Deer Me

I went for my usual ATV ride to get some fresh air, and to see what I could see.  I went through the little patch of woods on my land, out the other side, and continued into the meadow of my neighbor.

I had went only a hundred yards or so when I spotted some movement 200 to 300 yards ahead of me.  Looking closely at the dark shapes against the mottled coloring of snow and corn stalks, I could just make out that they were deer, three of them.  I unzipped my coat, unzipped my vest, and dragged out the camera lurking in there somewhere.

Setting the camera on telescopic, which sometimes gives me blurry photos, I began to ease ahead angling to one side so the deer might think I was not getting any closer to them.  To my consternation that ruse didn’t work at all.  The deer immediately took flight.

I snapped the first photo which turned out to be very blurred as they started to move.  Shortly thereafter I snapped a second, at just about the same time as I saw one get so excited it fell down.  It must have hit a small patch of ice before it got into full stride.  This is that second photo.  I am going to attempt to leave it full size, (click on it to expand it) but it may not upload.  All three deer can be seen with the third one just arising again after its tumble.  It is easy to see the snow that arose from the fall.  I assure you it got up just as fast as it fell, none the worse for its fall, except maybe a sense of “drat, did I do that?” as Urkle would say.  All three ran into nearby woods unscathed.

Hopefully we will see this same cast of characters all summer.