Saturday, January 30, 2010

Winter Wildlife: Camera Critters

Outstanding wildlife photography opportunities have been rare lately, with the bitter cold winter weather making it difficult to stay outdoors for any length of time and the animals being mostly in a survival mode and often not doing anything especially interesting.

I was able to capture this doe grooming one of her fawns from a previous year. Deer are highly social animals. While they may disperse somewhat during summer and autumn, it is common for extended family groups to band together during late autumn, winter, and early spring, with a certain degree of dispersal occurring again in late spring as the new fawns are born. This doe lost her fawn from 2009 during the past hunting season, but she still has a doe and a buck traveling with her which were born in 2008 and are now over 1.5 years old.

All photos were taken with Canon 7D and 500mmF4 L lens.

Deer Grooming In Warm Rays Of Late Afternoon Sun


Sometimes an unusual visitor shows up at the natural bird feeder. Raccoons are mostly nocturnal animals, but this one arrived shortly before sundown to feed on the bird seed.


The Masked Bandit


For more Camera Critters photos, Click Here!

21 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Great shots, I love the raccoon peeking around the tree.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Willard: Wonderful photo of the deer and the raccoon. I think the mother is telling the little on a secrete. I put some corn out this week and had a herd of six in the yard.

Teresa~ Gardening with Soule said...

What wonderful photos. They are so full of character in these pictures. Nice shots.

i beati said...

great

Captain Shagrat said...

That masked bandits got a nose nearly as wet as my Labs. Really crisps shots there, weel done you

Anonymous said...

Wonderful photos as always!

Snap said...

Beautiful! The mom and her babe and the little masked bandit. Great shots!

Helena said...

Beautiful photos! The one of the deer is really sweet.

Judith @ Lavender Cottage said...

That's motherly love for you. :-)
The raccoon is a good shot, they're sweet in pictures at least.

Adrienne Zwart said...

Two great shots, Willard. I had to start bringing my bird feeder in at night to protect it from racoon damage. Fortunately it's been too cold for them lately.

imac said...

Real cute Willard.
That would look nice framed and on the wall.

Carletta said...

Nothing better than a shot of a loving mother and babe - animal or human.
I love that masked guy peeking around the tree.
Wonderful shots!

DeniseinVA said...

Fantastic! You've got two of my favorite animals there. Wonderful photos, thank you.

Lisa said...

I love their sweet faces! God's precious creatures. BEAUTIFUL!!

squirrel said...

Both of these photos are excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

These are great!

Rechie said...

so cute critters and great shot...

the critter on the last picture looks llike zorro

mine's a bird

Anonymous said...

I like the raccoon picture. I suspect food is harder to come by and the bird feeder is free pickens. I have had the same thing happen with other animals - skunks, possum, raccoon and rabbit of course. When food is easy to get I never see them.

Glad you didn't blow your top when you read the Brookville post. lol Some people will.

Anonymous said...

How cute is that coon? Just love it!! Great pics!!

Peggy said...

All are excellent photos, but the bandit caught my eye! Love the details on what I assume is poor lighting given the hour of day. Looks fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Very nice images, Willard. The raccoon just looks sooo mischevious!!