I'm at the Barnes and Noble near my in-laws'. The manager's just announced over the PA, "Barnes and Noble will be closing in 15 minutes." I've made my final purchases. A brownie and a second cup of coffee. When I leave here I'll drive home through Valley Forge. Usually when I make this drive at this time of night, which I try to do at least once every visit, I see a lot of deer along the way. They'll be lined up along the roadside by the dozen, as if waiting for a parade. Their eyes glow in the headlights of passing cars. The deer themselves turn gray as shadows and sometimes when it's very dark all you can see are their eyes, like strings of orange paper lanterns way off in the distance. That's a trick of my own eyes, of course. The deer aren't off in the distance. They're right there, a few feet away.
As I said, usually they're lined up by the dozen. But last month, when we were here and I was here and I made that drive, I didn't see a single deer. Not one. It was strange. I wonder how many I'll see tonight. I'm about to find out. Barnes and Noble has now closed. Good night.
I've narrowly missed 3 deer in the past couple of years and hit one square on. How on earth do you get them to stand at the side of the road without bolting in front of the very first car that comes along?
Posted by: Ken Muldrew | Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 11:24 PM
Ken, they are hypnotized by light. Perhaps his headlights reached them before they had a chance to get out into the road.
We are inundated by deer here in Wisconsin, most of the natural predators having been diminished if not eradicated. We often have them walking through our neighborhood. We can ship some to Valley Forge if you like.
Posted by: JD | Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Ken, JD,
Valley Forge is lousy with deer. You can hardly finish saying the name George Washington without having half a dozen of them cross your path. But they are very tame deer. They're so used to people that they practically pose for photographs. And they appear to have learned to look both ways when crossing the road because I've never seen one dart out or come across a dead one on the roadside. This is why I was suprised not to see them that night last month and why I was surprised Saturday night when there weren't any out again. Either they've all decided the night feeding's better at some other part of the park or they've stopped being nocturnal. They're 9 to 5-ers now. They're done for the day when the tourists go home, I guess.
Posted by: Lance | Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 11:22 AM