That photo was tweeted at us earlier this evening by Peter, who says he spotted the deer on Pigeon Point. Though we have published many wildlife sightings over the years, none of them involved deer, aside from this WSB Forums post from someone wondering earlier this year if there were any around. They are not uncommon around Western Washington overall, though, according to this state Department of Fish and Wildlife one-sheet.
Some people might remember the WSB article from a couple weeks ago on the MV Charlie Wells, the ferry for Herron Island, heading up to Ballard to drydock.
Herron Island, where my family had a cabin in the ’60’s, had a large deer (and raccoon) population, and apparently still does.
Mike
See this post and comments. Last Beacon Hill sighting of what might possibly be “Lefty” was Friday according to southeast Facebook groups I read.
http://unionbaywatch.blogspot.com/2016/10/looking-for-lefty.html
Would seem a little much for a deer to get from the Arboretum to Beacon Hill, let alone here, but hey, who knows. Or, could have swum from Vashon, though Pigeon Point suggests more of an approach from the east. Remember the turkey sightings!
I didn’t really get good enough a look to confirm, but it did have two short antlers that looked most like the second photo in your link. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but it was on the move. There were a couple of other cars around, so I was kind of hoping someone else got a better shot. But Pigeon Point is connected to a lot of green space, so who knows.
We spotted the deer on Andover just west of 21st Ave around 6:20pm. It was standing in the middle of the road but moved off to the north side of the street, where I got the photo, then went down the hill, west on Andover. I don’t think I’ve heard of deer in the city before.
Maybe that “bear” sighting near Mee Kwa Mooks Parks earlier this year isn’t so far-fetched, after all.
The easiest way to get here from the mountains is I-90 to I-5 to the West Seattle Bridge. Many deer feel like West Seattle is far from the rest of the city, but there are a few “smart” ones.
As we recall, a while back there were deer and fox living in and around the golf course. They just seemed to disappear or at least not seen in a long time.
I was surprised back in September when I saw a deer at the Union Bay Natural Area near the UW.
That definitely looks like Lefty pictured in the Union Bay Watch blog photos linked above.
http://unionbaywatch.blogspot.com/2016/10/looking-for-lefty.html
This is great to see!
I hope the deer is left alone to its own fate even if it ends on the bumper of a car and not illegally kidnapped and transplanted to a loving deer farm on Vashon Island.
The deer is by the West Seattle health club right now. Someone says it is injured. Who can we call to get him help?
I just answered you in e-mail – the Seattle Animal Shelter would be the place, I’m pretty sure. I hope someone has called them already. I’ll head that way as soon as I can. Poor thing.
I think it’s a State animal since a Beacon Hill Facebook poster wrote this a few days ago about the city’s shelter’s response to their call:
“Caution: A wild deer is crossing the busy street of Beacon Ave around the VA Hospital area. Called the animal shelter but they were only concerned if t was dead.”“
If it’s *injured* or otherwise in distress, it is the city’s business. If that call was just “hey, there’s a deer,” yes, I can see SAS not responding. Thanks to M for the update – that’s a straight line downhill from Pigeon Point via Andover to the Health Club, but there’s also a significant greenbelt in the area (Longfellow Creek). I’m going to publish a separate story for those who didn’t catch this one last night.
Correcting myself: The city animal shelter does respond to dead or injured wildlife per their site: http://www.seattle.gov/animal-shelter/animal-control/wildlife
Not sure where he went. He was last seen on the sw corner of the health club as he was causing a traffic jam. I think he headed south. I will also try to drive around to see if he is spotted by the gym again.
While my post about chuckling at the being “illegally kidnapped to Vashon” comment was in que for moderation, I saw the postings about the deer possibly being injured. Poor thing, I hope someone can locate it and bring help to it.
We’re going to head that way and look too. I have meantime now published something new (with the SAS hotline in it too) https://westseattleblog.com/2016/10/followup-west-seattle-deer-seen-again/
Sorry, comment time is over.
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