a little urban wildlife
Lest you think Oakland is an urban wasteland full of guns and gangs and concrete (er, which some of it actually is…), I bring you this oasis of peaceful urban wildlife from the house where I was babysitting last night, in the Oakland hills.
A lovely 2-point young buck, with velvet still covering his antlers. He was about 15-20 feet away.
Oh, he was so pretty and so peaceful. I stayed at the window and watched him the entire time, about 20 minutes.
Then he went around the side of the house and I could hear him, so I sl0wly peeked around the side and there he was, looking right at me. Hello, beauty.
Then I got just a little bit closer and chatted (very very quietly) with him for a few minutes, and then I let him go in peace. But oh, he was so very very pretty. I love deer.
Sorry for the crappy resolution, these were obviously taken with my camera. But you get the picture. For half a second when I first saw him, I thought it was a reindeer because he wasn’t fully grown and reindeer are sort of smaller deer, like this, and they have blunted, velvety antlers (used to see them quite often in Finland). But of course this is Oakland, not Lapland. Silly me! A treat, nevertheless.
I remember being little and sitting on my grandparents’ back porch watching the deer come in to feed every evening. Great memory.
oh how wonderful. i love it when you’re able to watch nature without disturbing it. so peaceful.
Dani: oh, that sounds wonderful.
Tammie: it was pretty great. We had a little face-to-face when I peeked around the house, but he wasn’t too disturbed. Went back to eating.
I would have said reindeer too when I saw those antlers. Very cool, him being so close. We once had a deer run through our neighborhood. He was very confused because he was running between people’s fences — which are like a big maze. I felt sorry for him — ending up in my suburban nightmare.
What a wonderful surprise to see out the window! There are wild turkeys that live along the creek not far from my house and I love the surprise of seeing them from time to time. I’ve also seen various kinds of hawks and a few bald eagles near my house, a raccoon, deer, and several other kinds of unexpected wildlife all within the city, all not far from my house and sometimes in my yard. I love it!