I’m finding myself stumped for blog topics lately (you there, the new ones reading this blog – DO not look away now, you’ve only just come aboard! Chicken!) so you may find strange topics on here for awhile. I hope you'll sit back and just go with the flow.
Drove to work this early morning (6:30 ish) right into the face of the rising sun. Since the change from Daylight Savings Time to regular Central Standard Time, it gets light earlier and gets dark in the late afternoon, just as I’m arriving home. Crap, always feels like I should be ready for bed.
Anyways, I drive through a rural area until I get to the highway, and it’s pretty obvious that Autumn is in full swing, the dappling of sunlight hitting the falling leaves and the bare branches show that the wooded areas are losing their density due to the barren sticks poking out of the tree trunks. BAM! There in front of me is the perky white tailed ass of a full grown deer, darting across the road into the brush of the field to my left. It left behind a few young startled deer faces to my right side of the road. I stop, I wait. They look at me, barely blinking (possibly to see if I’m locked and loaded – it IS hunting season I’m told) and they are stunning.
Really, think about it. These beasties, large, lithe, live among us and unless they are nibbling at your garden or dead on the side of the road, they are fairly hidden. In this day and age it amazes me. I hike once in a while, I walk through the woods and I rarely see a Deer duplex created in the thicket. I travel those rural roads and mostly I see a carcass or two of careless deer who didn’t make it to the other side. It always makes me sad a bit, these large animals forced out of their surroundings by man. (yeah, and woman too I guess) But really now, they are pretty resilient creatures. They. Live. Among. Us. Think about it, they are living in any weeded thicket of trees in your area right now, sleeping curled up in the day, coming out to forage in the early evening and morning light. And they are a good size to hide! Ask anyone whose Toyota front end met with the future venison stew one dark night. They are almost too big not to see! It amazes me. I can understand that raccoons and opossums and skunks are living among us in those woodsy areas. They are small and can tuck inside a fallen log (Walt Disney has clouded my thinking) and set up house. But these deer, these large animals adapt to surroundings that are very people populated with islands of trees to shelter them. They pop out, and an unsuspecting Volvo wipes them out, but really you rarely know that they are there. Saddens me to see such road kill this time of year, and hey, since I was talking about Christmas yesterday, it's almost as if Rudolph is meeting his maker. (I know, I know deer and reindeer are two different species - who are YOU, Jack Hannah?)
Enough of Wild Kingdom, it’s a Thinkin Thursday and those were my thoughts.
Enough of Wild Kingdom, it’s a Thinkin Thursday and those were my thoughts.
4 comments:
Living in the country we see these all the time and most of the time it's right in front of the SUV.
So far this fall we have seen at least 5-6 in front of the SUV already.
Last spring there was, well if you Kean thousands if you ask Mike close to 100 that crossed from the farm field in the front of our house to the farm field in the back of our house. Amazing!
I need some venison for Thanksgiving. I guess you know where to find some, huh?
I always feel sorry for the deer. I never could get into the hunting scene. I love to see fall colors when driving too. The time change is rough when coming home, I agree cause I am ready for bed after dinner.
Found two more of the critter's in my driveway last night. WHERE are they hiding out? I don't live in the woods!
Post a Comment