Finally seeing deer

[heightman]

After spending the entire deer season with out seeing a single deer. I can now sit in the warmth of my home and watch the deer feeding on my neighbors landscape.
I live in Lowell in a neighborhood where most the homes are about 40-50 feet apart and the lots are under 10,000sq. ft. For the past 4 nights the deer have been showing up like clock work between the hours of 11-12. Thursday night there were 4 of them that showed up about 11:30 and stayed out there till just after 5. No I didn't watch them the entire time, but did spend one hour watching them eating off of an ornamentall tree. [excuse the spelling] Got up at 4:50 they were still there but soon walked off behind the house toward another neighbors back yard.
Last night after watching the 11 o'clock news I looked out the window and once again they were out there however could only see 2 of them and they looked smaller than the one's from the past night. I attempted to take a picture but as I started to open the window to avoid glare from the flash. They went right on alert as soon as they heard the weather seal on the window break free from the small bit of ice. I decided to stop right then so as not to spook them and take the chance of scaring them away for good. I guess I made the right choice as the settled down and were still out there at 12:45 when I decided it was time to go to bed.
Today I am going to place a 5 Gallon pail of acorns I collected in the fall, out there for them. Hopefully they will find them and be to busy eating them to get skidish when I attempt to get a few pictures. If and when I get pictures I will post them here.

[Proline]

I lived in Lowell for a few years back in the late 80's.  Was a good group of deer in the swamp off Clark Rd behind the Demoulas.

[bmstaaf]

Here in pa we get the same thing where I live, they come in the cities to browse more in the winter. I are them sometimes when the food is in the woods, but when it disappears they come and eat the flowers and garden at the house. Wierd!

[plt3028]

heightman,
time to put out a trail cam...

[woodsalta]

Be careful that you don't get caught "baiting"!!! I didn't see a deer all season long but the other day I was on the way home and saw 6 does standing on top of a pile of lawn debris and when I went by again 5 hours later they were still standing on the same pile. I wished it was still deer season!!! DOH! They can't be moving much with the 2-3 feet of snow on the ground. I have been shoveling snow off of roofs for the last week and it SUCKS walking through the roof snow never mind the snow on the ground! Now I know how the deer run throught their "energy reserves" during the winter.

[heightman]

Woodsalta, I can not see how feeding the deer could be called baiting. But in this state you never know. Also I do know that you should not feed wildlife. However these poor deer are hungry and more than likely pregnant. I can not see any thing wrong with placing a bit of natural food out for them. It's not like I am placing deer corn or other types of food out for them that is not part of their common food source's. There are plenty of acorns left buried under the snow where I toss mine. I throw them under and around the massive oak tree across the street. It's trunk is at least 3 feet across and it has to be 80 feet tall. This fall it was like walking on marbles around here. Not to mention needed a hard hat if you got anywhere near the tree lol.

Friday afternoon at 2:30 my neighbor counted 9 deer in my yard. They came walking right up the middle of the street and turned into my driveway. One of them was trying or thinking of climbing up my front stairs. I have another 5 gallon pail of acorns sitting next to my door. She must have been able to smell them. Sure wish I was home at the time but was at work.

A couple of the deer jumped the snowbank at the end of my driveway and walked through the 24-30" of snow that blankets the yard. The other's found the path down to the shed all 9 then jumped the 4' chainlink fence and headed off toward a very small area of scrub growth on the street behind me. My neighbor is still amazed that they were able to literally HOP the fence the way they did. But of course we as sportsman know they can HOP even a taller fence with ease.

With all the snow we have gotten this winter all kinds of wildlife are showing up in areas where they have never been seen. There was a story on channel 5 news the other night about just that. It was filmed in Dracut. The video they showed from just one person's yard had Deer,Turkey's, Coyote's, and a BOBCAT ? I have never seen a bobcat in this area of the state and do not know of anyone else who has ever seen one around here either.