Monday, July 25, 2011

Oh Deer!

I came across a family of four deer when I drove into town the other day. There was a young spotted fawn and what looked like a mother and two adolescents. All of them allowed me to get quite close to them, which isn't unusual around here. I guess people feed them all the time so they're pretty laid back.

The fawn was impossibly cute. Wouldn't you agree?


 And what a little poser!

One of the young males (you can see his horns just starting to form) came right up to me by the side of the road as if begging to have his picture taken. Actually, he was probably begging for food. He got so close to me that I had to back up to take his picture because my camera will only focus if I'm at least six feet away from my subject. Here's his portrait.


The other young male deer was a real handful. He was constantly starting fights. Here he is acting up with what I believe is his mother. He tried to give her a good kick but mom got out of the way too fast.


Later on the same male had a showdown with mom again. I love the body language in this shot. Mom seems to be telling him, "Don't you dare try it!"



Notice the young fawn peeking out of the bushes behind mom. I can practically hear him thinking, "Oh wow, you're really going to get it now!" But the deer, being young and brash just like any other teenager, wasn't in the mood to listen to anything mom was telling him...


Temper, temper! Luckily no harm was done though. A few years ago I watched similar interactions between a male deer about the same age and his family members. In this case it was his big brother and his father (by the looks of things)...he was constantly sparring with them. So maybe this deer was just doing what comes naturally in the deer world. And sometimes what comes naturally is a little love and tenderness...



You might notice though that this isn't the trouble-making deer...this one's horns aren't as big.

Watching these deer was just the very beginning of my day. Once in awhile I have a day where I get to photograph one interesting thing after another. I'll be show and telling you about my special day coming up soon!

Interested in some silly deer pictures? Click on the link!

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