Sadly, I have seen way too many deer like this in my lifetime and it still gives me the heebie-jeebies to see so many ticks in such a small space. Makes me wish I could get them all off the poor thing, like I do for my cat.
I think one of the reasons it looks a little odd is because of the angle it was taken at. The water is refracting the image considerably and it looks a lot more flat than it actually is.
You know you suck when the California dude has 20 more eastern warblers on his life list than you who actually lives in range of most of those species.