Editor’s Note: Good Morning. Today, we are excited to connect you with wildlife educator Sandy Fairfield and her new NeighbourWoodie Watch column here on Our Big Earth.

Sandy is the educator for an organization that is near and dear to my heart, Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society – a Merville organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of injured and sick wildlife throughout the region. MARS is truly a labour of love, as the not for profit runs almost solely due to generosity of donors.

I am always amazed at the work done there, with dozens of eagles, owls, deer, small birds and more local wildlife getting a second chance through MARS every year.

Sandy will be joining us once a month to help us learn a bit more about the wildlife in our neighbourhoods. Today, she’s talking about black-tailed deer like OBE’s NeighbourWoodie Cora Blacktail.

Enjoy!

Deer are a fact of life on Vancouver Island, with the black tailed deer the only species we find roaming our neighbourhoods and munching in the fields at dusk.

These deer are finding themselves getting squeezed into smaller areas, often these include designated parklands and golf courses. They turn to these places as safe and secluded habitat to give birth and a wonderful selection of trees, shrubs and plants on which to dine and this time of year it seems that on a drive through town there are deer at every turn.

You can identify deer several different ways:

• Adult deer have two different coat colors depending on the season, in Summer they have glossy reddish brown backs with white bellies, in the Fall they moult and grow a thick insulated grey coat which keeps them warm and provides perfect camouflage amongst the dreary Winter vegetation.
• Fawns are unmistakable with their spotted “Bambi” coats, large ears and long eyelashes, the fawns instinctively know to remain completely still if danger approaches blending into the sun dappled forest when the adults flash the white underside of their tails as a warning.
• Male deer, or stags, grow a rack of antlers that are covered in a velvety coating; during the Summer this rubs off and in the Fall, after the rut, the antlers drop off and the next spring will be replaced by a bigger rack.

Deer are herbivores meaning they eat vegetation anything from grass, leaves, flowers, berries and acorns, in fact anything that takes their fancy – which can often mean a roam through your backyard, the place where deer and humans most often come into conflict.

Here are some home garden realities when it comes to deer:

• Although garden centers can help with a list of deer-proof plants they continually try new things and if they don’t like the taste of a plant they will spit it out often stomping on the other plants at the same time.
• Fences will keep out deer; ideally they should be over six feet as deer are very agile and can jump high and also squeeze through tight spaces between hedges and fences.

Because of our close contact with deer here in the Comox Valley, you may end up finding a sick or injured deer and it’s important to know what to do.

• Try to see if it is able to leave by opening gates.
• Be aware frightened adults hoofs are sharp and they kick out to protect themselves that can cause a bad cut or bruising.
• If you find a fawn leave it alone, put pets in the house and watch at a safe distance. Mothers will hide their fawns when the go off to eat but are usually within sight or hearing (fawns cry like a kitten) of their baby and will wait for you to leave before returning.
• Although it is tempting to feed the deer in your property we discourage this as it often causes the spread of a parasite which gives the deer diarrhea which causes dehydration and death.
• If you see the mother killed or the fawn is injured please call your local wildlife center.

In the Comox Valley, that wildlife center is Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society.

MARS is able to take in orphaned fawns and get them headed in the right direction. Newborn fawns have to be taught how to nurse from a bottle just like a baby, at MARS we substitute goats milk, once the fawns are drinking well we relocate them to a center that has other orphans where they will be weaned and introduced to leaves and other natural foods found in their habitat and will be reintroduced back to the wild.

Deer are just one of the creatures MARS rescues (check out the sidebar for more info on MARS).

Spring also brings other babies, (we don’t rescue adult mammals they are too dangerous) raccoons, squirrels, ducklings, eaglets, owls and many more birds.

A few final tips to make sure we are taking care of our NeighbourWoodie friends:

• With more families travelling during the early Summer expect deer on the roads and drive carefully.
• Remember if one jumps out usually there are more to follow.
• When these charming creatures are munching their way through your prize roses, remember they were here first!