Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
Oh my! Look at this cutie!
I happened across this white-tailed deer fawn and its mom late last week.
While mom didn’t really pay me much attention, the little one was much more shy and wisely kept its distance. It did give me some nice poses including this one. The early morning sun really lit up its eye showing the color in it.
Taken at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver, Colorado.
Despite being less than a week old, this white-tailed deer fawn was already quite fleet-footed. It was a pretty impressive display as it raced to catch up with mom last weekend.
When it grows up, it will be capable of speeds up to 30mph and able to leap as high as 10 feet and as far as 30 feet in a single bound!
It is the time of year that the deer does are giving birth to their spotted little ones and I was able to see my first of the season this past weekend.
I almost missed seeing it as I saw the doe but the fawn was up underneath mom, having some breakfast, and quite well hidden. They did eventually step apart and that allowed me to see the cute one although poor light in the thick woods prevented getting the great pics I was hoping for.
Nevertheless, it was very cool to see the fawn that was probably no more than a day or two old.
So this was an absolutely odd and fascinating scene – scroll down to view the complete sequence.
Two mule deer does were in a bit of a standoff with a ferruginous hawk. The deer tried to stomp the hawk but when they got close, the hawk jumped at one of the deer and seemed to bite its tail.
I suspect there may have been a fawn in the grass, out of sight, and the does were protecting it but I have never seen anything like this. View the album to see the entire sequence.
Taken at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
Sometimes you just can’t hold it long enough for your picture to be taken. Apparently I was taking too long to compose my shot as this pretty mule deer buck got tired of waiting and just had to relieve herself.
Taken at the start of this month, this pretty lady was out grazing as we wrapped up yet another snowfall. Light snow was falling and her back was coated in a layer of the white stuff. It was a pleasant, peaceful scene to just sit and watch as she went about her morning.
Even when our sunrises appear to be boring, they can render some pretty cool scenes.
When I headed out the door in the pre-dawn hours this past Sunday, I noted that there weren’t any clouds. That typically means sunrise won’t amount to much.
That was somewhat true in that there weren’t any clouds in the sky to light ablaze but, as the sun approached the horizon, the amber colors lit things up close to the ground. In the distance, a stand of bare trees with deer grazing underneath made for a pretty nice scene.
😀 I don’t know what this young white-tailed deer did to get so much snow on its face but it looked pretty darned funny.
The Denver area received another shot of snow last night leading to some pretty scenes on the plains. The wildlife, normally very active in the wake of a storm, seemed kind of subdued though. Perhaps even they are getting tired of all of the cold we have been experiencing.
I happened across this handsome, young fellow recently. I found it interesting that he payed me absolutely no attention, not even a glance.
Instead, he stood motionless, focused on a hill about 100 yards away. Having seen this behavior before, I suspected there must be coyotes nearby. Sure enough, three popped up over the hill – one of which I shared a pic of on Saturday.
While the buck wasn’t worried about me, the coyotes were and opted not to approach any closer, keeping their distance from the human. Feeling assured he was safe, the buck turned around and went on his way.
Mule deer are quite common here in Colorado, found anywhere from the plains to the high country. It won’t be long and these guys’ antlers will be falling off and in fact, I have seen a few already that have lost them.
