Submitted by Don Doman.
People either love deer in their yards or they hate them. We are the love ’em variety. We enjoy watching them. It’s so relaxing. They let us feel closer to nature.
We’ve moved our plants up onto our deck so they don’t eat the tomato plants or flowers. They’ve only come onto our deck once. The next day I put up a sign offering venison sandwiches and they haven’t been on the deck since. Our yard offers blackberry bushes, dandelions, laurel, and deer especially delight in nibbling on our madrona tree. Deer like to browse and eat the growing tips of trees and shrubs.
Here in Pierce County the deer we see are blacktail deer. They range from Northern California and the west side of I-5 into British Columbia. They are called blacktail because when their tail in down it’s mostly showing black or dark brown. When up, it shows white. Whitetails are the species of Eastern Washington, Generally our deer have a home range of about one square mile, so we see the same deer all the time.
Deer breed during a the rutting season, which normally happens in November and December. Bucks compete for the right to breed. I’ve seen bucks locking their antlers with one another, but mostly what we see is the older, heavier bucks with bigger racks just kicking smaller bucks out of the way with the front hooves demonstrating the pecking order. We saw bucks and does circling our house at a gallop. They rounded the house three or four times. They also appear sometimes springing down our driveway. Normally, they just relax and scratch. We don’t see as many does as we used to, but every once and a while they come through.
We buy bags of apples from Grocery Outlet and roll them individually over to the deer. They prefer Granny Smith over Red Delicious. Once with a doe and her three fawns, she didn’t see where her apple went, so I gestured where it was several times and she finally understood and found her apple. Minutes later I realized I had just communicated with a deer. “Oh, my god. I’m a deer whisperer.” They don’t always listen, and their eyesight is more about movement, but they have a keen sense of smell.
Since their home range is so small our deer truly belong to the neighborhood. Tom Heavey, just a block away, reports via Facebook when they visit him. We see the deer going across the street (climbing stairs) to visit other homes. I’ve had neighbors stop in and ask to visit our backyard to take photos of our deer. Once deer have eaten they usually lie down and chew their cud. They space themselves out. Usually the bucks are about twenty feet apart. The oldest and biggest buck has first choice of what spot he wants. If it’s a mixed group, I’ve seen does get their own way . . . it’s kind of like life.
By feeding wild animals, you invite them to be domesticated and unable to fend for themselves in nature. Stop. You are doing them a disservice. You don’t feed rats or coyotes, do you? Then don’t feed deer.
JC,
Thank you for reading and writing.
When I was child and visited Mount Rainier people fed potato chips from their hands to deer. I think that is a disservice to the animals. Rolling a few applies a week to deer that come through our yard, is not an attempt to domesticate them, nor lure them away from nature. Many people create deer-friendly yards, which I think is great. Just as people have bird feeders, which attract birds a different kinds and the occasional rat or two. I enjoy seeing the deer walk through our yard or simply just sit in peace and chew their cud. I don’t want to feed the deer out of my hand nor pet them. Deer can be a nuisance: we moved our tomato plants onto our deck, live with their foraging some of my wife’s flowers. We just enjoy them. If we didn’t feed them they wouldn’t starve, there is plenty to eat here in Pierce County. We simply welcome them and our friends frequently ask about our visitors.
Thank you, again for reading and for commenting.
Don
I agree that they are just wonderful to watch and I have gone out in the yard while it or they are out there keeping a safe distance. This years doe eats from the apple tree, moves to the hostas, tomato plant then on to the mock orange and then rest in the shade before going for desert, my roses. I feel they have to subsist on the land and what they find, so I am willing to lose some plants. Only once that I know of a doe has come up to the deck to partake of the pansies. I’m fascinated how they can jump so gracefully over the gate from a standing position.
They are so quiet and one season we had a family of 3 come visit several times. The visits here in Oakbrook seemed to be more frequent in recent years since all the new building went in down at the creek and the nearby old Game farm has changed some.
Joan,
Thanks for writing about your yard and the deer. Although, they have visited while we had a deck party going on, mostly they come early morning or early evening. On really hot days they relax under our weeping birch which give them a nice cool shaded area to share. We sometimes see the same deer returning over a year or two. We have Japanese knotweed and blackberries that cover probably a 150 feet of better. Also, we have the madrona that they nibble on. I enjoy watching them from out kitchen table and from my office. We have a motion detector to let us know when cars inadvertently drive down our driveway, but it also lets me know when deer are approaching. Yesterday four came through in single file . . . the last one squatted a bit before continuing on down to the alley. We love watching their own interactions.
Thanks, again for sharing your deer with me.
Don