Molie, Can you throw something in for scale? They don't look quite like deer scat to me since they are usually a lot like slightly larger rabbit poop - quite discrete poops, not stuck together. (Can you tell I took care of animals at a nature center for a bit, cleaning cages?) ;>)

It doesn't look like a wild meat eater since no fur or little bones, and something like a skunk usually has seed hulls and insect shells.

Not deer, definitely.

Can't believe this ex city boy is now adept at deer scat, LOL.

Whatever it is, I encounter it on my property occasionally as well. Except for the stuck together aspect, it looks pretty much identical to deer poop. If you poke at one of these globs it separates into typical (for a deer) looking oval balls. My guess is deer, but who knows?

NHBabs, those are 15 inch pavers in my original post. Sorry I didn't stick my foot in as a reference! Your experience as a cage cleaner might help with today's photos ;).

Sped, yes ... they do separate into small oval balls. And jurasico, of course, an ex city boy can teach this country girl a thing or two!

The original poops were tossed into the river. So I just went out to see if I could find more that we had missed and, sure enough, found these smaller ones behind a rock. I positioned them on each side of a ruler. Unfortunately, it was raining and dark which affected the picture, but this should give a better "look."

By the way, the only thing motivating me is curiosity. We have a short goose fence around our property because those are the only critters we hate in the yard. We do see fox, deer, snapping turtles, muskrats, skunks and smaller creatures along our river ... they all are accepted members of our neighborhood.

Mollie

Molie, I found some photos of deer scat similar to yours, apparently more moist when deposited.

http://www.walnuthilltracking.com/whitetaildeerscat.html

Sorry, Sped. We have such rich soil in our yard because we get free compost in our town, and my dh always throws away the dog's poop. We never put it into the garden.

Yes, NHBabs, that looks like what we found. Thanks for the link. Maybe it was a deer browsing on leftover plants at the end of the yard. I'll have to go back another day and check the leaves to see if they've been eaten.

I dig post holes and bury my dogs' poop in those (kind of like a septic system for canines) but all poop from herbivores is fertilizer supreme.