Ithaca, New York is where deer roam freely

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

Ithaca, NY is the place where deer roam freely. We moved to Ithaca in late September 2005. One day, when we spotted some deer in the fall, we all were hyper excited. Our Ithacan friends told us, "Don't be excited, you'll see them everywhere."

In the dead of the winter, we spotted some fresh deer footprints on our yard's snow. In one wintry night we heard some noise outside. We looked and saw a bunch of deer munching on green things burried beneath the snow. Our friends were right. You could spot deer in the meadow, on road, front yard, backyard, everywhere. In early May this year, my wife and I were hiking on a trail after work in late afternoon and we spotted a flock of deer. Luckily, I had a Nikon Coolpix 4800 ED digital camera with me (with 8.3X optical zoom). I took it out from the bag and started to snap the photos. Here I am posting some of the better photos.

The deer on the right was found loitering next to a truck garage. We were on the other side of the fence. The deer was unperturbed, looking at us straight on. The picture is a testament to my comment. These semi-urban deer is accustomed to human being around them.

A colleague at the university (Cornell) told me that the deer population is on the rise. I asked him if they allow hunting. He said, "A plenty of hunting is around." He also said, "The deer population would be even more if hunting was barred."

Deer love eating fresh vegetables. Therefore, homeowners here first post a fence around their vegetable patch or else everything will be eaten by the uninvited guest.

Now, do you believe that Ithaca and the vicinity is packed with deer? The entire northeast of America barring big urban sprawl is populated with deer.

We are lucky to be here. The joy of watching deer munching on green grass is too good to be true. We don't know how long will we stay here. My employer may call me back to New Orleans at moment's notice. We were displaced by hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. There is no other place we wanted to be. We liked the ambience of Ithaca where crime is virtually nonexistent. The winter is harsh they say but it was a very mild winter in 2006. The spring has sprung, lately. Red bud is abloom and so are many trees such as crabapple, saucer magnolia, forsythia, and assorted bulbs. there is no place we would rather be at this time than Ithaca. This Fingerlake country where American Indians came up from Mississippi a long time ago is still very pretty. The low mountains, waterfalls, green trees, all make a wonderful habitat for human beings, birds, animals. Would'nt you like to be here?

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A.H. Jaffor Ullah writes from Honnes Lane, Ithaca, New York

Comments could be directed at - jaffor@yahoo.com