Deer at Sunrise

This morning I headed out early for my walk, not early in terms of my summer schedule, but early for these colder months.  The sky had started to turn interesting shades of pink and lavender, and I wanted to see the sunrise without a window between us.

I thought the sunrise would provide the morning enchantment, but instead, it was 3 young deer frolicking on the American University soccer field.  They had longer tails than I'm used to seeing, white, bushy tails.  They seemed young because of lack of antlers, which might mean they were female.  But they also weren't as big as some deer I've seen.

They stood at the fence, looking at the street just beyond the chain link fence with the soccer field behind them.  As I approached on the other side of the street, they looked at me, and if I was an anthropomorphizing type of person, I'd say they were happy to see me.  I walked toward them, hoping they'd run away from the fence, away from the road that was quickly filling with traffic.

They did run away, but with every car that drove by, they turned.  I whistled to them and said, "Turn away from the traffic.  It's a good life skill for you to have."  And then I laughed at myself, talking to deer as if they could hear me.

I didn't hear any collision noises as I walked away, so I'm assuming they went back into the vacant, overgrown field nearby.  And I walked off, into the spring morning, cherry trees blooming profusely, the yards full of spring flowers.

Do I have any pictures?  No, I've stopped carrying my phone with me.  It's big and heavy and it's rare these days that I wish I could take a photo.

There are many aspects of these neighborhood walks that I will miss when I move; it's astonishing to me that we have so many huge swaths of undeveloped land, land that is often protected, here in a densely populated city.  It's amazing to take a morning walk and see deer, knowing that just a few miles away, the leader of the U.S. sleeps in the White House.