Sunday, October 7, 2007

Filthy with deer

Last week I decided to go for a little paddle on the chain of lakes that BSBI is on. It turned out to be a not-so-little paddle of 2 hours in length. I poked my nose into just about every corner of the three-lake system, but I spent a good deal of my time watching wildlife. There were animals everywhere: Canadian geese heading south for the winter, seagulls, ducks like nobody's business, and whitetail deer. I spotted this group of six deer browsing on the shore, and I decided to see who close I could get to them. They knew I was there, as they kept snorting at me, and moving around whenever I accidentally hit the canoe with my paddle. As I was watching that group of deer, I heard a snort that didn't come from the deer I was watching, it came from directly behind me. I looked over my shoulder, and on the opposite shore of the channel was another pair of deer! I ended up moving on, and about a minute and a half later, I came across yet another pair of deer!

Even on campus, it is pretty ordinary to drive in around dusk and see 3, 4, or even more deer grazing on the lawn. One day I got up a little earlier than normal to go get some laundry I had thrown in the dryer the previous night before I went to bed, so I took a different path than usual, and lo and behold there was a group of four deer grazing in the field/grassy area that I had to walk through.

The area around the institute is absolutely crawling with deer. I've seen way more deer down here in the valley than I have ever seen on my excursions in the mountains. Of course, I spend way more time down here, which may factor into it. But whatever the case may be, I wish I had brought my .243 with me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that must have been amazing, too bad you didn't get a picture of them! that would've been cool! later Goo!