And the deer listened intently

[HogTime]

Last night I was camped in a neat little campground alongside a beautiful meadow (see pic). After dinner I was sitting outside plunking on my mandolin. After a few songs I looked up and there were 3 deer about 75 yards away in the meadow looking at me. Their ears were pointed at me. For at least 10 minutes they hardly moved, always looking at me and never eating the grass. One did start to come my way, but turned back after a few yards. All at once they all "bounced" away at the same time. I say "bounced" because it looked like they were on pogo sticks. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

It was a very moving experience. A tear came to my eye as they left. I'm assuming that since they stayed so long they enjoyed my music. I think I'll have to come up with an original composition called "Deer in the Meadow". http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

http://www.HogTimeMusic.com/nomad/photos/RVJune08 045.jpg

[Byrdmando]

When you finish "Deer in the Meadow" post a sound clip as I might try it in the deer stand this season.

[Tom C]

I once had a squirrel jump onto my balcony railing about 2 feet from where I was inside playing. He just layed down on the railing, head down, with his front arm just hanging over the side. After about 10 minutes I thought he was dead. I guess I just put him to sleep.

[Santiago]

If you brought a banjo you could have gone hunting!

[Jim MacDaniel]

My playing is more likely to have this effect on the wildlife...

[johnwalser]

I live 20 miles beyond where the boonies begin, 7000 ft. up in the High Sierra in a grove of Giant Sequoia trees. About 10 years ago I was playing my banjo out on my front porch and all of a sudden a rather large doe came over the rise in front of my home. She walked up within 20 feet of where I was playing and just stood and watched me for ten minutes or so. i must have played a song she didn't like, because she just walked off during one of my songs. Don't know if she liked my playing or my singing, but it was a very odd experience. Last year when I had to wake a sleeping bobcat from in front of my door was rather odd also.
John

[Daniel Wheeler]

My family and I were camping on french creek in Wyoming as we often do in the summer or at least for many many years did. But anyway I was about 9 and plinking around on my grandads mando and wouldn't you know it there was a doe standing outside the window in arms length. Not really knowing what to do I stopped playing and my mom grabbed an old polaroid. Well it hung around for a Long time and we even fed it. It looked pretty bad off and we found out in town the next week after reading a newspaper article and talking here and there out of Denver that there was a problem with CWD. And here I thought she liked my banging.

But to the op its a cool thing aint it. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[steve V. johnson]

We live in the forest, too, and we play out on our deck from time to time. Sometimes it's just me picking but sometimes folks come
over and we have some Irish sets, or the occaisional oldtime hoolie, out there. We need to have some of the local songwriters out here
and see how the locals respond ...

In my experiences, the chipmunks, squirrels and deer occaisionally stop to listen to porch music. The bluejays are harsh critics,
the titmice just like it when folks get together, the blackbirds are jealous and the owls only relax when they've got us surrounded, with three or more. Raccoons and possums haven't much time for music, here anyway, but if we're really involved they see it as a good time to get to work in the compost.
The cardinals are ok as long as everyone else is, but they like to retire early. Robins are far too self-involved to care. The pilated woodpeckers
(and most of the other woodpeckers and nuthatches) are curious and will hang around the party for a while.

The nightingales don't start til after midnight, so I don't expect that they listen much earlier, but some of our pals insist that they lift some Irish
tunes from the whistle players. Me, ah dunno about that, but I like to sit up late (with some nice whiskey) enough to hear 'em get it going. It's
best when there are more than two, but they'll work it out thoroughly even if there are only two...

If we go til daylight the redwing blackbirds will come out from the creek behind the house and let everybody know that we're still out there. They
yell out the perimeter around us. Pretty neat, that. Truly, tho, when the dawn chorus starts at about 4:30am or so, they don't care in the least
about us. If we're still hammering away, they turn it up a little (it seems), but til they've done with their thing, they don't much give a #### what we
do. ;-)

stv

[Jason Kessler]

That's a beautiful picture, Steve. Thanks.

[fishdawg40]

When you finish "Deer in the Meadow" post a sound clip as I might try it in the deer stand this season.
If you have nothing good to say....sometimes I wonder about the mentality of those around me http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Keep playing for the deer, that's a wonderful story.

[Byrdmando]

If you have nothing good to say....sometimes I wonder about the mentality of those around me http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
Lighten up, Francis.

[steve V. johnson]

It's a pretty wild notion that a song played on mandolin would be used as a game attractor in a deer blind...

I hadda laugh, myself. #

I imagined one of those up-in-the-tree things, those chairs that fit around a trunk... maybe a Mix Mad CF mando finished in camouflage (isn't -everything- in those situations camo'd?). #

Would you need to rub that scent stuff on the mandolin? #(Ewwwww....)

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

A while back we had a deer overpopulation here in Indiana, and they were becoming really small and sickly. The state lotteried off permits to hunt in some state parks, but the local joke was that all you needed to hunt deer was a handful of corn flakes and a ball peen hammer... "Heeeeeeerre, Bambi..."

I seem to have gone a little dark here...

Please, go back to the nice stuff now?

stv

[Santiago]

I posted a photo of a cute little fawn I took outside my office to facebook, and a friend of mine responded that she had just purchased a new shotgun, so my timing was great. If I didn't know she was a known tree hugger opposed to all hunting, I might have been offended too. We won't solve the hunting question here. We probably won't solve whether mando playing attracts wildlife either. Interesting experience behind all this.

[fishdawg40]

If you have nothing good to say....sometimes I wonder about the mentality of those around me http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
Lighten up, Francis.
No one calls me Francis, the name is psycho....and I love deer #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Bill Snyder]

....and I love deer #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
There were about 5 in my backyard a few minutes ago. If you promise to haul them far, far away I would be delighted if you would come and haul them off.

[Bertram Henze]

A friend and myself were practising a slow tune (him with a guitar, I with a melodica (http://www.melodicas.com/melodicas.htm)) just outside a fenced but empty meadow in Ireland. Near the end of the tune, I turned around and saw a group of some 10 cows come our way - I'm not sure this counts as "wildlife" - and gather at the fence, looking somewhat puzzled as if they had expected something else. Apparently, they were intrigued by the moo-ing sound of the melodica.

Mando content coming...

Once a week I drive my daughter to her two hour riding class. Since it is too far to drive there and back twice, I stay in the car and practise on my OM, windows open in summer. The people don't seem to care, but the horses being led by frequently stop and stare. Ok, that's not really wildlife either, but I am glad they don't stampede away; I take that as a positive feedback.

Bertram

[Tom C]

One time 3 of us were pickin in a state park parking lot close to dusk. All of a sudden a racoon appears right in the middle of us. Startled, we kind of jumped and
scared him away.Then while playing I would see his little face peeking out from the bushes. again he started getting brave and came towards us. As I was backing
up, he began following me. I made a big 100ft circle and he followed me the whole
time. He was probably hoping I had food.

[Jason Kessler]

I used to summer on an island where the deer were protected, and a huge problem. They were walking tick colonies (from whom I got Lyme Disease) who would knock over garbage cans and then ignore you when you got, literally, in their face. Once, I had to whack one in the butt with a beach chair so that it would finally make some room for me on the path to the beach.

One night, while playing some blues and, OK, perhaps enjoying a martini or two, I heard the garbage can go over and lost my temper. I ran out with my instrument, making the loudest and ugliest noises I could, and chased the deer all the way out to the ocean.

Comically, though, it wasn't a mando I was playing that night but a very heavy metal-bodied dobro with a slide. So whenever I wanted to make some noise on the path, I had to squat down, raise a racket, and then run some more. It was late at night, after the season, and the island was all but deserted. Still, I wish someone had been there to see the maniac doing a full-speed kossack dance after a deer, making horrific sounds on a funny-looking instrument.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Deer do indeed love music. When I lived in the Poconos I used to play foe them. Almost as goog a audience as my cat,