My Big Fat Nocturnal Visitor

One morning this spring I woke up to find my broken bird feeder on the ground. Could this be the work of a bear?

I set up my game camera and captured this scary looking creature. 

A Yeti, perhaps?

As the creature grew bolder it bypassed the feeder, preferring instead to climb the steps to my back porch. There it could get the sunflower seed directly from the storage container. 

On the pollen coated surface of the container a clue to its identity emerged!

I decided to latch my container. My uninvited yet determined guest broke the latch and threw the lid aside.

 Finally I captured its photo. Judging by the height of the container she is about 12 inches tall.

 Wait! Who is this? My cat is securely locked in the garage each night!

 The bold visitor returns three hours later for a second serving.

hidden fawn

Can you see the fawn? She is lying at the base of the tree. Her large ear is pointing up toward your right and looks very red with the sun shining through it, she is looking away from you, and her body extends along the ground further to the right behind some leaves.

The biggest threats to fawns come from coyotes, dogs, bears, and bobcats. We know through research that these animals don't see strictly in black and white, but they also don't see colors nearly as well as we do. Imagine the difficulty her enemies might have seeing her without the aid of color vision.

Now suppose that you are watching her without the magnification of a zoom lens. She would be almost impossible to see, wouldn't she?