On a February day we sat in our office working when suddenly Nick shouts: "Look, a deer!". Indeed it was a deer, walking peacefully on our open front yard, obviously on its way somewhere. We followed its path from the inside and watched him settle by the red currant bush, which seemed rather tasty for him. In the meantime, I looked through the kitchen window and saw - another deer! This one was much more slender, so I am assuming it was a doe. It also noticed me making noise inside the house and crossed the front yard in big haste. She did stop at the currant bush though.
That's when Nick got his camera out, and soon after the third deer appeared! They all nibbled on the currant bush, then moving on to the back side of the house to try a bit of cherry and raspberry shoots and a few bites of our apple tree. At this time we let them to feed in peace, and I can only assume they made their way through our forest on the lookout for more tasty opportunities!
The deer we saw were white-tailed deer, originally from the Americas but has been introduced in Finland as a gift by Finnish immigrants who moved to Minnesota and wanted to give these deer as a present. They did, in 1934, to be kept at the Mansion Laukko, but the deer escaped in 1938 and the male deer couldn't be captured, so the does were also released into the wild, and that's how the white-tailed deer came to Finland.
Beautiful animals they are, and I hope we have enough of tasty bushes for them and us, too!
