A Suprise Visit in July

                I’m not kidding! I’m very serious! It really, really happened! I’m asking you to believe me and even I can hardly believe what I’m about to tell you! I know that when you read this, combined with the squirrel story I posted for you last week and the chickadee story from a few weeks ago, you’re going to begin to believe that I live in a scene from some old cartoon movie that takes place in an idyllic wood filled with wise owls, darling bunnies, and big-eyed skunks with ironic names, but I promise you I’m just another urban-dweller like the majority of folks. This NEVER happens!

                I was walking down the street early this morning, headed for the bus, as per usual. I followed the same long sidewalk I’ve followed a million times before, urban dwellings towering on one side, noisy smelly traffic rushing back and forth on the other. Yet another morning.

                Suddenly I was startled wide awake by an abrupt activity on my left. On the narrow stretch of grass between the sidewalk and a property fence, a little deer suddenly jerked straight up, looked directly at me, and turned and bounded off, all almost before I could realize what was happening. A deer! In the middle of the city! Just yards from me!

                “No way!” I whispered into the morning air! I was alone on a long stretch of walk.

                It was a smaller deer, a buck judging from the fine crown of antlers he wore on his head. He was a soft, teddy bear brown and so swift and graceful. He bounded down the grass and around the corner way faster than I could possibly walk, or even sprint if I had been so inclined. When I caught up, I paused and peered down the way he had taken. I had to go in a different direction, so I couldn’t follow, but I could see him at a distance, poking around near some trees. When he saw me staring, he flew back into a full gallop. I watched until he disappeared from sight behind a clump of evergreens.

                Wow! A deer! In my neighborhood!

                It actually wasn’t that difficult to guess where he may have come from. There is a big park, not too far away, where there are beaver, muskrat, fish and all kinds of birds. Others have told me they’ve seen deer there many times. But though I’ve explored its paths many times, I’ve never seen a trace of one. Ironically, I had to come home and walk along a busy street to see one.

                A little harder to understand is how and why he wandered this far from his forested park to graze by a busy street. Human and wildlife habitat are fighting for equal space.

                The more difficult and also most intriguing question was this: What kind of deer had just trotted on by before my very eyes?

                Next chance I got, I plopped down in front of the Internet and did some reading. I’m smart enough to know my deer was too small to be any of the bigger species, like elk or caribou. And this was sure no moose!

                So that narrowed it down to two of the smaller species: the White Tail Deer and the Mule Deer. Both are common far and wide. But how could I possibly know which I had been looking at? Anyone who’s ever read anything about nature knows there are some distinctive differences between the two. The Mule Deer has very big ears, like a mule (thus his name), and the White Tail Deer has a patch of snowy white fur under his tail and on his back side (thus his name) which shows to warn his fellow deer of danger when he turns and runs. But what good does this do you when you’re so startled to see a deer at all, that you don’t have the time to observe details like ear size and butt colour? I hadn’t had the wherewithal to pull out my cell phone and take pictures, either.

                Well, I figured, it may just be that I’ll never know for sure what species it was. But I’m happy I even got to see him.

                That’s when Mother Nature stepped in and taught me something new. You might just be looking straight at a brilliant clue without even realizing it!

                As I played that startling moment over and over in my head, what stood out was this deer’s most graceful, beautiful and unique means of running. I’m not even sure “running” is the right word. He rather hopped, like a rabbit. He thrust himself off the ground and into the air, all four hooves clearing the ground by a good foot. He sailed that way a ways, before landing silently on the earth. Without pausing for even a millisecond, he bounded off the earth and was, again, sailing. He bounded this way all the way out of sight. It was this memory that came back to me as I came across a web site about how deer run. Another trait that distinguishes between the White Tail Deer and the Mule Deer, it said, is that White Tail Deer run exactly as you’d expect a four-legged animal to run: one foot in front of the other. The Mule Deer runs precisely like the deer I saw! I’d spotted a deer, and I learned something brand new about a familiar old species.

                Wow! You just never know what Mother Nature might have up her sleeve!

                      
             

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