I was back at Lindsay Parsons yesterday looking to get a good image of one of the young Kingfishers. It was 70 degrees at 5 in the morning so I kinda figured it was going to be a little warm. I was also hoping I might see the Otters again. There were very few clouds in the sky so it got light very quickly. The Kingfishers were there but by the time they started feeding the Sun was already throwing some harsh light. But I persevered, took some crappy pictures until about 8 o’clock when I decided to pack it in and go get a cup of coffee. I had packed up my backpack, taken off my Ghillie suit and was just turning to head up the hill when I saw that burnt orange color of a whitetail deer in Summer. I had been watching this doe earlier in the morning but I lost sight of her a while ago. She was feeding in the tall water plants at the edge of the pond. But when she picked up her head I realized ‘the boys’ were back. It was a very mature 10 point buck! I watched this bachelor group of bucks last year in the same area and it looks like at least two of them made it through the winter. So I had to unpack my camera quietly and get in position quickly. All of these pics are handheld and my telephoto is very heavy so I’m surprised that I got any keepers at all! There were at least 5 in the group but I only saw 3. These two 8 pointers were the same deer from last year but now the antlers were longer and heavier. By the time the antlers quit growing this year they will be 10 pointers. Deer antlers fall of in the Winter and grow back every Spring. While they are growing they are living tissue and very sensitive to the deer. By early September photoperiodism takes over and the tissue hardens and dies, forming the gleaming antlers you see in the Fall. But if a buck damages an antler while it is still growing, that antler will grow the same way for the rest of the bucks life!
Zoom in to look at the rack….
Now these images aren’t going to win any prizes, that’s for sure. But I will definitely keep my eye out for this group for the next month or so!
