October 29, 2018

Nature's Thief in the Night

Yesterday was the first day I've been outside our barn home in almost three weeks. It was a gorgeous day, in the mid 80s, with a light breeze, and overhead, the sound of geese honking back and forth to each other as they made their way south. We enjoyed a walk down the road and then spent the afternoon planting trees.

With all the rain we've had lately, the saturated roads are an inviting place for these yellow butterflies to puddle, gathering the minerals they need. They seem to prefer this road to our driveway.


Our usual evening routine for years has been to sit beside our water garden, feed the koi, and watch the sun set. When we moved here, we didn't want an inground water garden, so an eight foot stock tank took its place. I brought my favorite lilies, but left everything else behind, and we bought a few new goldfish to control mosquitoes. But with the rain and other things, we haven't been able to get back into our daily routine since our vacation.

A glance or two at the stock tank pond while pulling into the driveway was enough to see that the water level was okay and lilies were still blooming, but the filter had been knocked over. Wind, I supposed. I did think it was odd that only the lilies in the center were blooming. A closer look yesterday and this is what I saw.


Not only was the only bloom in the center, but very few lily pads except in the center. There were stems that looked like lily pads had been clipped off, but it wasn't by me. A closer inspection showed the culprits.


Deer! They've never eaten my lilies before, but apparently have recently developed a taste for them.


The night before, we had just been saying that neither of us have seen any deer on our place in a long time. We thought they probably moved further away from people. I think now that they just started coming out at night. I like watching deer, but they can't have my lilies.




Linking to:
Nature Notes at Rambling Woods

14 comments:

  1. I do believe bow season is open at the present (at least in Tennessee) and gun season will start in a month. If they got my lilies, I would declare war.

    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

    PS: Today is my birthday and I am turning 29 again.

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    1. LOL, I'm not sure what season is open here. Hubby is forbidden to hunt anything but hogs on our place though. I don't want him to scare off anything else. But the lilies have to be protected. I'll do some culling and put my favorites in the middle instead of the outer edge.

      Happy birthday! I celebrate the anniversary of my 29th in the next few weeks. ;)

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  2. Welcome to Nature Notes Marti! Happy to have you and your link showed up just fine. I looked around a bit and I love this "My husband and I are currently building our dream home, an energy efficient barndominium with passive cooling". A barndominimun and energy efficient. We try here too. My husband got many looks when he used our push mover this year. He also shovels snow and rakes leaves.. :) .... The deer here always ate the lilies so we took them out and planted other things or all I had were stalks all season... Nice to meet you, I live near Buffalo NY....Michelle

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    1. Thank you! I wish we had started on our dream home when we were younger. DIY is fun when there's no deadline. Every day, and it takes a toll.

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  3. Nature is a beautiful thing. Love the yellow butterflies.

    Have a fabulous day. ♥

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    1. Thank you. I have seen butterflies on the road before, but never in so many groups like this this. There must have been a group every fifty feet.

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  4. With all the fresh growth of their "normal food" I am surprised they would eat your water lillies!! Imagine if you had an inground pond, all the blooms would have been gone.

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    1. I know! So water lily pads must be extra tasty. Hubby raked that sand around the tank and there haven't been any little footprints since then.

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  5. Love the flock of butterflies. Oh no, not the lilies. Hopefully you can get that problem under control. I'm glad you are all for dealing with the wild hogs. My Guy hit one in south Texas last November, it completely totaled the rental car!

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    1. I could make a cage to go over the tank but I'm not sure I could stand looking at it all the time. I may need a bigger tank so the deer can't reach them.

      Hubby hit a hog last year. It didn't total the car (company car) but it did a lot of damage and the car never drove well after that. We have a neighbor who gets a group together occasionally to hunt hogs, but Hubby isn't a night person and has never joined them. I don't know if it's taking down any of the population though.

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  6. Oh, deer! This time of year they'll go after anything that's remotely green or has fresh growth. Hope you find a solution.

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    1. That's what is so odd. Everything is green here right now and it has rained so much that there is water everywhere.

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  7. I would get so excited about the butterflies in the driveway! I know what you mean about the deer. In my part of the world, introduced rabbits--actually, hares--eat my dahlias as they start to grow.

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    1. I wish I had taken a video instead of a photo. The groups of butterflies were everywhere down that road, and then as I drove near, they fluttered all around my truck. It was so cool!

      We had one jack rabbit when we moved here, but he or she has moved on. I would hate it if they ate my garden flowers. The deer ate my beets down to the ground, but that was my fault for planting them where I did.

      Thanks for visiting!

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