The evening that we had gone fishing, Zach, Julie and I took a pleasant evening drive into Southern Lancaster County to see if we could spot any of our local deer. We know that the Muddy Park has many deer that come out in the evening to feed in the fields.
Upon entering the park, we saw about seven deer on the inside of the park fence. As we approached the park entrance, we stopped at the gate with the stop sign and spoke with the guard. He appeared to be cutting an apple to feed to one of the park deer that was standing within several feet of the gate.
We took a short drive in and around the park to spot more deer. Before exiting the park, we drove down to the Muddy Run Lake to watch several wild swan that had just seen settling on the water.
As we left Muddy Run Park, we stopped once again at the outside fence where the seven deer were grazing and took notice that one of the doe was missing her right front hoof... Say what!? Yep, she was hobbling around on the stump that was just above where her hoof was suppose to be. (See pic and video below)
While sitting in our Ford Escape and taking a few pics and video, a neighbor woman exited her home and walked across her front yard towards the fence with a bucket full of field corn and carrying hamburger buns in her other hand. We got to talk with her about the crippled doe and the herd that was on the other side of the fence and also watch her feed them.
She told us that the crippled do has been walking that way ever since she noticed here and she was at least five years old. There was also a spike buck with his fawn among the herd. She told us that the fawn was his from last year's rut.
It was nice to speak with her and learn a bit about the deer herd we were observing.
Take Care and Be Safe
Dad
