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Posts Tagged ‘white-tailed deer’

Little deer in the woods

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on January 22, 2015| 8 Comments »

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.”

White-tailed deer

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A tough winter for bucks

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , on March 19, 2014| 11 Comments »

These images are disturbing, especially the first one. They show the harsh reality of the struggle for survival for wild creatures, even in the relatively comfortable confines of a suburban marshland park.

For the second time this winter, I stumbled upon a dead deer in a remote area of my the marsh when I take many of my wildlife photos. (I documented the earlier sighting in a posting that I titled “The Buck Was Stopped Here.”) This time, the skeleton was relatively intact and I was surprised to see that it was another buck. I am still baffled about the cause of his death. Predators? Starvation?

As a photographer and as a human, I struggled in deciding how to present this subject in photographs. I knew that I was not going to remove the body far from where I found it, so I had to settle for a relatively cluttered backdrop. Was it better to show the whole body, as I did in the third photo and keep death at a distance? Should I photograph it to look like the deer had fallen asleep and died peacefully, as the second shot suggests, the way we treat death at a funeral home?

I decided that my best shot was the one in which I forced the viewer essentially to look death in the face directly, by focusing directly on the deer’s now empty eye socket. Death is a reality that can’t be avoided. The photo is a bit macabre, I know, but it speaks to me of life and of death, of the passing of one of God’s creatures.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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The buck was stopped here

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2014| 14 Comments »

Hiking through a remote area of my local marshland park yesterday, I came upon the skull of a dead deer with some impressive-looking antlers. I don’t know much about deer, but the antlers are enough to tell me that it was a buck and, if I understand the counting system right, it was a six-point buck  (three on each side). Initially I saw only the skull, but when I investigated the marsh grass in the surrounding area, I saw some of the larger bones of the deer.

The White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the park don’t have many natural predators, so I can’t help but wonder what caused this buck’s demise. There are coyotes in the park, so I guess that is a possibility. At certain times of the year, archers also shoot deer and I have been told that police sharpshooters sometimes hunt deer at night, but my understanding is that they try to recover the bodies and turn the meat over to homeless shelters. Whatever the case, the animals and birds of the park had picked the bones clean.

I took these shots primarily to record my find, not to make any kind of artistic statement. I used a couple of elements in the area where I found the skull to prop it up so that I could photograph some of the details of this once beautiful animal.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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The chase

Posted in animals, Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 27, 2013| 5 Comments »

I don’t often see deer in the daylight at my local marshland park, so I was a bit surprised last week when a doe came running out of the cattails and began to pick her way thought the ducks that were foraging in the shallow water. She was immediately followed by a smaller doe, who was also running.

What was going on? What had spooked these two deer? I didn’t have to wait long for an answer. A small buck emerged and started chasing the other two deer through the water.

I don’t know if they were just playing or if the buck had amorous intentions, but it gave me the chance to get a few shots of what passes as “big game” for me.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Deer at dawn

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 7, 2013| 10 Comments »

In the faint light and fog of the pre-dawn hour, I watched the shadowy forms of a small group of deer move slowly across an open area at my local marsh, heading for the treeline. My attempts to photograph them while they were moving were not successful. Once they reached the edge of the trees, however, this male White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) stopped for a moment and looked back at me. A moment later, he was gone.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Deer in the cattails

Posted in animals, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on November 20, 2012| 8 Comments »

Usually when I see a deer, it turns and runs away, sometimes stopping to gaze back at be from a distance just beyond the range of the lens that I have on my camera at that moment. Recently, however, I encountered a deer that seemed content to look at me as I looked at him. It sounds like a nature photographer’s dream come true.

The biggest challenge was that he was in the middle of a mostly dried-up marshy field full of cattails and other tall growth that made it impossible to get a clear view of the young buck, a white-tailed deer, I believe. It became pretty clear to me that auto-focus was not a viable option—the camera seemed to really want to focus on some arbitrary branch rather than on the deer—so I relied on manual focusing. It was also in the middle of the day, so shadows were pretty harsh. During the protracted period of time that the deer stayed in the same little area, I shot a lot of photos and these are two of my favorites. You’ll note that the deer blends in pretty well with the background. If he had remained absolutely still, I may very well have walked on by without seeing him.

Deer in the cattails

White-tailed buck in a field of cattails

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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The buck stops here

Posted in animals, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on November 14, 2012| 3 Comments »

I was attempting to get a photo of a bird in the cattails, when suddenly I noticed that a deer had entered into the frame. Deer are pretty common and I have even seen them in my suburban neighborhood, but I have rarely seen them at a moment when I had my camera in my hand, so I was excited.

The lighting was a little uneven and harsh and it was difficult to get a completely unobstructed shot, but the deer cooperated and paused a few times, allowing me take a few relatively clear shots. I grew up in the suburbs of Massachusetts and even though my deer identification skills are not strong, I am pretty confident that this is a buck, probably a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

I am not a politician, but I am glad to affirm with great conviction,  “The buck stops here.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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