Wildlife at The Park

One of the great pleasures of living at The Park is great diversity of wildlife.

We are blessed with all manner of bird life, including all but one of Missouri's game birds. We have turkey, quail, geese, ducks, doves, no pheasant. Blackbirds, red birds, blue birds, song birds, herons and raptors. In the winter eagles are not uncommon. In summer hawks, and year round, my favorites the owls.

We have reptiles and amphibians, snakes, turtles, frogs, lizards.

Furry animals too. Foxes, coyote, hedgehogs, raccoon, possum, all frequent our yard.

But best and worst of all are the white tailed deer.

Mrs. T and I have two families of deer which frequent our yard. The photo above was taken from our bedroom window yesterday afternoon.

I really like watching them, and as a gardener I truly despise them. A hungry animal will eat anything.

Unfortunately, the only predator they have are car bumpers. Its a daily occurrence to see dead deer on the side of the road. While unfortunate for the deer, its really expensive and unbelievably traumatic to hit one of these beasts.

Local communities have no idea what to do about the problem. There is an unanimity of believe that there are too many deer, and a wide disagreement about what to do about them. Mayberry has gone so far as to allow homeowners to hunt, bow only, on their property.

Beginning within the next week or so, about every ten days, until the season starts, someone will stop by and offer to hunt on our land for us. The answer is always NO. We have become attached to those who share our land, just so long as they don't run into us.

Be safe, its deer mating season. Also, while stopping by, stop in and say hello.

Toad