The animals! Specifically, the little baby deer we saw right off the deck of our cabin!
If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you already know I'm obsessed with pretty much all animals. And plan our trips around trying to see as many as possible. Also, I've been trying to spot deer in our backyard for the past two months, ever since our neighbor said they're around, but with no luck.
So when my husband came inside while I was doing my makeup the second morning of our trip, whispering "deer, deer!" I had to run outside with my camera! We saw a large buck in the bushes below the deck, but as soon as I tried to snap a photo, he ran off into the trees.
But!
I kept looking into the trees, and swore I saw something still moving. My husband couldn't see anything, but when I moved to the other end of the deck, I saw a little baby flicking his tail, right near where the buck had been a minute ago. I have no idea what a buck was doing messing with a baby, or where the mama was, but I'm pretty sure we helped the little guy out by scaring away the male deer, because who knows what trouble he was up to. And we got a few (ok, 99 to be exact) photos of the precious little guy, which I wish were better, but with only a kit lens, there's only so much zoom I have to work with when trying to focus on animals and not the trees in the way. But here are some of the better ones:
So many spots still on his back!
If only he would come hang out in our backyard, I would be so happy!
In other animal sightings, we saw a few at Grandfather Mountain, just before we walked the mile high swinging bridge. The enclosures had more of a natural feel to them than some zoos, which I'm sure makes for happier animals, but not quite as good of viewing.
These bratty otters were hiding in their log house, and we really couldn't see them at all.
More deer, but these were pretty boring. I'd already had my fill of baby deer for the day!
Go Cougs!
One of the nights in the cabin, a huge moth got in as we were coming in from using the hot tub. Even on zoom, I couldn't get a very good angle on it though, since it was high up on the second level of windows in the living room.
Here you can see just how big it was, it's in the corner where the windows meet, about half way up the top row of windows.
I'm pretty sure that was the biggest moth I'd ever seen in my life. Until we saw an even bigger one!
As we were sitting on the couch, something banged on the window from outside. A flurry of flapping brown wings made us at first think it might be a bat (we'd seen some earlier off the deck). But then it landed on the window, and we got a closer look.
And OMG, I'm not even kidding when I say this thing had wings about as big as my hand!
Here's a picture with the first giant moth on the right and the crazy-super-gianter moth outside on the left. The one I'd thought was so big at first was only about 1/4th the size of the second one!
Ok, moths are kinda gross, but I was fascinated by ones so freakishly big. After some Google searches, I think the biggest one is a Polyphemus moth, the largest moth native to the US. Definitely not something I ever saw growing up in Washington State, or in California!
To round out our three days of animal sightings, I'll leave you with a couple photos of this adorable little salamander. He came for a quick visit on our deck, and since I'm a fan of lizards, of course I grabbed the camera.
You can just see his little red head peeking up from the side of the deck.
And then he was gone in a blur, this guy was fast!
Do you go out of your way to spot or photograph animals during your vacation travels?
And for the DSLR experts, does anyone have any advice on how I could have gotten better pics of the baby deer through the trees? Or was it just because of the limitations of the zoom on my kit lens that was the issue with it focusing on the trees instead of on the baby deer?
15 comments:
Holy cabin, it's amazing! Love the first deer pic, and like how hidden he is among the trees. Those moths are insane. Sort of like the bees here. The bees are extra fluffy, triple extra large, and look fake. They get into the house often as there are no screens on windows, and they always freak me out!
That cabin is so awesome!
It's always so funny to me when people get really excited about deer, because where I grew up we saw them ALL THE TIME. Like, 6 or 7 of them would be in our front yard every morning when I left for school.
I've always seen deer as the mildly annoying creatures who ruin our gardens and run out in front of our cars (or hit them - I've never hit a deer but I've been hit BY a deer). So, I totally get that a lot of people get excited about them because they don't see them all the time, but it's just interesting to me because I kind of just think they're annoying. :)
You are so cute. I'm glad you're in the south, you're going to have a lot of fun with all these encounters! And yes, moths are freakin' HUGE!
I agree with Amanda, growing up in Wisconsin - deer can be the size of your (teeny tiny coupe) car- but here in Florida the deer are tiny! I absolutely love seeing them on the side of the road because they're so cute (although, totally deadly if they run in front of your car!).
What a sweet little baby! My husband always laughs at me because we cannot take a vacation without critters being involved in some way. Ever. I can't wait to show him that I'm not the only one!
I love animals so much too!! We have a baby and a mama deer that are hiding out in our neighbor's backyard (he doesn't have a fence), so we love to spot the baby whenever we can.
Haha, like Amanda said, deer are everywhere here. On the roads too (dangerous!). To get a better picture of an animal through the trees, try using your manual focus. Your camera is probably set to single- or multi-point focus that happens when you depress the button halfway...right? Mine usually is. That's why it focuses on the leaves--they look like the thing that stands out. (The deer kind of blends in to the brown of the backdrop.) Manual focus is something I'm just starting to learn, but it'll allow you to force your camera to focus on a certain distance--you'll just have to use your eye to see when the deer looks pretty clear and sharp and snap the photo. Like I said..I'm just learning to do it OK myself..and it's hard when an animal is moving...but it might help! (Practice on your cats! hah.)
I was REALLY hoping to see a lot of animals on our most recent vacation, when we went to Maine. I was desperately hoping to see a moose, but no dice. We did see a few deer though and I got excited about it just like you! Though, of course, they aren't as exciting as moose!!
I love the salamander or lizard or whatever that is...that's a creature I would never see here in New Jersey!
Aw, what a cute little deer! I love animals, too, and these are all awesome -- except the moth -- LOL!
All of your photos are so great! I love animals and trying to photograph them. I feel like the kit lens limits the ability to focus, too. I will definitely try the tip about manual focus listed above in the comments :)
Those moths would scare the beejeezus out of me. Just seeing them in pictures makes my skin crawl, haha. Aw baby deers! My mom's friend had a family of deer living in the woods behind her house and they got so comfortable with humans that we ended up feeding them, BY HAND! It was crazy
The salamander was kinda cute :]
I'm so excited that you are all about the wildlife!! The south is fun, I think you're really going to love your time here!
I'm so excited that you are all about the wildlife!! The south is fun, I think you're really going to love your time here!
Aw, what a cute little deer! I love animals, too, and these are all awesome -- except the moth -- LOL!
I love animals so much too!! We have a baby and a mama deer that are hiding out in our neighbor's backyard (he doesn't have a fence), so we love to spot the baby whenever we can.
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