Watching the wildlife

Last week, it got cold. It's been a pretty mild winter so far; according to my calculations, we're 7 percent warmer than normal as of this week.
Still, that means some warm days (like today) and some cold days. The temperature dropped down to the coldest it's been since last March, snow piled up in the woods, and it looked a lot like winter.
Outside the patio door, I looked out into the woods, and saw them. Three deer had bedded down in the snow just outside the door, right on the edge of the woods. They were warm and safe, sheltered from the cold.
A deer path runs through the woods north of the house, and it's not unusual to find signs that the neighborhood deer had bedded down in the tall grass behind the house. They're shy, of course, and they're pretty close to humans.
But here, at least for an afternoon, they felt comfortable enough to be there.