(Kinda) rare deer in my back yard today.

[JohnnyRingo]

(X referenced from Photography forum for wildlife lovers)

Though I live in the business area of a small town, I have a creek that runs behind my house, so it's not unusual to see deer grazing in the back yard.

Today I saw one and began scouring the tree line for what I expected to be more. I saw some rustling, and got my binoculars for a better view. When I realized what I was looking at, I ran to get my camera.

By the time I got ready and sneaked out the side door what I think are mother and doe emerged into the yard. The little one is a relatively rare piebald deer, one with a recessive gene that causes partial albino-ism:



The larger one that I believe to be the mother, heard me and kept a weary eye my way, even though I only had my upper body out the door and zoomed in 20X. Here she decided I wasn't going away and took the initiative herself:



The piebald fawn seemed more aloof and stuck around a bit as if to see what all the fuss was about:



Then it finally went off to be with mom:



Surprisingly, the first deer that I saw came back out to take one more pass through the yard. I don't know for sure, but I think this is an older sibling to the piebald:

[elfin]

1. Cool!

I didn't know of that melanistic pattern in deer.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. creek and deer in the backyard? Love your back yard!

[JohnnyRingo]

14. The creek is in a ravine just beyond that tree line

It's Walnut Run Creek, and feeds into Mosquito Lake (How do you like that, tourists?) near this small city of 6,500.

A lot of wildlife follow the creek and wanders up the hill to my house fairly often. The other good thing about where I live is out front. Right next door is a Dollar General. The other way is a closed curio shop, then a Chinese restaurant beyond that. Across the street is my bank which is between the post office and auto parts store. In that same strip plaza is a Famous Hair, doctor's office, and pizza shop. Grocery and convenience stores are a short 15 minute walk. I have no human neighbors.

I don't know why I own two cars.

[Texasgal]

3. How beautiful!

Thanks for sharing!

[treestar]

4. Great photos!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. awesome! thanks for sharing. K&R

[blaze]

6. Thanks for snagging your camera!!!

Very cool shots!

[AzSweet]

7. Beautiful!

[DonP]

8. We spotted a full albino faun up in the Michigan UP

Of course my camera battery was dead, but my grand daughter got some shots of it.

Regular albino deer are about 1 in 30,000. I have no idea how rare a piebald would be.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Wow, what great pictures!

And oh you lucky dog....living with a creek and some deer right there in your back yard!

This is just stunning.

[DonRedwood]

10. THank you so much for sharing

I miss seeing deer and moose and bear and other critters.

[Brigid]

11. I've never heard of piebald deer before.

They're beautiful.

[a la izquierda]

12. Ooh, I love these pictures!

We have tons of deer in our yard (we're renting on a 1000 acre plot). I love deer.

[catbyte]

13. Beautiful! We only have white tailed deer here in Michigan

What part of the country is this?

[JohnnyRingo]

15. NE Ohio

I live very near Mosquito Lake. Apparently the area's forefathers had a terrific fear of tourists.

[NRaleighLiberal]

16. Very cool! We have an albino male in my neighborhood...or at least used to -

we haven't seen him around in nearly a year. Just gorgeous....

[littlemissmartypants]

17. This is so wonderful!

Thank you so much!

[RoccoR5955]

18. AFAIC...

Just a different breed of rat.
They eat up our gardens, even when we have them fenced off.
They run into our cars,
and some people think that they are cute.
I just wish there weren't so many people invading their territory.
I didn't do anything for them to invade my life so much!

[Brigid]

25. You must be all kinds of fun at parties.

[RoccoR5955]

27. what are parties? n/t

[Brigid]

28. It's even worse than I thought...

[kurtzapril4]

19. He's beautiful.

And your pix are great. Please don't post them anywhere else....a piebald deer is a great trophy for hunters. I know, I come from a family of them.

[JohnnyRingo]

26. A friend who hunts told me it's bad luck to shoot one.

I imagine if his luck changed and he got hungry enough he'd be hauling one home though.

Perhaps is a regional superstition. Such unfounded fears have been known to mess with natural selection and increase the population of mutations, as in the Emperor Crab.

[hexola]

35. I think Albinos are bad luck - piebald...fire!

Pretty sure thats the superstition.

[JohnnyRingo]

39. A piebald would have the edge I think.

I didn't see this one right away because it's dappled coat made it blend in with the folliage. By the time I got my camera it'd emerged from the tree line.

[mike dub]

20. We saw a deer like this at our local state park in North Carolina a couple years ago...

but didn't have the camera with us.

The one we saw was almost entirely white. I saw it first, up on a ridge to the right and pointed it out to my wife. The deer stared at us for a few seconds and then bolted. We both knew we'd seen something special. The park ranger had never heard of such a deer being spotted on the preserve.

Apparently mutations occur in individual white-tail deer from time to time.

Great pics, OP!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Good catch, will be posting a photo of an occupier hawk

in a sec...

[southernyankeebelle]

22. Living out in the country rural area is great. You get to see so many animals. Sometimes

I see deer running around here and rabbits, squirrels, possums, and coyotes sometimes. Spotting deers especially the babies is so neat and peaceful. Thank you for sharing your picture.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. If you see a whole herd of these,...

....assume some corporation did some dumping.....

[DrewFlorida]

24. Very nice pics, interesting! I think you are right about mother and offspring.

It looks like the mother has a bit of discoloring on her hind quarter.

Thank you for posting these pics, much appreciated.

[uppityperson]

29. Beautiful, I love the albino crosses.

We had an albino buck on a local military base yrs ago. It resulted in many of these spotted deer. Some idiot shot him one night (got in big trouble for it). I am happy to see other albino mixes like these. Very fun and interesting.

[Samantha]

30. Thank you so much for sharing these pictures

They are so, so beautiful.

Sam

[Iwillnevergiveup]

31. Talk about being in the right place

at the right time. Just stunning photos, and SO much cooler than Mitt!

Thank you. K&R

[kittykitty]

32. Hey, that's my backyard and we have those deer! They have been sighted here in rural PA.

We had doe with one piebald and one normal fawn.. Unfortunately I can't post a picture because I am using an iPad.

My husband took pictures of the fawn. Then he took our cat to the vet. The first thing the vet said was, " have you seen any of the white deer?"

BTW, your photos are great!

[emmadoggy]

33. Is it just me, or does the piebald

have shorter, stockier legs than the others?

Just an observation. Very pretty though!

[JohnnyRingo]

40. I read where they do indeed have shorter legs.

Longer than usual tail too. In the one pic it almost looks like a large dog.

[hexola]

34. They seem suddenly more common around South Central PA

We've been seeing piebalds somewhat regularly. I've seen more this year - than all years combined before.

[kittykitty]

37. Hey, what are you doing here?

[laruemtt]

36. even though i've had chronic Lyme

for years, i still find these deer breathtakingly beautiful...

[BadGimp]

38. awesome - thx for sharing