Most evenings, just before dusk, our deer neighbors make a pre-dinner visit just across the street from our house. Deer as in doe a deer, female deer, that nibble and nosh on the grainy goodies our human next-door neighbor—right or wrong—puts out for the local wild ones.

Sometimes it’s two or three does, sometimes more, sometimes their little ones, too. Occasionally a buck butts his way into the fray, but it’s typically all gals as the guys seem to favor a supper spot farther up the street.

One snowy afternoon last week, though, it was the big boys who stopped by. Just the boys as the ladies must have chosen to stay out of the snow while the guys ambled about… and ended up not across the street from our house but in our front yard, enjoying a snowy stag party right outside our living room windows.

First this fella scoped out our place…

Then invited over his friends….

The stags slowly crossed the street…

…then made themselves at home, sniffing and snacking and (unsuccessfully) attempting to avoid the snow that fell from branches they pulled down to bite off berries.

All while Jim and I eavesdropped on their shenanigans—Jim keeping Mickey from the window (so he wouldn’t go bananas on the bucks) and me snapping photos as fast as I could.

I purposely took a few with a bit of the window in view to show how very close to our house the partying took place.

Then, as dusk was nearly done dusking, the bucks one by one bid us adieu and headed on home—or to another spot to continue the stag fun while the doe mamas stayed home with the wee ones.

Jim and I plan to move to a smaller home in a different part of Colorado Springs this summer. The many deer around here—doe and buck both—are high on our list of neighbors we’ll definitely miss dearly once gone.