Peachland man snaps photo of magpie on a deer

Photo: Robert Radford

Magpie lands on deer in Peachland

A Peachland man who saw a story about a magpie landing on a deer in West Kelowna reached out to Castanet with a photo and a story of his own, "We have those deer and magpie interactions in Peachland as well!"

Robert Radford says he lives in the area around Princeton and Lipsett avenues in Peachland and he is used to seeing deer and other animals wander through his neighbourhood.

"That's the first time I've ever seen that and I said to myself, 'I'm gonna get a picture of that, you don't often see a bird on a deer's back.' I mean, we've got just a ton of magpies around here and the deer come through every day. So this was kind of the luck of the draw if you see them (a magpie) on them (a deer). I've never seen it before," says Radford.

Radford says over the years he's had to make some adjustments because of the deer activity in his neighbourhood.

"They'll sleep in our yard and kind of hang out. They certainly have no fear of humans, shall we say?"

Radford says he doesn't mind the deer, but he has changed his gardening behaviour, "I put a wire over my grapes, like chicken wire, so they can't get it that way. We've learned that we don't plant tulips. They eat all those. We learned don't plant cedars. They'll eat all those. Otherwise, it's just kind of cool to see wildlife in our yard."