Merry Christmas, Deer

The last couple of years, I have made it a point to do something outdoors on Christmas afternoon. It didn't hurt that it was sixty five degrees last Christmas and even warmer this year. A couple of years ago I went fishing on a frosty morning at Lincoln Woods. I ended up catching a few brown trout. Last year, I walked around Rocky Narrows in shorts and a T-shirt.

I left later this afternoon than I did those years because we had an early dinner. I really didn't have a plan. I are too much food, so I probably should have gone for a hike to burn it off. However, I was in the mood to do some photography.

I decided to go to Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge. Sachuest is in Middletown, RI. Almost every time I have ever gone there, I have seen multiple white tailed deer. I hoped to get some good pictures of some like I did last month. The thought of the hour drive, made me put off going until later than I should have. Then I remembered, (and I admit this is bird nerd speak), I have not seen a purple sandpiper yet this year so I could metaphorically kill two birds with one stone (or literally a deer and a bird).

Sachuest did not disappoint. I walked about a mile and a half of trail. All told I saw at least twenty

The shoreline looked cold and barren with the dead
tree and clouds. However the reality is it was almost
seventy degrees and people were walking in T-shirts

different deer and as many as 24. When I pulled into the lot, I saw some deer right away, When I walked back to my car,  there were some deer in the same general area, so I did not count those in case they were the same ones. There was one herd of eleven, and another with seven.

What made the deer watching even better, is since there is no hunting, they are not afraid of people. They do not spook when you get close. However, today I had an all time amazing experience. As I was walking north towards my car at sunset, I saw some deer right next to the trail. There were three people within feet of the deer. As I got closer, the people headed toward the parking lot. This left me to get pictures of them. The deer were literally within five feet of the trail, and consequently within five feet of me. I had to step back to get photos. They did not come out great because the light was pretty bad.  Still for ten minutes it was pretty cool to be within arm's length of deer that could care less that I was there.

I watched and photographed them for a little while and decided to walk up the trail and watch them from afar. Coming towards the deer were another group of people. I was interested to see if the deer would care if people walking at normal speed, and talking at normal volume would at least change their behavior. The whole time I was near them, they kept munching on grass. They almost never looked up to look at me. They certainly did not feel threatened. When the couple got to within feet of the deer, who were practically on the trail at this point, they started taking pictures. Again the deer did

These people moved to the far side of the trail
so they wouldn't spook the deer, but they
ended up standing right next to the rope
and neither deer stopped feeding

not even notice. About the only time the deer would look up was when they wanted to place there next step around a rock, or look for the tallest grass within reach.

At about that point it was almost dark. It was pointless to try to get any more photos. The deer in the field were becoming harder to see so I left. I have not been that close to a large animal since I was in Yellowstone in 2010. It was a really cool last Christmas present for the day.  

I also did see a flock of Purple Sandpipers. They were feeding almost directly below me while I was getting a photo of the shoreline

Purple Sandpiper