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I hate beavers…and deer. The beavers decimated our Loral hedge in one night and the deer come and eat anything with tender buds (Shelton, WA). - Rich

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…and then there are the elk. Walked out of my parent’s house years ago to find 6-8 of them chowing down in my Mom’s herb garden. I told them to get out of there, at which point the big bull elk looked over calmly at me as if to say “You talkin’ to me?”. He then went back to eating…:smiley:

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In August we call the ones that have been eating out of herb gardens “preseasoned” :wink:

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LOL!!! :laughing:

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They eat everything!

In fall I bought a whole bunch of colorful mums to fill in a flowerbed under a large window. That afternoon, I laid out all of the pots in the exact color pattern that I wanted, with the intention of planting them in the morning.

That evening, I was working down in my studio (on the inside of that same window) and I kept hearing a scratching sound. My dog heard it too, and he was going nuts. I got freaked out, thinking we had mice or something, and asked hubs to investigate in the morning. No need - when I went outside the next day, I discovered that the deer had come right up to the house (like, right by the front door!) and topped all of those new mums for me :unamused:

Aside from the damage to my garden, I’m quite fond of them. This guy used to show up every year when it was time to harvest our apples - I’m always careful to leave a few for them (this was taken from my front porch).

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Me too. I’m fond of venison broiled, in burgers, stew… :hamburger: :stew: - Rich

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As are my neighbors (pretty sure that’s why I didn’t see this fellow last year).

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Sorry for that. As much of a pest that they are to a garden/bushes, they are nice to watch and photograph. I, personally, have never hunted/killed deer. Anything I want to protect from them is inside a deer fence, for my place in Shelton. :skull: - Rich

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We live in a small town, however the deer roam freely all around. We live right in town, but these two bucks were in the neighbor’s lot right behind our backyard. I’ve seen two bucks, a doe, and about 3 or 4 fawns sitting out there in the shade of the walnut and cherry trees. We now have a fence up, but before that, deer would just use our yard as a crossing. Many people around here hate them because of what Drea just said…but personally, I love to see them. These two guys are a little difficult to spot in the shade.

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My dad lives in a log house in the woods… the raccoons strip his trees of apples… the squirrels gnaw on his house… the woodpeckers make you feel like you’re taking machine gun fire… the hummingbirds get mad and swarm you when you walk out the front door and disturb their feeding, they also fly into the house once in a while.

Here’s a tip for catching hummingbirds: You can’t. You can however, keep them on the move until they eventually tire out and crash to the floor. Then you can pick them up and put back outside. If you have vaulted ceilings (great idea Dad) keep a couple water guns handy. Hahahaha.

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No worries, I enjoy venison myself and do not begrudge hunters (as long as they’re honorable in their tactics, and try to use as much as possible).

I have deer fencing around my garden, but it’s only 7’. Last year we learned that they can jump it easily. It came down during those last snowstorms, so when we put it back up I am going to add some ribbon ties (or maybe even some of those Tibetan prayer flags) so that there’s a bit of movement to scare them off.

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Hee, hee, hee. You’ve experienced that? Here is the sign I have on the walkway coming up to my house:

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I spent way too much time talking to the hummingbirds on my last trip to CO.

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If you like looking for animals in pictures you can volunteer at Zooniverse. It’s a website where researchers crowd source people to look at pictures to try and identify what, if anything, is in them. They’re mostly looking for animals from trail cams and whatever you can find in images from telescopes (presumably UFOs.)

What an awesome view you have. I think I could just live on that porch. :relaxed:

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I wish it were mine. Just a VRBO.

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You’re like my wife. Feeds them all winter with corn.

Then she complains all summer about the ticks the dog brings in :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Yum! Bambi McNuggets. Deep fried & slathered in bbq sauce :grinning:

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Yep! They’ll get right in your face!

I put up the sign because one visitor to my house wasn’t expecting the hummingbirds that whizzed by her face with that full thwipthwipthwip sound and her reaction to it made her fall to the ground. :astonished: - Rich

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