For months Michelle had been suspecting that the birds were getting a little help emptying the bird feeder. One morning as I was getting ready for work, I had a nagging sensation that I should go to the back of the house and look out the window.
This deer was enjoying sunflower seeds from the bird feeder in our back yard. Unfortunately, the picture was taken through a window so the quality is poor. Notice the dog at the back door of the neighbor's house excitedly begging to be let out.
After fleeing the bird feeder, the deer was joined by three other deer. The four fled the area of the back yards where dogs were now present. As they crossed the street, I took this picture from the front door. Notice the dense, suburban environment. This is well within the Cincinnati city limits.
I grabbed the sharpened popsicle sticks from my tracking pack and marked each track from the single deer that had been at the bird feeder. Each popsicle stick is stuck in the ground at the "heel" of a deer track (or two overlapping tracks). Though I did not witness the deer's approach, the tracks told a clear story. The pattern of the first six sticks indicate a "slow walk" - a cautious approach. Then the deer, feeling comfortable, resumed its normal "diagonal walk" and went straight to the bird feeder (behind the wooden structure).
It had just stopped raining shortly before the deer entered the yard. This softened the ground and aged all previous deer tracks making it particularly easy to identify each track that this particular deer left. There are actually two tracks in this photo - the first is immediately right of the popsicle stick, the second is just above the first. Notice that the toes are relatively close together and no "dew claws" are showing in the rear.
Even in grass, deer leave easily identifiable compressions. The front points of the toes tend to press in deeply, appearing here as the deeply shadowed area well right of the stick. Because the deer was doing its normal "diagonal walk", this track actually represents two steps: a front foot, and then the back foot from the same side placed almost exactly over top of the track left by the front foot.
This is the same track as in the last photo in the sequence. Whereas the last photo was taken from directly overhead, this one is looking at the track from about the 4 o'clock position looking into the toes. If you are looking at these pictures and thinking, "How do you see a deer track in that?", keep in mind that these photos just don't fully capture what your eyes (and fingers) are capable of seeing first hand.
This is a terrible picture, but it still gives you an example of looking for sign somewhere other than on the ground. In the process of robbing the bird feeder, the deer left some short facial hairs on the feeder. By late afternoon no hair remained on the feeder. The wood and hair likely dried and the breeze or bird activity then disturbed the hairs.
An abysmal picture, but do you see how the story is starting to piece together? As the deer stretched it neck to reach the bird feeder it left a neck hair on the squirrel baffle that guards the feeder. By late afternoon, the hair was gone. The baffle and hair likely dried enough that the breeze or bird activity swept it away.
As the deer was robbing the bird feeder something startled it and it bolted. Pictured here are the tracks where the deer stood to eat from the feeder. The feeder is overhead at lower left corner. Notice the "T-stance" (front feet side by side) near the base of the feeder. At least the three upper-most tracks are from the deer's sudden exit.
This track showed a slight clockwise pivot, a heavy tilt/lean to the right, and a push-off indicating movement toward the 1 o'clock direction. This track was at the feeder and indicated the moment the deer startled and bolted from the bird feeder. The next tracks were indeed off in the 1 o'clock direction and reflected the 1x2x1 loping pattern shown in the next photos.
As the deer startled, it fled at what I would describe as a slow to medium run (from left to right). The resulting 1x2x1 pattern reflects a lope. Perhaps the close (even adjacent) proximity of the middle two tracks indicates a relatively slow lope? Certainly the relatively short inter-group spacing indicates such. The foot sequencing (from left to right) is likely, left-front, right-front, right-hind, and then left-hind. Note the Nokia cell phone for additional scale.
The deer ran directly from the bird feeder toward where this picture was taken from. The deer seemed to prefer an escape route that stayed off of the steepest part of the hill in the somewhat slippery conditions. The route also avoided the yard that is sometimes occupied by dogs (straight down hill from the feeder) and avoided the soft, wet ground at the base of the hill. The last group to tracks (in the foreground) may reflect a higher speed (spacing of the middle two tracks).
This photo is from a little farther down the hill and with two more groups of tracks in the foreground. The deer veered downhill resulting in greater inter-group spacing (reflecting the resulting increase in speed). Did you notice the subtle change in the loping pattern? Look at the last three groups of tracks (in the foreground) and compare them to the previous groups. What is going on?
This track was made during the deer's lope across the top of the hill. It was moving from right to left in this picture. Note how the toes are splayed and the dew claws show, resulting in a much longer and wider track from the same deer. The popsicle stick is barely visible on the right and placed just behind the plane defined by the two dew claws. A dime placed between the tips of the toes helps lend some scale.
This is another track in which the deer is loping (right to left) across and slightly down the hill. A dime, placed between the tips of the splayed toes, give some scale. Again, the popsicle stick is placed in the plane defined by the two dew claws. Why are the dew claws showing up in these tracks? Why did the dew claws not register as part of the tracks shown leading to, and at, the feeder?
As the deer fled, it passed through a natural bottleneck between a hedge row on the right and a small tree on the left (Nokia cell phone for scale). The deer stayed left, close to the tree, ducked as it passed under the limb, veered right about 25 degrees, and leapt the short chain link fence in the background. Only three tracks were identified and marked for this photo and the tracking was halted at this tree.
So what did we learn from this lesson? Let's scratch the surface... We saw examples of three different gaits from the same deer. We saw how the footprints from the same deer changed size and shape. We saw examples of sign tracking. This lesson also represents an example of tracking in grass and an introduction to track aging. We saw how the deer was connected to the landscape and other things going on around it.
Where does this deer bed down? What time of year were these pictures taken? Was this a buck or a doe? Based upon the time of year, can you tell by the absence of antlers that this was a doe? How could you tell, just by the tracks, whether the deer was a buck or a doe?