Return of the Deer

We went up the mountains this weekend after being away for two weeks due to my grand daughter's first birthday party last weekend.  We got a big treat this weekend.  Deer!  Last year we hardly saw any and we were wondering if the building of the golf course down the road and through the woods had scared them all away.  It used to be that we would see deer daily and then they slowly seemed to disappear.

I was standing out front on the porch and a family of five deer came right across the front.  A buck with a small rack, a doe and three kids that were probably born this past spring.  They are so docile.  Very calm and just stand there looking and eating the leaves.  I took about 30 pictures.  I got a little carried away, but it's been so long since we had them come so close. 

We brought Missy, our cat, out to see and the deer didn't even run away.  She was quite in awe.  It was the first time she ever saw deer.

After about 20 minutes of eating leaves and listening to us talk to them and take pictures they walked around the back to get a drink from the pond and eat some more leaves.  There were some mallards in the pond and they weren't fazed by the deer either.

Nature is such a wonderful thing.  Next month is hunting season and I often wonder if hunters could ever shoot a deer again if they came in such close proximity to them as we often do.  We've even had them eat from our hand.