This particular deer has decided that the yard is its bedroom. It apparently hangs out there pretty regularly, which is fine. Fine now, that is. Come winter it should be hanging out with its friends, and I'll be curious to see if Dad finds himself the proud landlord to an entire herd of mulies.
That would be interesting.
Hey, don't get me wrong -- I'm all for interacting with nature. It is, after all, what I do for a living. I'm just saying that I don't deny that nature can occasionally be... inconvenient.
Example?
Ok. One deer in the yard? Cute. Bambi. Herd of deer eating all of the tulips or digging up the hen-and-chicks? Inconvenient.
One more. Red squirrel? Charmingly obnoxious (yes, there is such a thing. I'm a big fan of red squirrels, as antisocial as they are). Red squirrel using a feeder for cone storage? Inconvenient. Red squirrel deciding to use the roof as its own personal highway (read that as: THUMPskitterskitterskitter. Over and over and over again)? Headed towards annoying.
Ah, it's all ok, though. I'd sooner have a little inconvenience than live without heading out into the yard on a stupidly freezing morning to shoot bad pictures of an interloping deer.
Oh, wait. That didn't make it sound like a good thing, did it?
No, no. I can do this. I'm a biologist, remember? Nature is my friend.
Ok, let's say (without going all sappy treehugger which, believe it or not, definitely isn't me) that it's neat to see those little examples of the fact that it is actually possible to coexist with our fellow animals (and yes, dammit, we're animals. Part of the system, not above it) as long as we're willing to put up with a few minor annoyances. Yeah, it might not be as simple as that in every case, but at least it's a start.
Um. Thus endeth the lesson, I guess.
1 comment:
I am totally with you. I don't think it is wise to domesticate deer. We had a someone do that and it was shot. I love deer. But they must not get used to being fed and hanging out. I had to be careful with my owls for that very reason. And a wildlife expert noticed I was getting to think of the babies as tame. And he warned me not to encourage them. It's just that as fledglings they had no fear of me. I still miss their interaction. But it was for the best. Love the photograph. Blogger will not post any of my photographs from up here in North Carolina. I am wondering if it is my wi fi at this campsite that I am using. Darn.
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