Oh, deer

My “office” is set up in what the cluster developers were pleased to call the “family room”. It’s more than half of the kitchen space, badly laid out and pretty uncozy. But the point, for purposes of this post, is that my desk faces the front of my house, overlooking the cluster parking lot, with some cluster-maintained landscaping. Moving from the back of the house to the front has literally given me a different view of the world, and I’ll talk about that another time.

Mostly what I see are cars coming and going, and (to a lesser extent) people walking—either to/from work or the shops, walking dogs and/or children or just getting some steps in. But Tuesday I noticed some movement to the side of my monitor, looked up and saw:

Well, that’s a thing, innit? I’d have expected wildlife to appear in the back yard, which is not open to vehicular traffic. But this guy nosed around, then munched on some of my neighbor’s shrubs and I caught him as he paused a couple of houses down. (Sorry it’s out of focus.)

The toddler of another neighbor started over to greet him, and he hightailed it.

Now, I was a little concerned because it’s half a mile from my ‘hood to any kind of woodland, some of which requires crossing fairly well-trafficked streets. I wondered if the heat or some lack of food was behind his foray, and I don’t know what kind of food to put out for deer.

Except for whatever shrubbery my neighbor has.

(And yes, I know that deer are very destructive to people's gardens. I am not actually going to put out deer chow.)

Okaybut—on my morning walk yesterday, I was about halfway round my circuit when I startled this guy, who’d been very still behind a large bush:

Again—we’re talking serious suburbia here, and I just don’t know.

But then, I was on a People’s Republic path that goes past my Gift Fairy’s house and a baseball field, and there was another deer making tracks. That’s more woodsy, so I felt better. (The deer was too fast for me to capture on video.)

But the day wasn’t over—about 50 meters up the path, I noticed a father and toddler standing still, looking over to some shrubs. I very slowly approached, and sure enough: this time a fawn. (Sadly—I thought I got some video, but user error.) We all four of us stood absolutely frozen for some moments; then the fawn melted into the bushes and disappeared immediately.

So—ducks and foxes in the backyard, deer in the front. I do appreciate them dropping by and sharing the neighborhood with me.