Whitetail Buck and Turkey Gobbler

The whitetail rut continues here in Pennsylvania. I expected activity to be very intense this week as a good shot of cold weather usually sends the rut into overdrive, but such has not been the case. I did manage to capture this small four-point on Sunday morning when he challenged a small spike quite near to my photographic outpost. I would have liked to have the entire rack in the photograph, but that was all I could get in with the 500mm F4 so it is obvious that the deer was very close. Notice the intimidating look in his eye and how his hair is fluffed.

Canon 30-D: 500mmF4- 1 1/2 year old whitetail buck

We had our first light snowfall of the season on Wednesday night, a minuscule amount actually, but that combined with a heavy frost made a stunning backdrop for this mature Eastern Wild Turkey Gobbler to pose against at sunrise on Tuesday morning.

Canon 30-D: 500mmF4- Mature Eastern Wild Turkey Gobbler

It has been in the low 20s in the mornings, but the wind chill factor makes it feel much worse. It seems that one is more likely to see wildlife once the sun hits the meadows in this type of weather.

Camera Critters: The Rut Continues

The whitetail rut is in full swing in Pennsylvania and Virginia. I have been dividing my time between photographing the local whitetail herd and those in Shenandoah National Park. Since "Salty" has been posting a lot of Virginia photos, I will post some of Pennsylvania deer for this week's camera critters.

The does are smaller in our area than most of the Virginia does, which seems to be a hereditary factor as the food sources seem to be of equal quality. in our area fawns are almost never bred in their first autumn and most are two years old before they have their first fawn.

In the photo below a fawn which was born this past June, stands with its' mother and surveys the countryside.

Canon 30-D: 500mmF4

I love photographing the does and fawns while waiting for the bucks to appear. While I see yearling bucks each day, the larger ones do not always appear. Sometimes one may go a day or so without seeing one and it may appear too early or late for good photography, but in this case a decent seven point appeared in mid-afternoon.

Canon 30-D: 500mmF4

This buck is at least 2 1/2 years old and may even be 3 1/2. Deer in this area are small compared to those in states that produce a large number of trophy bucks. Many hunters from this area travel to the mid-western states such as Iowa where they seem to find some extremely large bucks. As for me, I no longer hunt and I am to content to photograph the local herd and what bucks I can find in the National Parks such as The Smokies and Shenandoah.

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