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!