Are Deer Taking Over the World?!?!?!

Over the past several weeks, I have begun to regard white-tailed deer less as elusive beasts of unparalleled grace and beauty and more as hazardous beasts of alarming ubiquitousness. I don't know if there has been a spike in the deer population in southern New Hampshire or if I've just had a change of fortune, but the number of my encounters with these Odocoileus virginiana has increased more than exponentially. In my first year of having my license I did not see a single deer while I was driving. I'll admit that I saw one while driving before I got my license, but that was with my driver's ed teacher and it was snowing, so I was already going about ten miles per hour.


By April of this year, I had been driving for nearly twenty months and had not seen more than one or two deer. All that was about to change.


I returned from Italy with Daddy and Ben on April 5th. Ben spent several days at my house, and the following Friday we set out for Fairwood, where Ben would rendezvous with his mom. (I know I already told this story, so I'll be brief.) On the way, we narrowly missed hitting a moose - I had to swerve violently to avoid a collision. Then three deer crossed the road ahead of us. I didn't have to brake, but they still were there. Coming home several hours later. I had to slow to a stop for a group of at least five deer on Chestnut Hill.

This was all pretty surprising to me. I hadn't seen any deer in ages, and then to see nine in one night? Pretty weird.

But it wasn't the end.

Some time later, some night in the middle of May, Cara and I went to pick up Kayla from the airport. On the way I saw a deer cross the road ahead. I didn't have to brake.

Then, after the May Feast, I was bringing Bria back to Fairwood from a break and I had to brake pretty firmly to avoid smashing into another deer. It was pretty intense.

Today, as I was taking Sandford Surveying's Nissan Pathfinder to the gas station to refuel it, a deer sprinted directly across the road in front of me at breakneck speed. Actually, any slower speed would truly have been "breakneck", as I would not have been able to avoid hitting it. As it was, I had to brake pretty severely.

As the night goes on, I find the various encounters I have had all blurring together into a few foggy memories. Most of my deer-sightings have taken place on one of two roads - Joppa Hill and Bedford, for those of you who know the area - and I think I am starting to mix everything up in my head. Nevertheless, I counted earlier and found that I have seen a bare minimum of 14 deer (including the moose) in less than two months!

Now that's just scary.