Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters

Deer

Deer 70 Deer Deer. I see them every day.Their tall white tails disappearing into the woods,their sleek brown coats matching the dry grass from last fall. Every morning they come to the field behind my cabin, stepping with high steps over the uneven ground and lifting black noses to sniff at the wind.Their tall ears turn at the first sound of a snapped twig and their soft brown eyes with their thick dark lashes seem to reflect from a perfect world.Ask the neighborhood dogs about a deer’s perfect life and they’ll pant excitedly, then grin. Ask the spotted white fawn who drinks from the river and she’ll only blink in the sun. This morning two white-tailed deer.They are mother and daughter, sister and twin, sunlight coating their brown shoulders .They stand at the edge of the clearing, elegant ladies in black heels and fur.As one scans the open spaces for danger the other bows to sample a damp tassel of weed. Now they punch two more steps into the clearing and stand with legs slightly akimbo.As they breakfast their mouths move side to side, their long faces tapered to coal noses with white rings around cinnamon eyes,their lashes curling up like the wingtips of a raven. John Muir wrote,“Standing, lying down, walking, feeding, running even for life, it is always invincibly graceful, and adds beauty and animation to every landscape–a charming animal, and a great credit to nature.” I step onto the porch.The deer snap to attention–it’s like an electric current turned on.The mother pistons a leg to the ground and together they swivel their tall ears to the front. Wild Delicate Seconds 71 Then their hides shiver and the white flags of their tails are raised in alarm. In an instant they are streaks of hazel through the obstacle forest; bounding over deadfalls, zigzagging like bees.The black flicks of their heels punish the air behind them. Like dancers they describe parabolas six feet off the ground. When the deer stop, I walk to the edge of the clearing and hold out my hands, empty, call out my name: Me, a man who lives alone in the forest. Me, a man in need of such friends. ...