Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Cheeky

The view westward from the crest of the hill above our retirement home outside Fort Collins, Colorado
Kali and I just returned from nine days in Colorado, including four at our retirement house outside Fort Collins.  Over the next few days, I'll feature some of the natural history highlights of our trip, but I thought I'd ease back into blogging with images of what greeted us when we pulled up to our house on the first day.

Look carefully in the shadow to the left of the porch roof support
She moved off when I got a little too close...
...but she didn't go far.
We observed many mule deer during the time we spent at the house.  They're habituated to people and don't take flight like "normal" deer.  There's no hunting in the subdivision in which our house is located, so they deer have grown accustomed to having people around.  It's a good thing that we can't have a garden (because of water use restrictions) because keeping these deer away from a garden would be a big issue.

8 comments:

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

Makes a change from having a dog on the porch. Presumably they help to keep the vegetation down around the house.

packrat said...

The new place looks fantastic, Scott. A nice bonus, too, to have deer in the neighborhood. Your images here really highlight the setting well. I'm betting that you can't wait to get out there permanently.

Scott said...

John: One of the reasons we went to our house was to manage the vegetation around the place. The former owner had done some really nice landscaping (large beds of rounded river rocks, compacted stone screening walkways, and flagstone patios), but since we're only there once a year, vegetation has started to grow in and among the landscape features. The deer are decidedly not keeping it under control (there's plenty to eat elsewhere). I'd like to find a landscape contractor who I can hire to apply herbicide once or twice during the growing season, but we're pretty far out of town, and the landscapers don't want to make the trek just for one (relatively small) job.

Scott said...

Packrat: On looking at the images of the deer again, they make me think of those faux deer statues that some Americans love to put in their front yards. I just happen to have a live one.

Stay tuned for a post about my feelings about our permanent move.

Anonymous said...

Looks like you found a beautiful spot for retirement. Nice to see that deer awaiting your arrival. Looks like you're going to see some great wildlife there.

Mark P said...

Our deer remain pretty suspicious of people. They don't hang around if you go outside.

I'll be interested to hear about your feelings on the move.

Scott said...

Robin Andrea: The area we've chosen for retirement is very nice and the people we've met who live there love the area. Our principal qualm is that it's pretty far out of town (Fort Collins); there'll be no "dropping in" to the grocery store if we've forgotten an important ingredient in a recipe. Our neighbors have told us of sightings of deer, elk, black bear, and cougars; they don't even mention the coyotes. I figure that, if things go well with our health, we've got 10 good years at the place before we have to move (because of distance out of town, stairs, and upkeep).

Scott said...

Mark: There's no hunting or discharging firearms in our community, so the deer have gotten used to having people around. Since I won't have a garden, I won't mind if they remain nearby.