Urban Deer Herd

 Our rather messy backyard (with my little cabin sailboat Surprise)

 is about to get a winter makeover.

 

Unexpected tracks.

 

This coyote had hooves!

 
First spent an hour outside battening down the hatches, then walked around backyard pondering a good location for my tripod so I could attempt a sort of time-lapse of the Storm of the Century.*

Then, since there was already a little fresh snow, decided to look (not very hopefully) for any signs of a visit from the coyote we got familiar with last winter.  Pleased to discover tracks--not in the fresh snow, but maybe from Saturday--all over the place.  Then, brushing away snow, realized they weren't coyote tracks at all, but deer tracks. 

 

Clearer view of a print dusted with new snow.

 

Several of the trackways were together.

We do get deer from time to time, though it is still a minor event to see one.  I have learned that deer are now regarded as urban wildlife, having acclimated to this environment.  But even so, this was not a single deer, but perhaps as many as five--I counted that many trackways, and confirmed that their cute pointy little toes were all pointed in the same direction.  It is possible that one deer made five circuits of the neighborhood, but I don't think it likely.  It is also entirely possible the tracks were not all made at the same time, but their icy nature at least shows they were made on a warm day when the snow was slushy, and then froze over.

These deer left fairly straight trackways, showing that these were Deer on a Mission.  Just as well they weren't girdling any of MY trees or bushes!


*Not necessarily hyperbole, to listen to the meteorologists; and anyway the century is young!