McAllister Park, Walk #2

Today's photos:

This morning, I walked the paved loop trail southeast of the Al Becken Pavilion. I had no intention when I set out on my walk for this to be a continuation of yesterday's post, but I wasn't very far along the trail before I saw a couple deer off to the right of the trail.

Before I had gone halfway round the loop, I had seen so many deer I have to admit I felt they were becoming a distraction. Not that they aren't magnificent creatures, but something wasn't feeling quite right about the experience.

As I headed the last couple hundred yards back to the car, I realized what was happening. There was a person at one of the picnic areas along the road feeding a small herd of seven or eight deer.

This is a section of the park with numerous picnic areas. The relatively large concentration of deer in this area is not entirely natural. In this case, the human presence and the generous supply of food they give to the deer have altered the situation. These definitely aren't wild deer.