April 7, 2009 7:20 PM
I stared at the trees in dim, gray light glimpsing the quick flick of a white tail. I approached cautiously from the side taking care not to look directly at the thicket where the doe stood. She stared at me, muscles tense, ready to bolt in an instant. I moved along the opposite side of a brush pile wondering if the obstruction might make me seem safer. Then, I edged along the marsh reeds slowly until I was about sixty feet away. She hadn’t moved. Her brown coat was easily lost against the brown grass. I stood quietly for long enough that she relaxed enough to move around, but never taking eyes from me. As I stared, I began to make out the shape of another deer a few feet into the thicket. I thought of a ‘where’s waldo’ puzzle. Before long, I realized there were six. They relaxed and went about there business browsing on tree buds and braches. Four lined up on the buffet of my downed apple tree. Fresh buds rarely within easy reach. With a snap of a branch under my foot, they were gone in the flash of a white tail dancing into the darkness.
