Just a quick post to share with you nature’s abundance, which our wildlife enjoys this year. No more starving unicorns!

This pregnant white-tailed doe and I were having dinner at the same time, separated only by a pane of glass – both of us munching greens! Since food and water are so plentiful again, chances are excellent that her fawn will be healthy and thrive. The dead juniper shrub in the upper left behind the doe is one of our drought victims. Even though it looks a bit ugly from the house, we’ll leave it there for the time being, because it provides shelter and housing for a variety of small critters.

Roughly a half hour later, just around sunset, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. A large family group of axis deer was marching single file past my windows. They looked like ducks in a shooting gallery, heads bobbing up and down, grabbing a mouthful of greenery every other step. In the dim light and the tall grasses out back, I didn’t even notice the little one at first. Suddenly one of the does sounded the alarm. In a flash, everyone made a dash for the ridge.

Since I had startled a juvenile blackbuck antelope (Antilope cervicapra) into a hasty retreat on my early morning walk, my day literally started and closed with speedy ungulates! Wouldn’t to be great, if all this fast moving wildlife inspired the USCIS to finally set my interview date. Hint, hint, guys!!!