Animated Lawn Ornaments

Be glad it was the doe!! My parents have a house NW of Divide, and last summer a rather large black bear was showing up and tearing up the neighbors suet feeder, she was funny sitting back licking her chops trying to get every last bit of fat and seeds. (the bear, not the neighbor)

Go ahead and give her a little something Joe, we won't turn you in.

yep she seems to know where home is ;D...i really dont think he will feedem...but i may be wrong...kev

wow, must be nice to have doe's coming up like that in your yard. Can't believe it's illegal to feed them in some states, but then again in others some would shoot for dinner....

Hmmm, that isn't a bale of hay in the background is it?

If it was just one I'd try to feed her. The herd numbered five yesterday, including a small buck. I don't have enough fresh veggies around here for me let alone a herd of critters! The darn birds and squirrels are already eatin' me outta house and home!!
Baz, I think they are mule. Unfortunately my animal identification skills are as poor as my rock identification skills.
That's a couple of stacked bales of straw out there, not hay. Second bale is half buried in snow. No nutritional value whatsoever and the critters know it!
They're also eating any plant they can get to. Gonna be some damage come spring but I don't have the heart to chase them off.

When I lived in Evergreen, CO, we'd get both deer and elk in the yard. They weren't really a problem eating the "landscaping", but I'm guessing it's because of the couple of dogs in the yard. I remember when about 6 elk showed up in the yard (no dogs, obviously), and there was this one bull with huge antlers came up and checked out the kids' swing set. It was an older set, so it was much taller than they are now. His antlers were taller than the swing set and then he lifted his head to smell the top of the swing set. I couldn't believe how big he was! I know there are laws in CO (at least when I lived there) that it's a big fine if your pets are caught harrassing/chasing the wildlife. I remember a couple of cows (elk) came into the yard and was grazing, my dog kept running around in circles around them (freaking out!). Every once in awhile, she would look up at him, go towards him with her head down, then he'd back up, and she'd start eating again. I think the elk would have won if it had turned into anything. My city dogs had no clue!

I believe that is a mule deer in your photo. Here's a description of how to tell the difference:
"The easiest-to-see difference is that the Mule Deer's down-hanging tail is narrow and white but black-tipped, while the Whitetail's down-hanging tail is wider and black with a white fringe."

In Calif., we used to get aligator lizards. Also, saw an opossum once in San Diego (a friend thought it was a big rat)! In WI, we've had in your backyard (in the city!) opossums, skunks and groundhogs.

ROFL ... I've watched them empty my neighbors like that, darn stinkers.

I put corn in the bird food! I get buckets of it every fall from the local college. The blue jays love it! And the deer.