Fans of the deer park in Waterford no longer have to drive across town or across the county to look in on the inhabitants.
Last week, the deer park management committee installed two cameras that allow anyone anywhere in the world to see how the herd is doing over the Internet.
“This is a pretty high-tech thing,” explains Waterford Coun. Harold Sonnenberg, a member of the management committee. “It’s called ‘live streaming.’ Anyone who wants to can hook up to the Internet and view the deer 24 hours a day.”
The Waterford Community Foundation has provided funding for the cameras. Bob Kozak of Waterford, a member of the deer park management committee and a director of the foundation, said the cameras were installed to help seniors and former Waterford residents living abroad stay in touch with their community.
The deer park is an institution in Waterford in large part because of its longevity. During the Second World War, the Waterford Public Utilities Commission brought in a herd of English fallow deer to keep down the vegetation in the former Waterford wellfield at the corner of Deer Park Road and Main Street North.
The herd was nearly wiped out several years ago during a series of coyote attacks. Norfolk public works recommended disbanding what was left of the herd but this met with a backlash in Waterford and surrounding area.
Since then, the breeding does killed in the attacks have been replaced. Today, the herd consists of nine bucks, nine does and five fawns.
You never know what the cameras will show. However, a good time to tune in is 10 a.m. Saturdays. That’s when the park’s management conducts a mass feeding in a prime viewing area. An attendant will rattle a pail and the deer come running.
Sonnenberg said the modest investment in camera infrastructure is well worth the money, given some of the content available elsewhere on the world wide web.
“If people from Bulgaria want to tune into our council meetings, they can,” he said. “But feeding the deer in Waterford is probably more interesting.”
To see what’s happening in the Deer Park, go to the Waterford foundation website atwww.wdcf.ca and click on the “cameras” tab.
Monte Sonnenberg
519-426-3528 ext. 529150
monte.sonnenberg@sunmedia.ca
twitter.com/montereformer
http://www.simcoereformer.ca/2016/01/11/waterford-deer-park-inhabitants-have-world-wide-audience