Living with deer

[Short Track]

I have big bay windows in my house. The deer can certainly see in my windows, and they know when I'm watching them. They watch me too. They stomp their feet, snort, bob their heads. All kinds of things to scare me off.

Very fascinating creatures. They certainly learn danger, they know when I stop my truck, it's time to run. If I drive by slowly, they are less concerned, but still watch me.

I have tried countless times to stalk deer on my lawn. They know I am there immediately. No matter how slowly I walk, or move behind trees, they know I'm there.
So more recently, I started talking to them. They know I'm there, so why not. Talking to them doesn't seem to bother them, or make them more calm. I still can't get too close, or they snort & bolt away.

Certainly became a hobby to interact with the deer. Not sure I could live without wildlife on my property. Can't go back to the city... never.

 

[justinspicher]

We have a resident herd that visits up daily. They all have names. The difference is we can pet ours and they will come up to us. I can usually whistle to get there attention and then they come over to my yard. These are mule deer, not whitetail so I am not sure if that makes a difference. Does, fawns, forks or big bucks, they all come hang out. I am pretty sure that if I opened a door, they would come inside the house. I had them walk into my garage while I am in there before.

 

[elkguide]

Don't know the difference either but I have touched many mule deer but never touched a whitetail.

 

[Macintosh]

Where I live we’re definitely not urban, we get them up in our orchard, but they’re skittish. My wife’s family’s place in suburban ohio they are like yard squirrels. They still have a “bubble”. Outside their bubble it’s like nothing even makes them look up. But get 1 inch inside the bubble, all bets are off and the snorting stompwalk commences. Whitetails in general seem wired a bit (a lot) tighter to me.

 

[jmez]

They are in my yard all fall and winter. I grill just about every night. They don't even look up at me as long as I'm on the deck. Put one foot down the steps and they're gone.

Sent from my moto g power 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

 

[Brushcreekbill]

Similar in my yard. The deer that come up regularly end up like pets. I can walk out and sit on the back porch, grill, and they don’t seem to mind.
Sometimes they will just stare if there’s no corn.
But get one step to close and they are out of there

 

[Watrdawg]

There is a guy on FB and he has a herd of about 30 whitetail that hang out in his yard. They go in and out of his garage and he hand feeds them and pets them. This one video there is a decent sized buck laying down next to his garage and the guy says watch this. He says to the buck. “There he is get him!” The buck jumps up all alert and ready to attack! He looks like a big dog getting ready to go after someone.

 

[Brushcreekbill]

There is a guy on FB and he has a herd of about 30 whitetail that hang out in his yard. They go in and out of his garage and he hand feeds them and pets them. This one video there is a decent sized buck laying down next to his garage and the guy says watch this. He says to the buck. “There he is get him!” The buck jumps up all alert and ready to attack! He looks like a big dog getting ready to go after someone.

the nice thing is this would save electricity.
You could let the deer walk around until you were ready to eat em

 

[Bullwrd]

Your connection with nature is truly inspiring!

 

[mtnbiker208]

Very interesting 2 years. He walked up to a young hunter and that was the end of it. I did not know what to think one day, when he followed me to a deer stand.

 

[loganwayne]

I work in a resort/high end private community that's over 4500 acres. See deer daily walking through my construction sites, the golf courses. They have 0 fear of people, well at least the does. Don't hardly ever see a buck besides during the rut.

 

[goalie]

I had one run into my garage once. Other than that, I only bring them inside to warm them up on the grill.......

 

[Short Track]

I work in a resort/high end private community that's over 4500 acres. See deer daily walking through my construction sites, the golf courses. They have 0 fear of people, well at least the does. Don't hardly ever see a buck besides during the rut.

I noticed similar. I have 8-9 doe's that are somewhat comfortable on my lawn. If I didn't have camera's, I'd think there are no bucks. During the rut, like now, I have more & more bucks. But they will vanish in another month.

 

[Big Flounder]

My wife and I love watching the whitetails on our 15 acres. Certainly, entertaining and I would rather watch for them out the big picture window in our living room than watch any of the crap on television. This year my county here in Indiana was hit hard with EHD but we still managed to see an unusually high number of fawns, which are always fun to watch. Just the other day I pulled my trail cameras, and two yearlings walked up to about 15 yards, just watching me. Naive little buggers when mom isn't around. Like the OP said, I can sometimes get fairly close, but once the mature deer become uncomfortable the game is over.

 

[waspocrew]

At our family ranch, we have a group of maybe 12-15 mule deer that just hang by the houses. They are used to vehicles and people coming and going. I walked to within 5 yards of a doe a few weeks back before she decided to just walk off.

Definitely fun to watch.

 

[5MilesBack]

The deer around here destroy everything. I had some black netting attached to our fence that topped out at about 7', that kept them out of the back yard. Then a late May snowstorm took down so many branches that it took down the entire netting. It was easier to just remove it all, but they've been heck on everything ever since. Torn up lawn, destroyed trees, torn up bushes, broken sprinkler heads, damaged trampoline, broken fence rails, etc, etc. I'd shoot every one of them if it was legal. We need more mountain lions.