It was a Sunday morning and I was not even remotely interested in getting up. I had gone out to dinner with friends the night before and I had been told to get anything I wanted since this was a birthday dinner. So, like almost anyone else who might find themselves in such a situation, I interpreted “anything” as meaning “everything” and I went a little crazy. And it was so, so good.
I didn’t do any permanent damage to myself. This was not a repeat of the Thanksgiving dinners of my youth when I might have ended up lying on the floor; rolling around, moaning and repeating, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” Instead, this was the perfect execution of an experienced adult. I had just enough of everything that I wanted, I felt really, really good and I went to bed that night with the certainty that I could luxuriate in bed on a Sunday morning for as long as I wanted.
My beautiful wife Susan had gotten up and mumbled something about making coffee. I pulled the covers up over my head and mumbled something about loving her. Then a feeling of euphoria started to kick in when I began to experience rare back moment, but it was actually more like rare body moment. I was totally relaxed, I was in complete and utter comfort and I was starting to drift off to sleep again. Then the bedroom door opened and Susan said, “Bill, Bill, there are deer in the lawn.”
This didn’t really make a lot of sense to me because there really was no “lawn” on this particular morning. The most recent snowstorm had covered the ground and no lawn could be seen anywhere. However, there was clearly something interesting happening and Susan was excited about it, which was all that really mattered to me. So, with a somewhat confused smile on my face I got out of bed and followed her out to the living room where she pointed out the windows and said, “Look!” I instantly understood her enthusiasm and we looked at each other and shared a simultaneous “wow” moment.
There, in my back yard, were three deer that had bedded down for some rest. I have often found such bedding sites while out in the woods with my snowshoes (thanks once again Denny), but I have never actually seen deer lying on the open ground before. Even more important, I have never seen deer do this while I also happened to have a camera at my disposal, so this was a real opportunity for me. The only thing I had to worry about was the lighting.
It was still early in the morning and there were heavy clouds in the sky. This meant that the light level was low and the shutter speed on my camera would be slow enough to cause problems. Further complicating the situation was the fact that the deer were bedded down in an area where I had allowed the native plants to grow tall, which meant that I wasn’t going to get a clear shot at them. The final complication arose when I realized that I had to take my photos from inside the house. Any movement out onto the deck would certainly spook them.
So up came the big lens and a few test shots were taken. All of them were awful because it was too dark. Settings were changed and technique was modified for the next volley of photos. Better, but still not useable. A few final adjustments were made and a few more shots were taken. Now we were getting somewhere. Now I could focus on the deer to see which one would offer the best views.
The deer on the right was doing some pretty interesting things. There was some grooming going on and it also appeared to be munching on something. There was nothing at all appetizing within that individual’s reach, but deer are ruminants, which means that they will chew their food, swallow it for some digestion and then regurgitate it for a second chew. This is known as “chewing their cud” and it is an essential strategy for many herbivores to digest their food. Unfortunately, this particular deer was also in the thickest weeds, so that wasn’t going to work.
Ultimately, it was the deer on the left that finally offered me a good view of its face. It also helped that with every passing moment the light levels had increased, which allowed me to use faster and faster shutter speeds. The photo that I finally selected was taken at 6:44 a.m. and shows a deer lying on the snowy ground and chewing her cud. I have no idea how long she had been there, but I have to admit that I was amazed and a bit humbled by what I was seeing. The animals that live at our doorsteps are capable of enduring so much more than we humans are.
So the next time you get up and start your morning, don’t forget to look out the window and scan the scene. You never know what you might see and you might even end up getting so excited that you feel compelled to go wake up someone who doesn’t necessarily want to get out of bed. Just remember to do it gently.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 24 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more information visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or head over to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.