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.
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 having gotten a large blackberry bramble 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’m surprised she has lived as long as she has. One of my neighbors, thinking it a shame that everyone referred to her as “the lame deer,” named this deer Bianca.
Here’s a link to a video of another limping deer in our herd, but she wasn’t around for long.
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…
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 second summer and a new batch of fawns…
While the folks in the neighborhood don’t generally feed the critters (other than bird feeders here and there), some of us do feed the deer a bit, but only in the winter. Here’s a video of some deer in the back yard taking care of the last of my feed at the end of last winter. In this video it is nice to see how easily they jump over fences, and it’s interesting to see how dominant and even mean some of the females can be