Talking with Mr. Friend

My deer friend stops by every now and then for a talk. He’s friendly but not as friendly as Buddy who past on a few years back. Friend doesn’t want to go for hikes with me like Buddy did. He is a real character that’s for sure. All the deer have unique personalities. Some are real shy while theirs others like friend who walk up to you or come up to you to see what your doing outside. In the summer months when I get outside early he’s always there. If I sleep in he will come up on the porch and look in the window to see where I am. Buddy, his father did the same thing. It’s real nice making friends in the forest. They aren’t scary things like most people think. The only creatures I’m hesitant about trying to get close to is the mountain lions and bears.
I was sitting at the desk on the computer and movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I saw a mountain lion near the picnic table. So I grabbed my camera and stepped on the porch taking pictures. The mountain lion looked over at me and started moving backwards behind this bush. Then I noticed the other mountain lion about 15 feet from me under the plum tree. He wasn’t moving until I looked at him. I pointed the camera at him and he moved up the hill behind a ponderosa pine tree. He would poke his head out to see what I was doing. I really didn’t feel anything at the time. I wasn’t scared or excited something the lions would key on. I just kept taking pictures of them. They slowly moved to the back part of the yard by the fence and started walking slowly up the hill. There were turkeys up there and they sure saw the lions. I could hear them making noise talking to each other but they weren’t moving. I guess they wanted to keep their eyes on them to make sure where they were. Then one of the lions darted towards them and the turkey took off straight up and flew to the trees across the valley and into trees where they waited until it was safe. The lions walked away slowly looking around checking out the place. I saw them a few days later when I was watering and they were getting a drink of water. Again I came out with the camera and they stood there looking at me bending over to drink the water and lay in it to cool off. It was one of those really hot summer days. Again I wasn’t showing any fear. We were all looking at each other trying to understand.
The bears are rather slow moving as they walk around but they can really move if they have to and I wouldn’t want to try to out run them because I would lose.
I think it was the first bear I saw here over by an apple tree. He was eating apples that had fallen on the ground. The seven sister a family group of female turkey saw the bear and charged him. They were making all sorts of noise and flapping there wings. I was real surprised seeing that. The bear took off running from the turkey. What’s interesting about the turkeys is they would hang around here while I was walking around working on the yard or taking pictures. They saw me as a friend. I could get within about 15 feet of them before they would move other wise they would see me walking towards them and stay right there until I got so close.
There was Blonde a big old female deer who was very nice. She matted down the tall grass for a bed for the night. She also came on the porch where she had some of Kitty’s food then got a drink of water. I put another scoop of cat food on the walkway. She walked up to the pile of cat food and sat down. She didn’t eat it all but just a few bites. It was water and drink before she laid down for the night. Doesn’t that sound like all of us before we go to bed at night?
This last Christmas Eve a your full sized bear came on the porch and laid down. There wasn’t anything to eat. I guess it felt good to lay on carpet out of the wind. The porch is dry since there’s a roof so there isn’t any dew. Maybe that’s what attracted him. He did sort of eat my hummingbird feeder. He didn’t chew it up but held it and drank the sugar water. I couldn’t see him at first but I did see the red hummingbird feeder moving around lit up with the porch light. After he left I went out to get the hummingbird feeder to see the damage. The bear was laying down out in the field. I couldn’t see him laying there about 60 feet away. When he heard me making noise it startled him and he took off running. He hit the chain link gate moving it to the center of the road. I heard him on the other side of the creek going through the brush very fast breaking branches as he went.