Shiny Antlers

I wasn't really in a good position to get this photo, but these shiny antlers certainly caught my attention yesterday morning.

Aren't they lovely?

Bucks Butting Heads

A quick little short video I captured of two bucks hitting their horns together. 

In All His Glory

Here's the 5-point buck I've been watching all summer without his velvet, ready to head into the rutting season with his horns.

Losing the Velvet

Last week I posted photos of this buck in velvet. 

Yesterday he was back in the yard, but the velvet is starting to come off. I thought some of my readers might like to see this as it's not something that one sees everyday.

Male deer begin growing antlers in late winter/early spring. The velvet covering feeds the bone and helps keep it safe.

The bucks begin to lose the velvet in late August or early September as the velvet starts to lose its blood flow. It also indicates an increase in testosterone in the male deer. This signals the beginning of the rut, meaning the bucks soon will begin chasing the does as they hit their cycle for procreation.

Beneath the velvet is hard bone that makes up the antlers seen in white tail deer. The antlers are shed January-March, usually, and the process begins all over again.

Here is the buck with full velvet:

And here are photos of the velvet starting to come off on the left side of the deer's antlers. Note the red color of the bone as the velvet begins to shed. Eventually they will turn brown or brownish white.

You can see how much smaller the actual antler is once the velvet begins to come off as indicated in the last photo.

I've seen this shedding of velvet before but not often. This is the first time I recall being able to get photos of it (I took them through a glass door; the deer was about 30 feet away from me.).

Hope you enjoyed the biology lesson.

 

Five Point Buck in Velvet

 

He brought a long a friend, too.

In Velvet

 I spied this buck taking a break in the field and was entranced by the velvet on his developing antlers.

A Little Kiss

 Momma deer taking care of her baby.

The Hawk, the Squirrel, the Fox, and the Deer

I was on the phone when I glanced out the window and watched a hawk land on a tree across the way. Next thing I knew, the hawk was chasing a squirrel, its wings flapping, head bobbing as the bird tried to grab the furry little thing in its talons. The squirrel ran in circles around the tree, it's fluffy tail wagging behind it like a flag. It raced to the back of the tree, and I lost sight of it.

So did the hawk. With its prey gone, it flew off, and I turned my attention back to my conversation.

Then I looked out the window again and saw a fox trotting across the pasture, not far from where the hawk had just been defeated by the squirrel. A mother fox with kits, I guessed, since she was out in the middle of the day. She didn't look rabid or anything. She was just going about her business, doing fox things in a fox way. 

I had to tell the person on the phone what I was seeing, because I don't see foxes very often and this was rather exciting. Fortunately, my caller is a nature lover, too, and understood my enthusiasm. But not enough for me to hang up the phone and find a camera. The fox would have been long gone, anyway.

Not long after the fox went by, I saw a small herd of deer wandering up from the creek, heading into the same pasture the fox has just vacated.

The deer were in no hurry, and I watched them simply flop down beneath the oak trees, sunning themselves in the warmth of the day.

They were still there when I ended my call. I grabbed the camera. They weren't a fox or a hawk, but they remained, still resting and soaking in the sun, and the other animals had vanished.

This is what I love about my life. Where else could I have such a view, and see such things on a warm spring day?

Deer just hanging out in the sunshine.

Deer in the Yard

 

Friday Morning

 

It's unseasonably warm here now, so much so that I stepped outside onto the front porch in only my robe, slippers, and nightgown to take a photo of the moon. The deer in the front yard ignored me entirely. That gleaming white dot in the sky in the last photo is an over-exposed moon. The light was still low, so I was playing with camera settings to try to get the deer and the moon in a single shot. I would have preferred to have the moon look like the shot that looks like the moon is supposed to look, but the deer left before I could figure out where I needed to set the dial on the camera.

Bucks Battle It Out!

 

This afternoon I watched these two bucks go head-to-head for a few minutes.

Is This Rudolph?

 

I Hunt with the Camera

 

Posing for the Camera

 

The Battle

 

Two young bucks having a go at one another. As best I could tell, it was a draw.

They Come Close

This is not a great picture, but this morning, I glanced out of my office window and this little buck was right there. I could have touched him if there hadn't been a window between us.

Here's a bad photo to prove it. The siding is the window curtain. Really! 

Camouflaged

 

Let Me Get That Itch

 

In Velvet

 

Having a Rest