Monday, January 7, 2013

Creepy Deer

So first there needs to be a little back story here...

About a month ago I was talking to the neighbor that shares my back property line.  He was removing a bunch of trees (which is good because then they won't fall on my garage again!), and I had gone to take a look.

Now, my back yard is tiny.  On the short walk to the back fence I noticed these weird piles of poo in my yard.  It wasn't from a dog or a cat, both of which I have seen wandering through the neighborhood on a fairly regular basis.  It looked too big to be from a squirrel, groundhog or possum, which are the only other animals I have seen.

My neighbor tells me it must be from the deer.  He swears they are here all of the time, hanging out in the yards.  I agreed with him, but I really thought he was wrong.  We live in a little neighborhood between 2 major roadways.  There aren't really any big wooded areas for the deer to hang out in during the day.  They would have to be like commuter deer or something that came from Elsewhere.  I've been here two and a half years and I have never seen a deer in the yard.

Now fast-foward to last night.

It was about 1 in the morning.  I was getting ready to go to bed, turning off the lights and double-checking that I had locked the front and back doors of the house.  It was a clear night, and you could still see everything outside pretty well because it was just a full moon not too long ago,  and all of the snow makes things brighter.

I was in the kitchen, turned off the light, and I was double-checking that I had locked the back door that leads to the back porch.  I happened to look through the door window and through the back porch door into the yard.  I saw this big black shadow in the yard.

OMG!  WTF is in my yard?!

I didn't want to turn on the light and alert whatever was out there that I had seen it.  All I could see was a big shadow and most of it was legs.

I made sure the door was locked, and then I crept around to the back bedroom to get a better view into the yard from the window in there.

There they were, about 6 feet from my back porch: two deer, eating the bird food off of the ground.  Holy crap, my neighbor was telling the truth!

They looked enormous!  It took me a minute to figure it out.  The snow is so hard, because we had a lot of ice and sleet in the last storm, that you don't sink into it at all.  You can walk across my yard without leaving a foot print at this point.  The deer, one in particular, looked so tall because they were standing on a pile of snow!  One was almost as tall as my garage roof!

They were happily muching away, and then the bigger of the two would swing the bird feeder with its head and spill more of the bird food onto the snow.

Well, I had to get my phone to get a picture of this.  Wildlife!  Up close and personal in my yard!

So I made my way back through the house in the dark to get my phone, and snuck back into the bedroom.  Yup, deer are still there.

I thought there was enough light outside to get a picture without using the flash, but it didn't work.  All I got was a black square for my troubles.  Hmm.  Maybe my digital camera would work, if I put it on the black and white setting?  So I went and got that as well.

No dice.

What now?  I decided to try one with the flash.  The deer probably wouldn't really see it or notice, since I was inside and there is a bush  in front of the window to screen me from their sight a bit, right?

Wrong!

The flash goes off, and I end up with a crappy picture of the window screen.





The deer both freeze.

Then, in what seemed like slow motion,  they both look up and turn and stare directly at the window.

I swear, I think they saw me!  It was so creepy!

The three of us were frozen in this weird staring contest for a minute or so, and then they apparently decided I was not a threat and went right back to eating again.

I decided that was enough happy fun time with the creepy deer for one night, and I went to bed.

This morning when I left for work I had to refill the bird feeder.  They emptied the entire thing!

So tonight I am doing an experiment.  I am leaving the light on the back porch on to see if they are brazen enough to come in the yard when the light is on.  If they do I am hoping that the porch light will make it possible to get a picture of them eating all of my bird food.

Isn't this exciting?  Do you feel involved in my weird problems?

Stay tuned for further developments!



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