Oh Deer!
If you like to take pictures of the white-tailed deer, well, this is the best time to do it. Sort of.
It’s mating season for the deer so if you get in the way of a male, you could be run over faster than if you stood on a New York freeway at 1 pm, or worse, you might be a threat against what he needs to do since he’s in a bad mood until he gets his babe. Either way, you might get mauled by flailing hooves because you’re in the way and you’re not at all what he wants.
The rest of the year, and all year long, the does (females) are wandering around and you can take their pictures all you want while they graze in the wild as well as at the city parks.
This month, the bucks are out in full force looking for a doe. Any doe. They need to mate. It matters. Like, now!
It’s a pretty cool concept. The antlers on the males indicate their male-ness. They shed them in the Winter and start growing them back in the Spring. The bigger the antlers, the cooler, more awesome, more valuable-as-a-mate is the buck. They use them to fight as well as to attract.
Here’s a young one seen today:
A young one on the prowl
He will clearly lose his chosen babe to an elder more formidable foe but he’ll find another.
Another buck chased his female prey for love-making back and forth through a mile of woods and up and down through a ravine but she refused to be had today. The poor guy was left to be standing, exhausted, in a swamp, panting and unfulfilled.
Tired from the chase but getting ready for the next one
No matter. He and his contemporaries will get their girls. They always do. It’s just the way it works.
Not the largest around but impressive all the same
Addtionally, and with all the mauling, gross disfiguring and death notwithstanding, this is also the time to collect praying mantis egg sacks.
This is also the time for apples, Autumn colors, and hamburgers. Yep! It’s National Hamburger Month! So get out there if you like to get out there; there’s lots to enjoy, no?
Be careful around the deer this month, but have fun!
Those are beautiful pictures of some very impressive animals. I’m not sure how you do it. Every time I try taking their picture they tend to take off faster than a highballing express train. I guess I’m just not sneaky enough. I wonder where you can buy a cloak of invisibility.
(Nodding head, knowingly)…ah, yes…the Highball Express. High-Speed Deer Train! It has to do with location 100%. At Side Cut Metropark in Maumee (Ohio), the deer appear to share the land with people, and our sharing is very good. We are interested while they are protected.
Ten miles to the southwest is Oak Openings Metropark. At that place, you will see only deer butts running away from 300 yards out!
So…yeah! Location, I think, more than sneakiness. Still, just to be sure, do NOT sing “Waltzing Matilda” or bang pots and pans together when stalking the deer. Slow and steady works well in the right location.
Oak openings is my favorite Metro Park and I go there often. You’re right though about the deer there. They’re very skittish. A number of years ago they used to have a large pen with deer in them but they dismantled that. I think people complained that it was not right to keep the deer penned up even if it was a large enclosure. They may have been right but it certainly made getting their picture a lot easier. You could stick your lens through the fence and have at it. Bambi didn’t seem to mind.