Deer have moved back in!

Seems the mule deer have moved back into the yard.  I am using one photo of the herd of about 25 for wallpaper on my computer right now!

In the picture on the left, the deer are watching a person walking up the road with their dog.  On the right, with the excitement over, they are taking a break from feeding and wandering.

This deer is a buck that has shed his antlers. 
Only the pedicles are visible at this time. 

Yesterday, the deer were big into grooming.  Right now they look very scuzzy--they are losing their winter fur and getting the summer coat.  The summer coat is more brown color.  I can't say if this is any indication of spring coming--some seem to think so.  I've never really noticed the correlation. There is a bird sitting on the yearling's back.  I think they are starlings (I didn't get the binoculars out to check.) and if you watch them for a while, it appears that the birds are landing on the deer to try and make the deer leave so the birds can feed on the seeds on the ground.  Mostly, the deer just try to ignore the birds and keep feeding.

These deer are trying to get water out of the "pond".  I think there is some in there but it's quite a ways down.  Usually, they drink out of the neighbor's horse water tank.  I'm not sure why they are so interested in this half-empty plastic pond....I'll put some more water in when I go out to dump the vegetables peels and stuff into the compost.