Deer Dynamics and Much-needed RAIN

For the past several weeks we have seen a doe with twin (spotted) fawns on or near our property, usually several times per week. The doe is unusually "reddish"-hued, so easy to recognize.

Last weekend we were outside doing various small projects and the trio were nearby browsing on vegetation. A sudden noise startled them, and I saw one fawn move downhill while the doe and second fawn went in the opposite direction. Later that afternoon, at dusk, we saw a single fawn in the landscape slowly moving uphill towards a neighbor's property. Then about ten minutes later, we saw the doe and single fawn walking in a very different direction! What could be done? Nothing of course. We could only let nature take its course and hope that the lost fawn would find its family again.

Come Monday, I looked out a window and saw an adult deer with a spotted fawn. I looked more closely to see if there was a second fawn, but it didn't appear that there was one. Then upon craning to get a better angle...there it was - the second spotted fawn. The family did reunite.

I captured one photo of the three of them as they wended through the landscape. One of the fawns is right in the middle of the picture - well camouflaged.

Family of mule deer - reunited.

Monday and Tuesday (and a little bit on Wednesday), we had a fantastic drenching from the remains of Hurricane Paine. It didn't bring us any "paine" - just MUCH-needed precip! In the end we received a little over an inch - a lot for September. Many local trees and shrubs were getting stressed from almost four months with virtually no rain, so this might take the pressure off them for a little while, anyway.

On Wednesday, I saw a vigorous-looking yellow mass popping out of a tree on our walk. Today it had matured a bit more - a shelf fungus. In general there don't seem to be too many other fungi popping up, though.

Looks like Laetiporus gilbertsonii (the Sulphur Shelf) - the west coast version of the "Chicken of the Woods" (Laetiporus sulphureus). 

For comparison, here are photos of the eastern Laetiporus sulphureus ("Chicken of the Woods). This was a massive fruiting body that I found on our short stay at Kilen Woods, Minnesota, back in 2012.

Deer Bot Flies at Lake Morena

After reading Margarethe Brummermann's blog post yesterday about bot flies, I became intrigued by the fuzzy, bumblebee-mimic deer bot fly pictured in the post:

http://arizonabeetlesbugsbirdsandmore.blogspot.com/2013/04/it-always-pays-to-watch-competition.html

Then I consulted Lynn Monroe's new book: "Desert Insects and Kin of Southern California: A Photographic Survey and Natural History - Anza Borrego Desert State Park" and became convinced that these bot flies might not only exist in the region, but that they might be out and about at this time of year.

So after meeting Gary's son Ted at the Mexican border to see him off on his Pacific Crest Trail adventure, Gary and I decided to take a hike at Lake Morena, convenient and close by. I did not really expect perfect "hill top" conditions (hill-topping is the habit of some insects of congregating at a high point like the top of a hill or mountain and often establishing territories, in an attempt to intercept passing potential mates). Bot flies are known for this behavior, and amazingly, after a false alarm, in which I thought a smaller carpenter bee was a bot fly (!), we actually FOUND deer bot flies perched and periodically flying about at a high point in the chaparral overlooking the lake!

Cephenemyia jellisoni, a Deer Bot Fly. This specimen was captured at Lake Morena, southern San Diego County, on April 20, 2013. 

Dorsal view of Cephenemyia jellisoni, deer bot fly. Lake Morena, April 20, 2013.

These flies do not feed as adults, but after mating, females will deposit tiny larvae in the nasal cavities of Mule Deer. The maggots can reach as much as an inch in length, and will develop inside the respiratory passages of the deer.  Later the maggots will be sneezed out, to eventually pupate in the ground and emerge as an adult fly. Apparently this does little harm to the deer, despite its repulsiveness to humans.

The "hill top" at Lake Morena. Rich chaparral habitat. 

Lake Morena, San Diego County, California.