The Haunted Buck

 

Already abnormally close

What with the changes COVID and the resulting economy have made in our lives, the boss and I have to fit birding expeditions in among a number of sometimes conflicting schedules....so we go when we can....

Day before yesterday we stole a couple of hours to hit the river. Good birds are being seen there so we wanted a look.

We did the Crossing, no Greater White-fronted Goose, alas, then went down to the Yankee Hill Lock to look for sea ducks. That corner of the river seems to attract them for some reason and we have seen White-winged Scoters there a couple of times, as well as Long-tailed Ducks.

We see this odd duck daily...appears to be a decoy someone lost
now anchored in the center of the channel

Nothing interesting was showing on the water, so I ambled up to the bike path to look for sparrows and Winter Wrens. Have seen a single Fox Sparrow elsewhere, but they have been being seen there regularly and I need a photo.

Lots closer

As I looked east, I thought about how I see turkeys down the path that way sometimes, and lo and behold, there was a brownish lump right where they often show up.

I put the bins on it and to my astonishment it was a good-sized buck lying beside the path.

Hoping for a better picture in the early morning fog, I sneaky-sneaked a little closer. 

No reaction.

Closer still.

No reaction.

And closer yet.

Nada.

Along about that point I decided on discretion over valor and turned my back and sauntered away. Deer can and do hurt people and this one's behavior was abnormal to say the least. He let me get way too close.

White-winged Scoter

As soon as I turned around he stood up (I kept checking behind in case he came after me).

He stood in a kind of an awkward pose and never moved...even after I went west a ways on the other side of Queen Ann Rd. still looking for sparrows.

So eerie was his behavior that I hiked back to the car and we came home.

Yesterday we returned and he was gone.

Was he wounded some place I couldn't see? It is bow season, maybe there was an arrow on his other side. Rabid? I have seen several reports of rabid animals around the region, and this guy sure acted in an abnormal manner. He was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed enough though.

Or maybe he was just tired from chasing girls. We saw a number of does just down the road and his neck was swollen for the rut.

But then again perhaps he was a ghost from back in the days when the place was a lock on the Erie Canal. Maybe instead of seeing me he was observing men and mules and horses dragging boats along Clinton's Ditch and stopping for supplies at the grocery store there.

I guess I'll never know. But I swear I could have counted coup on him had I wanted to.