Sunday, May 10, 2009

Two deer

As I have mentioned before, we live near the edge of a large national forest, and a few weeks ago a bear looking for food prowled about the back yards of a neighborhood near us. A bear in our back yard would not be impossible, but unlikely because of the water and the chain link fences.

However, as I was up for my nightly break, I was drawn to the back to look at the full moon on the creek. My backyard was bright with lovely shadows from the hickory trees. A moving shadow crossed my vision. I blinked to clear my sleepy eyes, and immediately it returned - no, it doubled.

Two deer were patiently grazing in my back yard. They could easily have gotten into the yard on one side because the fence gate is open or have jumped the low fence, but the other side has a six foot chain link fence around it...not so easy.

When they finished grazing or heard me cough, they began moving back and forth along the water line and over to the tall fence. One deer returned, walked onto our low dock and jumped onto the sand or into the water - not sure how deep the water is tonight. I guess the other jumped from the edge of the fence because they did not return.

I do love to watch the wildlife eating at night - and I might even welcome a bear in my backyard - as long as my cats are in the house and the bear doesn't tear up my screened porch - a lot of deck to cross before the porch though. I remember many nights in other places of watching deer graze in my yard. My Daddy was the one to teach me much about wildlife.

Thanks, Daddy/Godde, for the delight tonight.

3 comments:

PseudoPiskie said...

Thanks for a new post and an excuse to play with the cat and the penguins.

Deer come here in herds when the apples are falling. They will also lick seeds from the feeders in winter.

DanG said...

In our area deer are considered pests when they get in yards because they eat the foliage.
They are magnificent creatures and they can come into my yard any time. My daughter lives in Western Massachusetts in a town of 40,000 souls and they have bears in their yards and moose walking up their streets

Judy Vaughan-Sterling said...

As my husband was on the way to a local county park to let our dogs run, he found traffic ahead had come to a complete stop. As he stopped his own car, up ahead he was amazed to see a whole herd of deer crossing the road. He counted ...19! Traffic in both directions stopped to let them cross safely. I do worry about them in a South Jersey suburban setting like ours, and I'm *very* careful when driving at night.I suppose deer have no natural enemies here, aside from cars!