Deer in the winter

I don't know if I told you that I have a special love for deer.  We have seen many since we moved here, but mostly from a distance.  It is so nice to watch them. Great to be in the middle of the woods.  And then there are some fields and open areas where we saw them all year long.  Only  500m away from home.  During hunting season the sightings had become rare and after the first snow we only had one encounter a couple of weeks ago.  Driving home along the country road by the side of the road there were four of them.  We slowed down and rolled the window down.  I made some sounds and all ears went up. They stood still for a long time.  I kept repeating the sounds, everything else was quiet.  They looked around, all ears were full attention.  Eventually all of them disappeared into the trees.  Of course, I didn't have a camera with me. As usual.

Then yesterday another very close encounter.  Just 500m from the house when coming home we spotted one by the side of the road.  We were driving slowly and came to a stop to watch.  It definitely wanted to cross the road.  We just waited.  Unfortunately there was another car coming. GRRR. Another rare encounter in itself. ROFL. It went back into the woods.  We decided to stay to see if it comes back. And it did!  Peaking around carefully, it tested the ground covered in snow and the slope that it would have to come up to cross the road.  One hoof at a time, it tested for a while.  It observed us and eventually it decided that it is safe. It climbed up, walked on to the road and slowly crossed it to disappear into the trees on the other side.  It was not in a hurry at all.  We think it was the last of a bunch that must have crossed just before we drove by.  We checked the area for more, but no more yesterday.  Very sweet to watch!  AND AGAIN NO CAMERA. oh, well.

Here is one image of the deer at the far end of the open stretch just by our house, where we  saw them in the summer.  Did you ever have any luck taking a picture of Deer in the wild? This isn't the best shot I ever took. ROFL.

Image from a Europe trip.