Wild Creatures among us: Deer

Deer in Shorewood Hills 2014
Photo by Ed Neff

By Diane Hettrick

When we moved in to Shoreline 35 years ago, our neighbors were quick to inform us that there were deer living in the very large wooded tract down the highway. 

I was skeptical. After all, Shoreline was an urban area, even then. But when the tract was clear-cut to build some 26 apartment buildings, I half-expected to see deer bounding through the neighborhood. 

It didn’t happen and I figured it was an urban myth.

This deer was in Innis Arden in 2013

Fast forward half a dozen years. My husband came home from work and said that he saw a large deer, walking casually down 10th NE toward North City School in the middle of the afternoon. I waited to hear other reports, but he was apparently the only one who saw it.

It was many more years before I started hearing more deer stories. There was a terrified deer widely reported to be crashing around Mountlake Terrace. A man travelling Bothell Way told the Lake Forest Park police that he collided with a deer. The deer was not killed and police noted that the front end damage to the car was consistent with hitting a deer.

2011 on 21st NE in Shoreline, near Lake Forest Park

Then, in the coyote controversy in Lake Forest Park, residents there started talking about their deer. Apparently there was more than one group, living quietly in the green spaces and ravines of Lake Forest Park. They were appreciated by the residents, who generally kept very quiet about their presence.

Finally, one of my contributors sent me a photo. He lives on the border of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and had seen deer in his yard on more than one occasion.

In  back yard near a ravine in The Highlands 2014
Photo by Frank Fox

I started looking at all large, green spaces suspiciously. I checked with a friend in The Highlands, which seemed like a perfect place for deer. She knows many of her neighbors and had never heard stories about deer. I checked with people in the vicinity of Shoreline Community College and Shoreview Park, with no luck.

Just as I had decided that the east side had all the deer, a contributor in Shorewood Hills – a small neighborhood off Innis Arden Way – took a photo of two deer calmly munching on his neighbor’s tulips. The neighbor’s home borders a ravine in The Highlands. Bingo! The deer returned a few days later for more tulips, and a photo op, and haven’t been seen since. But now I am waiting for someone to send a photo from Shoreview Park or Boeing Creek Park.

2014 Shorewood Hills
Photo by Ed Neff

As for the deer my husband saw – quite recently friends were returning home via 15th NE. They turned on 180th, and as they turned, they saw a deer, sauntering northwards in front of St. Mark’s church and school. This was only five blocks east of where my husband saw his deer so many years ago.

I thought there must be a ravine or green belt where they lived. I was curious enough to go drive around north of St. Marks and north of 10th NE. I saw neighborhoods I didn't know existed, but the lots were city-sized, with no green belt or ravines. I can't imagine where the deer were headed.

I'll just have to wait for the next photo to come in.