Aug 23, 2018
A non computer day
I don’t think that I was even on my computer for a full hour yesterday. A lovely change indeed. The day started with my annual dental clean and check. As usual everything was 100%. From there I went from here to there, at least nine stops in all. I was gone from 10AM until 5:30PM. Needless to say I was too weary to post last evening.
One stop was a holistic appointment up in the Ponds area. Just as I shut the engine off I noticed this deer having a late lunch.
So glad I had my camera with me.
Someone came out of a home nearby and the deer moved to the next yard and shortly sprinted off to who knows where. Sadly their natural environment is being taken over by new home builds.
Somewhere down there in the smoke is the bridge that connects Kelowna to West Kelowna. As I drove down the mountain the smoke became even thicker.
Lots of shopping and most of it for our trip to the US and Mexico 🙂 The computer research is finally over. Time for action and organizing. We leave five weeks today.
Just a wee bit less smoke. But the rain has been postponed until possibly Saturday.
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Contessa, I have no idea how a deer’s coat should look on the west coast, but from the look of the fur coat, the deer looks stressed. In the southeast, the deer have a smooth brown sheen to their coat.
Nice to get all the errands done ready for your trip. Maybe that deer is being chased by the wildfires.
George, I thought about that.
That is one strange looking coat on that deer. Not like around here. But what a treat to see him. A day without the computer is not such a bad thing.
There are no fires near here, just smoke. The area I was in has deer around the homes all the time. This is the best that I could come up with.
……….
Q. Why does the fur coat of a deer change colors depending on the time of year — a reddish color in the spring and brown in the fall?
A. The deer’s coat is designed to provide both a means for thermoregulation and camouflage. Summer coats appear reddish and are thin, allowing deer to better cope with heat stress. In the fall, deer begin a process of molting, which is triggered by hormonal changes that reflect the changing seasons. The reddish summer coat turns into a faded gray or brown color as the new winter coat begins to grow. The new coat is comprised of two layers. The outer guard hairs are hollow, stiff and grow about 2 inches longer than the undercoat. The inner layer is soft and dense, which insulates deer from the cold weather and snow. Coat color, regardless of the season, tends to be darker in forested areas and lighter in agricultural areas where deer are exposed to more direct sunlight.
It seems like Mother Nature takes care of everything. With the molting, the deer is being prepared to survive in another Canadian season, albeit a cold one. Here in the southeast, it gets nowhere as cold as it gets in Canada. So our deer change shades and grow their big antler racks but don’t often molt to prepare for a second seasonal coat. So I think you hit the answer.
She must be changing into her winter coat. Wonder if that means an early winter. Most of the deer we see are of the lighter color to blend in with the wheat fields.