Office wildlife
For five years, I worked in downtown Newark, New Jersey. But I recently changed jobs and now I work in a small, three-floor office building that sits at the edge of a small undeveloped area near an airport. It's probably only about 10 or 20 acres of unspoiled nature -- swamp, grass, a small grove of trees -- and it backs right up to the rear parking lot. Truth be told, I did not know that there was nothing but nature back there until recently, because I always parked in the front along with almost everyone else in the building. But the other day I couldn't find a spot close to the door and it was, like, eighteen degrees. So I retreated to the back of the building hoping to find a close spot back there. As I'm driving around the side of the building, I see some movement about 20 feet away in the trees. I park the car, get out and as I look toward the trees I see more things moving. I blink a few times and finally realize what it is -- a herd of about 20 deer, moving silently and unhurriedly through the trees. A few near the edge of the pack stopped and looked back at me standing there, probably a little too close for their comfort. Then when they realized I probably wasn't going to hurt them they turned and joined the rest and continued moving through the forest. There were big ones, smaller ones -- you'd think they'd make some kind of noise but it was absolutely silent. I stood there, my coffee in my hand, for what felt like 2 minutes but turned out to be closer to 15, watching them pick their way through the trees. I couldn't believe I was the only one there to see this.
So now I park in back all the time. I haven't seen the deer again but yesterday as I turned the corner I saw what at first appeared to be large, dark geese, eating the seed that had fallen on the ground beneath a bird feeder someone had put up. A closer look revealed that they weren't geese at all but three female wild turkeys, just having lunch there right alongside the regular little birds. They were some of the silliest looking things I've ever seen but they were amazing...I stood there gawping at them for a long time. They were about eight feet away from me, just eating and looking silly, and I was late getting back to the office again.
You just don't see stuff like that in Newark.
8:14:31 PM 
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