We see deer almost all the time: it’s a rare day that goes by without seeing them, but the elk-sightings are few and far between. I am an obsessive picture-taker, so this post will serve as my place to share my favorite deer and elk pics. I have separate posts to show our pics and videos of local birds, squirrels and chipmunks, and a lone coyote.
Even when we don’t see the deer, we certainly hear them, and of course they leave evidence of themselves in the snow:
But let’s start with the elk. If you’d like to skip to the deer, click here, or skip even further ahead to learn about Bianca.
The Elk
Many of the neighbors had told us about the elk, but it was a long time before we saw them. One morning, knowing I was anxious to see them, a neighbor texted me saying “There are elk in your back yard!” I ran into the yard, but didn’t see them anywhere—until I looked up to the hill behind our house, and there they were.
These animals are impressively large, yet are very skittish around humans (I assume as they are often targets for hunters). After about 18 months living here, we finally got an up-close view of them when part of the herd came munching across our yard. I was glad to have captured some of this in video (and now I sure am glad I bothered to put fencing around my baby trees!).
The Deer
We moved here shortly before the local herd expanded. One day we were walking in the area between our two acres and came upon this little guy hiding in the clover under a tree.
There are plenty of deer around, as our land seems to be right in the path of their normal traffic pattern.
About 18 months into living here, we saw just how much the herd waxes and wanes. In our first months here we saw as many as 13 deer at a time, although usually more like six to eight. But in the following year I didn’t see more than four or five at a time.
In our first year we saw only females, but in the second year there was a young buck with the herd. Here he is in a neighbors yard, seeming to pose dramatically for the camera:
In late summer we saw him in the yard struggling with a large blackberry bramble that he’d somehow gotten stuck in his antlers.
Here’s a video of the poor guy with his blackberry bramble, and a young fawn who seemed to be very entertained (or confused?) by it.
One of the deer in our local herd has a problem with her front right leg, I assume from an old injury. It’s pretty severe, to the point that I’m surprised she has survived as long as she has. One of my neighbors (Hi, Deb!), thinking it a shame that everyone referred to her as “the lame deer” or “the cripple,” named this deer Bianca.
The first time you see Bianca walk with her very crooked leg, you can’t help but wince: that leg is bent at quite an angle and looks like it must be very painful. But I have yet to see her leg slow her down: even jumping over the fence at the back of my yard, landing on her front legs seems as easily accomplished for her as for all the other deer in the herd.
But Bianca is, to put it delicately, a complete bitch.
She bosses the females in the herd, kicking others if they get in the way. You get an especially good view of this when the deer come to clean up the mess that the birds leave behind at the bird feeder. She seems willing to share with some of the deer, but others she will chase off with some well-aimed kicks. (You can see this for yourself in the video below of the deer at the bird feeders.)
We know that Bianca’s chances are lower than those of an uninjured deer, but she continually surprises us, not only by surviving, but by continuing to bring new fawns into the herd. She’s downright inspiring.
Here’s a link to a video of another limping deer in our herd, but she wasn’t around for long.
But back to the deer herd…
It’s especially fun to see the fawns.
In the video below, this poor fawn was happily staying by his mother’s side when she jumped over a fence and left it behind, then the poor thing tried to join her. I know he eventually got there, but we plan to lower a part of the fence a bit more before the new fawns come around next year.
I only have one nosy neighbor (although the Steller’s Jays and squirrels sometimes peek in the windows, too):
Here’s a video of deer raiding our bird feeders. A few times I’ve seen them [very awkwardly] on their hind feet going at the feeders and I’ll open the door to chase them off.
Here we are in our third summer with a new batch of fawns…
One day we saw several fawns jumping around and saw two bucks playing at fighting, but not when I had a camera in my hands. But near the end of the day there was a mini-herd in the yard who stopped to pose for us before heading off for the evening. We don’t often see bucks here, so this was a treat.
One cold January morning I happened to glance up in time to see our local deer-clan, including Bianca, playing on the hill behind our house. At least, I assume they are playing…
Anyway, who could blame us for obsessively photographing the deer? We are every bit as entertained by the wildlife here as we were in our first week here, and I expect when we are old-timers, we’ll still be grabbing our cameras when the deer come around.
