Well, I guess this isn’t such a young buck … maybe 4 years old … but it wasn’t very large. He was wandering around in Fort Worden State Park. Even the bucks are used to people and aren’t as skittish as they typically are in the National Forest (for example). And without any natural enemies (except auto traffic), they numbers are way too high … so they attack my hydrangeas and fuchsias for a snack.
The deer in Port Townsend are numerous and very tame. I have to fight them to keep my flowers from being deer food … although they do a pretty good job on keeping my hydrangea pruned. So, when you see deer grazing somewhere in town, you don’t have to worry about them running off … unless you try and get within a couple feet of them.
I liked the way the late afternoon sun brought out the reds in the madrona.
This young buck was not shy, because it has lived its life in the National Park, where there isn’t any hunting allowed … so humans aren’t recognized as ‘the enemy’.
Walking the roads in Fort Worden, you can often find yourself sharing the roads with deer. In the image below, the young deer (a yearling) is experiencing its first snow. It’s mother is off the road to the right … the teen-fawn seemed a little uncertain about this cold white stuff. And I imaged it was wondering if mom was going to order out dinner.
Port Townsend has a large deer population. Or, a large population of normal size deer.
This one spends his days hanging out in one of the cemeteries, eating flowers off the graves. And there aren’t any natural predators (except cars) in town, so the population keeps expanding. Hard to see how a natural balance will be established.