Piebald Deer Visits Alexander’s Farm
This post is different from the wild blueberry information you usually find here. This one is centered on the wildlife on our farm and a morning visit from a piebald deer this week. Some things are just too good not to share.
If you have been here, you know the views can be breathtaking, particularly our sunsets. Snow-covered Mt. Katahdin looms large on crisp, clear winter days. The wild blueberry fields turn a brilliant red in the fall, turning a carpet of white, delicate blueberry blossoms in the spring. Every season, and seemingly every day, there is something to remind us of our appreciation for this place. The allure of nature never grows old for us.
Viewing wildlife has become a passion, possibly an obsession. Our hay field, wild blueberry fields and wooded land offer an abundance of four-legged and winged friends. Enjoying the outdoors, we snowshoe to our game cams which this month alone have captured a bobcat, fox, dozens of deer, coyotes, rabbits, porcupines, and raccoons. All winter long the crab apple tree outside my window attracts turkeys, pine grosbeaks, blue jays, and cedar wax wings. Add the occasional fly by of a bald eagle or my one-time glimpse of a snow owl, and it’s a recipe to make any bird-lover’s brain dance.
My camera with telephoto lens sits ready for a quick grab-and-go, as I have the privilege of working from my office overlooking acres of open land.
This week’s unique opportunity took place in the hay field where a lone piebald deer spent time grazing. Seemingly unafraid yet curious, it stayed long enough to allow me the opportunity to capture these photos, feeding this nature-lover’s passion (did I mention obsession?). I hope it returns for another visit.
An online article by “New York Antler Outdoors” says this about the piebald deer.
“Piebalds have various amounts of white and brown patches similar to a pinto pony. Some ranging from a very slight amount of white hair to almost an all white coat. Unlike the albino deer, which has pink eyes, a pink nose, and pinkish hooves, piebald deer have normal brown eyes and nose with black hooves like a normal whitetail. Their coloration is due to a rare inherited genetic variation (defect) that affects less than one percent of the white-tailed deer.”
When you visit us in August for your blueberries, you may see one of these photos again. I’m hoping to have one enlarged and framed; I think it would be a nice addition to the barn.
Our location in Greenfield is remote and Maine winters can be long, but as Jimmy said this week, “we live in a great place.”
See you this summer,
Denise Alexander
