July 5, 2017
The mystery of the disappearing orchid.
Yesterday, in some thick brush not far from my house, I found an orchid of this species, but a larger and nicer specimen. I left it alone, meaning to photograph it in a few days when all of the blossoms were fully open and it would display all of its beauty. When I went to check its progress this morning, I found that it had disappeared under very suspicious circumstances; but there was a track…some tooth marks on a stem…
And on the grass beside the house later in the day… a prime suspect…
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Montana Outdoors 
Probably need to haul that critter for fingerprinting.
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Comment by Malcolm R. Campbell — July 5, 2017 @ 10:32 pm
And a breath test: for the scent of orchids.
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Comment by montucky — July 5, 2017 @ 10:42 pm
Your suspect love flowers as food, mind you 🙂
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Comment by Hanna — July 6, 2017 @ 3:33 am
That was not the first time that someone ate one of my photo subjects.
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 7:22 am
Deer eating the orchids … I love it.
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Comment by teresaevangeline — July 6, 2017 @ 5:24 am
I do too, and I don’t interfere.
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 7:23 am
Before I even scrolled down, I had a pretty good idea what happened. Been there….
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Comment by wordsfromanneli — July 6, 2017 @ 7:58 am
I figured. These deer have an extensive diet, consisting mostly of things that are growing in my yard.
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 9:59 am
What a beautiful flower and an equally beautiful culprit!
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Comment by Jo Woolf — July 6, 2017 @ 10:58 am
That’s what I think too!
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 11:03 am
The minute I started reading this I knew it had to be a deer because they do the same thing here. Luckily they didn’t eat the beautiful purple fringed orchid that I saw today!
Woodchucks are another one that can eat an entire garden full of flowers in one night.
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Comment by New Hampshire Garden Solutions — July 6, 2017 @ 3:14 pm
I have had more than a few big disappointment caused by the appetite of a deer, mostly in the flower gardens.
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 6:57 pm
Me too. They love wild lettuce and eat it just as it starts blooming.
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Comment by New Hampshire Garden Solutions — July 7, 2017 @ 2:53 pm
She’s beautiful, I would be so excited to be so close to one in the wild but you’re probably used to it. What kind of deer is she?
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Comment by Candace — July 6, 2017 @ 4:57 pm
She’s a white-tailed deer. I think she might have been introduced to this property as a fawn and therefore feels comfortable here. One year there was a doe with two fawns, and she would bring them here and leave them here for hours at a time while she went to do other things. We sure didn’t mind.
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 6:59 pm
I remember you writing about them and wondered if this was one of them.
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Comment by Candace — July 8, 2017 @ 12:32 pm
Yes, turns out there are about two dozen of them in that thick patch of brush.
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Comment by montucky — July 8, 2017 @ 1:21 pm
So to deer, orchids = vegetables!
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Comment by de Wets Wild — July 6, 2017 @ 7:12 pm
Deers’ taste is slightly different than ours.
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 7:19 pm
Awwwww…..what a beautiful deer (?). I’d forgive the culprit any day for a shot that close up.
Do you have a fence around your yard? Or is that a silly question 🙂
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Comment by Vicki — July 6, 2017 @ 7:31 pm
It’s hard to blame a deer for being a deer. That shot was at 145mm with no crop at all. Sometime I can get really close.
No, I have no fences other than around a small garden area, and of course the rabbits just go under that.
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Comment by montucky — July 6, 2017 @ 7:37 pm
There are a couple of neighborhoods in San Antonio that had their camellias cleaned out by deer recently. Clearly, the critters have good taste. One woman said she thought of her flowers as deer candy.
Coincidentally, I had to stop for deer crossing the road on my way to work this morning. Every now and then they’ll follow the power company’s right-of-ways from Armand Bayou nature center, or even NASA, down to the less developed areas south of here. NASA has a lot of land, and plenty of deer and longhorns. It’s always a kick to see them mixed in with the rocket displays.
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Comment by shoreacres — July 7, 2017 @ 8:37 pm
That would be an interesting mix to see! Deer adapt well in rural or suburban areas and small towns, sometimes too well and have to be removed. I sure wish we had a way to keep them from being killed on the highways though. It’s tragic!
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Comment by montucky — July 7, 2017 @ 9:02 pm
She looks completely relaxed….beautiful image, Terry….
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Comment by seekraz — July 9, 2017 @ 5:29 pm
She knows that she is safe here.
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Comment by montucky — July 9, 2017 @ 7:52 pm
A prime gorgeous suspect! 😃
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Comment by Julie@frogpondfarm — July 9, 2017 @ 11:22 pm
Yes, she’s really pretty!
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Comment by montucky — July 9, 2017 @ 11:29 pm