They often visit us
in the morning, their dun coats shifting through the dappled light. They graze
in the woods, stepping delicately over fallen branches. To rest, they fold
their legs gracefully beneath them, settle into the leaves and disappear.
Sometimes from the south window, we see several new tan boulders on the
hillside. We call them the ladies. No refined Victorian ever had such elegance.
White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are liminal
creatures, foraging in timber glades and along the wooded edges of streams,
most active at dawn and twilight. They mate in the fall, to the peril of
motorists. Fawns are born in spring and make their first timid visits to us
around midsummer. Their home range is relatively small. We see the same families
from year to year.
They browse in my
garden. They mow the liriope foliage during the winter, and they forage for the
first sweet crocus blossoms. I’ve learned not to bother trying to grow lilies
or hosta; the succulent salad bar they provide is too appealing. Two spotted
fawns pruned my bell peppers one year. They returned the next year, larger and
still hungry.
Even supposedly
deer-proof plants attract a few individuals. For several years the same doe
methodically devoured the toxic camassia before it could bloom. I planted coral
bells near the driveway and found the uprooted plant tossed aside the next
morning. I replanted it and found it yanked up again the next day. This went on
for almost a week before the deer lost interest.
At twilight, the
deer emerge to glean leftover sunflower seeds under the bird feeder. One clever
lady learned to slip her slender tongue into the port and tease out the seeds.
She taught her daughters the trick. They can empty a bird feeder in half an
hour. A friend suggested offering them cornmeal. The ladies found it a fine
supplement for sunflower seeds. Now five of them show up to feast together.
If I’m lucky, I
meet them when I walk the timber. I follow their trails along the hillside. I
stalk them with my camera. They are cautious but not afraid of me. If I come
too close, the nearest does will flip their white tails, kick up their heels, leap a
short way down the hill and settle to graze again. One deer stays on watch,
ears pointed, eyes wide. Sometimes she stamps her hoof to warn me away.
Among the Kanza
Indians, the Deer clan served as heralds and messengers. They made sure
everyone knew where to make a new camp or how a buffalo hunt would be
organized. Some clan names described white tail appearance and behavior with precise
detail: Gray Back, Tail Shows Whitish Suddenly, Dark Breast, Hawk Eyes, Steps
Softly, Jumps Suddenly, Stands Ahead of the Others, Without a Plan.
Deer are caretakers
of the earth in many native traditions. They give themselves to the people as
food. They lick things into their proper shapes. They appear when you need to
see them, to remind you of who you are, where you belong. They are messengers,
heralds from other worlds, telling us where to find our sustenance, our people,
our home. They tell us when it is time to move on.
To catch sight of a
deer standing motionless between the branches is to encounter the goddess.
Artemis had groves and temples in liminal settings, places that opened the way
between worlds, neither here nor there but elsewhere. When I meet her ladies, I
stop what I’m doing and catch my breath. My heart lifts. She pulls me out of
time and into sacred space. I thank her with a sacrifice of flowers and foliage,
an offering of cornmeal.