2022 – I Shot Me Some Deer!
………………………………………..(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on October 15, 2022)
(click to enlarge)
I live in Hackensack, New Jersey – a city that is the Bergen County seat. I live 3 blocks from the Hackensack River.
As you may know from previous posts, I enjoy walking on the Hackensack River Walkway. What you may not know is that there’s a Walkway /Greenway on the other side of the river in Teaneck. I usually only go on it when the leaves are off the trees because the foliage is just too thick to see the river or my neighborhood.
For some reason, I decided to visit the Teaneck Hackensack River Greenway – still in full foliage – on October 12. I didn’t expect to see anything of interest.
This is the Greenway’s barely-open, semi-nondescript entrance, located just a few feet into Teaneck:
Ho-hum – looks pretty boring…………….until it wasn’t.
(I should first mention that this entrance is located at the end of the most commercial street in Teaneck – a more-than-a-mile stretch that begins with a hospital and ends with a university and has everything else in between, from a movie theater to gas stations, pharmacies, restaurants and a hundred other stores.
It’s also 2-3 blocks from the two most commercial streets in Hackensack. Hundreds of cars passed by this entrance in both directions while I was there.)
Once inside, I was maybe 200’ past this entrance when I saw something large with a big rear end – and possibly a tail – burst out of the bushes a hundred feet ahead on the left (non-river) side, scamper away for a few feet and then re-enter the foliage.
Was that what I thought it was?
I proceeded slowly, trying not to step on anything made of wood that would make a loud snap – which was almost impossible. I scanned the thick brush for any signs of movement………….
Suddenly:
And then:
Buck, doe!
Were there more? I continued on the Greenway path. Fortunately, there was no one else around…………..I had the entire path to myself. I scoured every inch of its left side.
Nothing.
I started back, REALLY taking my time.
Then I saw something in the distance. I didn’t have a rifle, but I DID have a Canon with a great zoom.
Young buck!
Suddenly, there were THREE of them!
The buck on the left seems to have a malformed antler pointing downward.
They were aware of me, but I never moved, so they didn’t either. When they momentarily turned away, I moved a couple of feet closer.
I was also trying to film little videos that I could stitch together later. The problem was that at that magnification, the tiniest movement on my part made everything jump wildly (what I would have given at that point for a tripod!).
It was necessary to do some narration at just above whisper-level, but every time I said anything, a buck that was at a considerable distance away would immediately raise his head in my direction.
When this one did it, the result was almost like a two-bodied, one-headed animal:
Finally, they started to melt back into the brush, but they couldn’t go too far from the Greenway because of a property fence, so they traveled parallel to the Greenway and close to the fence.
I caught an occasional glimpse, but they were difficult shots:
Luckily, this doe-eyed honey paused to say goodbye:
This is the 7 or 8 little videos stitched together from various stages of this encounter. Initially, I thought there were only 2 deer, then a third popped up. At one point, I thought that they may have totaled 5, but their exit at the end seems to show only 4:
I have never seen a deer in Teaneck or Hackensack before, though I’m aware that they’ve shown up in probably every town in the county.
And good thing I didn’t have a rifle. According to the chart at the top, I’m in red zone #36 and X was my actual location, but I would have been over a month early for hunting season and I can’t imagine being seen trying to drag a dead deer into Hackensack – especially out of season.
Because of all the building going on in Bergen County, the deer are all over in places I have never seen them before! On Windsor Road, Thames Blvd and that area, Pleasant Avenue and the streets near Knickerbocker County Club, all in Bergenfield, Have seen them in Haworth, Dumont and Oradell, and in Mt Carmel Cemetery in Tenafly, lying on graves!all out in the open. As the building increases you really have to be careful!