It’s been quite a while since I have seen a mammal in the wild bigger than a squirrel, so I was pretty happy when I spotted a group of four deer foraging in a wooded area of my marshland park late in the day. The four White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were rooting about in the undergrowth and surprisingly did not run away immediately when they sensed my presence. Several of them looked in my direction at times, but then resumed their activity.
I was easily within range to get some shots, but the trees and the grassy growth made it tough to get unobstructed photos. This image of what is undoubtedly a young deer is my favorite of the ones that I was able to shoot that day.
For me, this little deer qualifies as “big game.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Nice! The animals must be getting used to seeing you there.
We have experienced increased sighting of deer lately. It is that time of year when they are searching for food. We have a few salt/treat blocks out for them. They bed down on the hillside just beyond our backyard most nights.
He is so beautiful! Well caught 🙂
He has such a cute little face, all the deer I see here in Missouri seem to have much longer muzzles.
I don’t know if the shortness of the muzzle was a function of age or the camera angle, but I too thought he had an awfully small face.
It’s hard for me to get a sense of scale looking at your photo — how tall would you estimate the deer is?
I’m not very good at estimating sizes. It was the smallest of the four deer and I’d guess it was maybe about three to four feet tall, though I could be way off.
Beautiful. I saw a young dear close to a copse here a while ago and was surprised he or she was living in the city so close to houses.