flight expertise when they first leave the nest and our dog thinks it’s fun to sometimes chase birds, so that’s a concern until the babies become more proficient. Birds and deer, okay. I can deal with them. But I’m drawing a line at the hornets who insist on building nests here. I kept honey bees for a long time and readily acknowledge the pollination skills of hornets and wasps, but these guys make it impossible to eat or even be outside during the summer. My husband finally resorted to hanging those yellow plastic traps, and now every day he says he’s “going out to check the trap lines”. This year so far he’s snared two hornets. At that rate it’ll be a long time before I get that black and yellow striped coat I was promised.

Image by dendoktoor from Pixabay