deer mama?

My pet deer greeted me this morning; at the very instant that I stepped out of the front door, it bounded out of the woods into the open area in front of the house as if it had been expecting me! It followed me on my walk all around the property (into the marsh, through the woods, on the old right-of-way, etc.). It only disappeared after I left the property to go out on Randall Lane and over to Bay Avenue but, as soon as I reentered the property on the bank of Weesuck Creek, it reappeared and followed me again along the bank of our pond and then back to the house! I have the feeling that someone may be feeding this animal. It seems to be a yearling male with two knobby sprouts on its forehead, presumably the beginning of antler growth. Maybe this is a mama's boy that was abandoned and is looking for a new mama to follow around. That apparently would be me.

There were both Common and Royal Terns on the creek this morning. That makes four terns this spring: Common, Royal, Forster's and Least. Royal and Forster's are southern birds that usually appear in the summer (presumably after breeding season further south) but their now-regular appearance in the spring suggests the possibility of breeding somewhere in our area!

I did a kind census of bird species a little while ago but I did not include water birds. In addition to the terns listed above (at least two of which breed on the opposite side of the bay), we have Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls (Ring-billed Gulls are here mostly in the late summer, fall and winter). The two white egrets (mostly Great but a few Snowies) are also breeding on islands in the bay. Other herons are not so common although we can expect to see Great Blue Herons, and both night herons a little later in the season. The noisy Willets are breeding somewhere in the area and are constantly on our marsh and pond, often perched on the dead Red Cedar on the opposite side of the pond or on one of the pilings of our neighbor's dock near the mouth of the pond). The only other sandpiper that appears here regularly (midsummer,fall and spring) is the Spotted. There are always at least a few Double-crested Cormorants around -- sometimes quite a few -- but I don't know of any breeding colony between Babylon and Gardiner's Island. Belted Kingfisher used to come round every day during the spring and summer but now seems to be restricted to migration periods. And of course, there are the two active Osprey nests on Pine Neck, both visible from our shore.
 
Eric Salzman