Walking With Daisy Deer

I have been so very blessed to have shared many walks with Daisy deer since we released her into the wild four years ago. Each walking experience is enchanting for me and, with each trip, I gain appreciation of her world and her way of life.  Most of our walks through the woodlands are slow. Daisy stops often to graze a bit, or to sniff around in an area, and she is always on the alert. Sometimes, she follows the common animal trails – and there are many of those throughout the woods. Even back in the thickets of wild honeysuckle or in the brambles of the woodlands, there are narrow trails where all sorts of animals travel. On these trails, I often find scat along the way, or animal tracks after a rain, or a scattering of feathers or hair after a death. The animal trail is a highway of sorts and, for the observant explorer, there are many clues left behind by the travelers who came before.

Daisy lost her collar so FD ran down quickly to put a new one on her. Apparently, she was in a bit of a rebellious mood this morning! She was in no way interested in FD brushing her, which she usually loves!

This is about the time I showed up. I quickly put on my camouflage jacket and grabbed the camera. Sometimes when FD gets between Daisy and me, she will rise up on her hind legs as if to challenge FD!

Daisy’s stance says she’s about to challenge FD!

Here she goes! Fortunately, FD always manages to fend her off with a stiff arm!

Deer recognize by scent, not sight. Daisy knows I’m her mother, and relaxes, licking my hand to show she recognizes me.

Daisy seems more interested in eating clover than mutual grooming with me this morning.

I rely mostly on my sight to make my way but, for Daisy, there is much more to her journey. It is as if every step of her way is an investigation. Her senses are so very keen. Often she puts her nose to the air to catch scent on the breeze. She sniffs plants or trees to detect who or what has been in the area. She noses around for her favorite plants to eat. Her ears are constantly on the alert for noises I am not capable of hearing. At times, she might spend ten minutes or more standing completely still with ears at the alert, staring off into the distance at something I will never see with my inept human vision. But most frustrating of all for me, is my inability to follow her without creating a lot of noise. Try as I might, I fail to walk with grace and nimble movement as I attempt to keep up with her. It is probably my imagination but it seems she frequently looks back at me as if to say, “Can you make a little less noise?”. I wonder sometimes if she wishes I would not follow her. I believe this is why she sometimes jumps a fence and takes off on a quick trot, leaving quite a bit of distance between us. I often find myself wishing, as I stand defeated back on the animal trail, that I had a set of whitetail deer legs. Oh to have that kind of spring in my legs, and the ability to run like the wind, with my simple set of heart-shaped hooves to get me around.

On this day’s walk, Daisy seemed to be sniffing, licking and urinating frequently – all characteristic of how does and bucks communicate during the rut. I suspect Daisy came into her estrus time back in November, since she tends to have her babies in late May. The gestation period for white-tailed deer is slightly less than 7 months or between 190 and 210 days. As I watched her eat, I noted that Daisy looked healthy and strong. And, while she nibbled on various winter greens, I was pleased to log into my memory some new information about what deer eat. I am always learning from Daisy, and it seems she always has something to teach me.

A flick of the tail and Daisy and I are off for a walk in the woodlands.

Deer have pupils in the shape of a horizontal ellipse. This provides them a horizontal alignment with their environment. In this photograph, Daisy’s eyes are horizontal with the horizon. When she grazes with her head down, her eyes turn 90° clockwise, to keep her view horizontally aligned.

All along the walk Daisy will turn to groom herself or scratch an itch.

Had Daisy not stopped to nibble woodland plants, I would never have noticed the well-camouflaged scattering of feathers, where a predator feasted on a dove.

When I walk with Daisy, other forms of wildlife seem less afraid of my human presence. This squirrel was chewing on tree bark just a few feet from us. I actually had to back up a bit with my zoom to photograph the squirrel.

Daisy sniffs, then scrapes the bark of the tree with her lower teeth, then licks the area.

A swish of the tail and we’re off again!

Daisy heads down a steep hill in our woodlands, to the lush grasses in the woodlands below.

Daisy ambles down the hill quite easily while I have more difficulty with my bigger footprint, while trying to keep my camera and zoom close to my body.

Daisy continues to follow the scent of whatever she is tracking.

I missed Daisy in a full squat position since I was still trying to maneuver down the steep hill, but Daisy took opportunity to urinate several times on this walk. Urination is a way of communication with deer.

Daisy spent a lot of time in this location, sniffing and licking.

I love these types of photographs with deer looking back.

Eyes can be very expressive even in the deer world.

Catching scent.

More ground investigating.

Daisy jumped the fence from our property, wandering through the neighbor’s property to the west, and on to an open yard further west. I think she was trying to escape me! I had to roll under a fence and walk along the fence line of the pecan orchard to keep up with her laterally.

I can tell by her stance, Daisy is preparing to jump another fence.

Wouldn’t it be grand to have a set of spring-action legs to jump and leap like this?

Daisy is swiftly heading to the old river channel. Again, I feel she is trying to lose her human mother!

Daisy looks to the south for several minutes.

Just like humans, deer suddenly get the urge to scratch an itch!

Daisy’s stance tells me she’s preparing to head northwest instead of south.

But wait! Something directly to the west has piqued Daisy’s keen sense of alertness.

Daisy is about to head over the old river channel dike to investigate! As it turns out, it is a juvenile raccoon in distress – “An Unusual Rescue“.

And at the end of the walk, when Daisy’s alert posture indicated something was going on just over the other side of the dike that parallels the old river channel, I was offered the opportunity to rescue the juvenile raccoon I wrote about last week. As I attended to the raccoon, Daisy casually jumped the fence to the river channel and disappeared as quietly as she had appeared down at the clover patch earlier that morning. I knew Daisy was off to resume her wild ways, most likely taking part in more of the mystery of the deer rut. Oh well, it had been a wonderful morning with my girl and, once again, I felt blessed that Daisy had tolerated my tagging along with her for a couple of hours that morning…

© 2015 Day by Day the Farm Girl Way…