My yard is apparently the place to rest these days, if you are a blacktail deer. Every single day they bed here. Under the apple trees, beside the deck, beside the pond, and waaaayyyy at the back where the honey bees were.
I even made a TikTok with shots of deer bedding in the yard out in the open in the pouring rain. That’s a thing, I have learned: on very rainy days, they nap right out in the middle instead of sheltering under trees. On my TikTok I added some interesting info about sleeping habits of deer. They sleep for 30 seconds to several minutes at a time, then wake up and scan the area for danger. Then sleep again for 30 seconds to several minutes, then scan again. They do this for up to 30 minutes. Then they get up and stretch and walk around and really really check the area. Sometimes that’s enough sleeping, and sometimes they will curl up on the ground again and begin a new cycle.
When deer are lying in my grass though, they are most often bedding and chewing cud, which is not sleeping.
Yesterday was ridiculous and I had deer sleeping in my yard from dawn till dusk. At one point there were eight of them. As far as I can tell, it’s all does and fawns. I haven’t seen any antlers this year at all. I didn’t get photos of the eight together. I had friends over and was distracted. But I did get a few pics.
Conscious Engagement 
Wow!! You are the luckiest person on the planet to have that many deer around. I would grow stuff just to feed them if I could. I would stay out from under trees too in the rain. You never know if lightning might strike it. Maybe the deer understand that somehow.
I have to agree about lucky. I really do love it that the deer are here so often. I get used to it, then I’ll have a guest over and they will gaze out the window and exclaim, “Oh look! There’s a deer! And another one!” Their delight makes me delighted again. ❤ That could be why they avoid the trees when bedding or napping, some kind of extra danger there. We do have cougars here, and they like to pounce from trees, so that could be another good reason not to relax your guard beneath a tree.
Oh, yes, this is marvellous. That they feel safe next to you. ❤ And I didn't know about their sleep habits so thanks for this!
It’s so interesting to learn how they sleep, isn’t it? Pedro and I were talking about it, so I looked it up, and just discovered this information recently. I felt like sharing. 🙂 I’m surprised I haven’t seen any bucks this year. Typically at this time of year, there are at least spike horns on the young ones who are still with their mothers. I guess we just have a lot of girls this year.
Wonderful that they see your yard as a safety zone. That sounds like the highest compliment !
Oh thank you, Bonnie. Yes, that’s how it seems to me, especially when they are up close, like near the deck. Curt and Peggy (he commented below) are in Southern Oregon and the deer around them hang out on their patio all day and peer into the windows of their home. It’s adorable. They are another safe home, clearly. 🙂
What joy
I think so. Like your garden, it’s nice to look out the window and find something to smile about. ❤
Looks like our back yard, Crystal. Yesterday, there were four does lined up along the side of our house. I think that they are hiding out from the bucks! Later, two of them come by and pressed there noses up against the screen windows in the living room. I couldn’t quite get what they were saying but it might ave been “apple.”
Oh, there’s a good chance what they said was, “apple?” Tis the season, of course! When I go out and harvest from my trees, I keep the ones with no worm holes, and toss the others out across the grass. When researching deer bedding and sleeping habits, I learned that they prefer to bed in areas of plentiful food, so that could be an important reason why they hang out with us – something to eat nearby. Like honeysuckle! hahaha. The last time I went out to the tree, I found an apple still growing that had teeth marks in it! Somebody had tried to pluck it, like a reverse apple bobbing. So funny.
There’s no doubt that they bed down near food sources, Crystal. When it comes to eating, deer are no dummies. 🙂 I also think they hang out around here because their predators, like cougars, tend to stay away form humans.