Sunday, January 12, 2014

Evening Visitors

 

The past couple of weeks the neighbors have been visiting and munching down the weeds and grass.  A small herd of deer roams the area and lately they have taken up evening residence next door or across the road.  They browse across the highway and over the empty field along the road.

I get up to go to the other room and looking out the window there they are.  They see me, ears perk and eyes focus on me through the window.  20-50 feet away they stand peering at the human in the window.  I stare back at them, tap on the window, ears twitch.  Soon they are back to grazing.

deer (800x600)

The fields here get no attention through the summer and grow wild, making for some nice grass and weeds for the deer to munch on.  The buck usually stays pretty low key yet he attracts lots of attention for the trophy hunters. They roar the streets of town, generally unbothered.  Loose dogs are dealt with promptly.

To the south is a ranch and the rancher brings his cattle in for the winter.  The hay put out for the cattle attracts the deer as well as the cows. 

The winter the roads and streets of the town are their home.  There are shelter spots they can bed down in and have good browse near by.

In the summer they wander the woods of the creek.  The creek is also their water.  Not sure how big of range they cover but would guess it is over 5 square miles. 

They are fun to watch at night and the next morning there are their hoof prints in front of the house and they leave bit of fertilizer behind.   Only problem is, they do much on my trees so I have to put a fence around the smaller trees.  Otherwise I just watch and occasionally take the camera out.   

1 comment:

Joe said...

We went for a walk the other day and much to our joy a group of six mule deer were in the children's park. i didn't have my camera however :(