Saturday, July 11, 2009

Deer & Flies


Each season presents challenges for the Whitetail Deer. In autumn they must avoid hunters. Winter is the time of cold & snow with food sometimes difficult to be found. Does face the problems associated with birthing and predators preying on the newborn fawns during spring.

Summer is the time of insects. Stinging, biting, nagging, annoying insects follow the deer through every moment of every day. Escape cannot even be had at night when the mosquitoes come out in droves and of course the ticks are with them 24/7.

This image was captured in the evening as the shadows were advancing across the meadow. With the deer & flies silhouetted against the sunlit grass the horde of flies became quite apparent. For a better view of the tiny insects mixed in with the larger flies click to enlarge this image.

That the insects bother the deer is quite obvious as the deer are never still for more than a moment; rippling their skin, switching their tails, standing their hair on end, stomping and biting at the offending bugs.

9 comments:

Tom said...

I have to admit that I do not do flys and insects that swarm, very well. Just the thought of what this must feel like fills me with dred... You have captured this to perfection Salty .. you really have.

Today my blogs show Road Names and Grandchildren Play
Have a great weekend
Tom

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for the animals. It is a reminder of the baby rabbits i have seen covered in fleas. They seem to tolerate it but it would drive me nuts.

I don't know how they stand it unless they are just used to it and it is a part of their daily life.

I know work horses on farms had fly nets to keep flys off and they seemed to work. But they were also bothered a lot with flys in the eyes.

Adrienne Zwart said...

UGH! I hate deer flies, but I can't imagine the annoyance of so many at once!

Michele said...

Sheesh... poor little guys... I have noticed that while watching them out in the fields. Their frenzy runarounds just to keep those annoying bugs off them.

imac said...

Hang on Ive got an itch.lol.

Montanagirl said...

Great capture, Salty! Sorry about the flies on the deer, but it's a great photo, and nice narrative too!

Elaine said...

Nice photo! It really illustrates a part of nature that you don't usually see in photos.

photowannabe said...

This made me itch and squirm. Poor guys. How do they stand it?

Anonymous said...

Oh! it's so sad. Sorry about the flies on the deer. Thanks for sharing it.

sam

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