Beautiful young buck (and doe) frolicking in the great marsh at sunrise this morning. Listen to the sounds of the marsh too – the male Red-winged Blackbirds and a male Cardinal are also wooing – spring is in the air!
Sweet encounter with the local deer –
We see this pair of does frequently. Much of the time they dash away into the woody thicket at the hint of human activity. Not this time. I was quietly filming the larger of the two while speaking ever so gently, in what I hoped would sound to a deer like a soothing voice. I crept to a distance of about twelve feet away, right out in the open, and murmuring all the while. It worked! She gently folded her front leg knees and lay down. I stayed and filmed for some time more and then left her still laying down as it was too dark to capture any more footage.
How I wish I had an apple in my pocket! Next time 🙂
November through December is White-tailed Deer mating season in New England. At dusk in late November we watched a magnificent buck chase a doe across the marshy field back and forth a number of times, before they both disappeared behind a clump of phragmites.
Please join us for a free live premiere of Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly at the Shalin Liu on Thursday, September 23rd, at 7pm. I hope to see you there! For more information go here.
Beautiful doe and two fawns find a treasure trove of fallen apples –
The two fawns were playful towards each other, stopping frequently to nuzzle and check out what the other was eating.
A Happy Thanksgiving story for you –While recently filming wildflowers at a field, as the sun was beginning to dip behind the woodland edge, and as I was about ready to call it a day, in the distance an exquisite White-tailed Deer appeared. I stood very, very still as more and more joined the the beautiful doe–a small herd–eight in all! 
Occasionally they would glance up, then resume foraging. At one point the herd ran to the wooded edge and I thought that was the end of that beauty moment, but the group moved back toward the grassy field to continue foraging.
One curiously brave doe came closer and closer, and as she was advancing, repeatedly pawed the ground with her left foot as if to say this is my family and I am not afraid of you. When nearly nightfall and imagining I wouldn’t be able to find the path home I left the field with the family still happily foraging in the near dark.
The curious and brave doe
Life at the Edge of the Sea – Young White-tailed Deer Buck
Late yesterday afternoon Charlotte and I encountered this frisky young buck. I was curious to learn if you could tell the age of a deer by its antlers and found this growth chart on the Animal Diversity Web. Judging by the chart, he appears to be older than six months but younger than 11 months.
Charlotte and I spent the morning at Parker River Wildlife Refuge this past Thursday. We saw some beautiful wildlife and I am especially excited to share about one special bird, which I will post tomorrow when I have time to write.
This handsome White-tailed Deer buck briefly appeared at the marsh edge before bounding back under cover of brush.
Footage from a brief encounter with the beautiful Good Harbor Beach doe of the dunes.
When a deer comes prancing along the beach!
This graceful, slender beauty leisurely strolled, and then pranced, up to me while I was filming PiPls. I stood very still as she came closer and closer, trying not to move a muscle. With great curiosity, she spent a few minutes looking at me.
The doe came so close, I could have reached out my hand and touched her.
After the once over from her, and a magical moment for me, she then proceeded to walk a few feet away and take a very long pee in a tide pool. I was filming, not photographing at this point, and so it was captured on film. I don’t know why I think this was funny, I guess because while I was thinking, this is so beautiful, perhaps she was wondering if I was a tree and a suitable place to go pee.
Dancing along with the waves at the shoreline, she was heading back to the dunes when a photographer boxed her into a corner, forcing her to cross the creek and go up the rocky incline to Sherman’s Point, and then cross the road. I prayed she would not get hit by a car (FYI, the photographer had a huge telephoto lens!)
Half an hour later I was further down the beach and happily surprised as the doe came in from the road. She had circled all the way around, her tongue was hanging out and she was out of breath. After a few sips of water at the creek, the elegant White-tailed doe of the dunes crossed the marsh and made her way back home.
Beautiful sunrise yesterday morning, too.
Doe Tracks – I have been making a photographic record of all the different types of animal prints that we see at Good Harbor Beach in the morning. Usually, the deer tracks are in the softer sand and not as clearly defined.
You never know what beautiful creatures you may be fortunate enough to encounter when chasing winged friends. 
White-tailed Deer grow a second thicker coat of fur for protection against the cold during fall, and shed that second coat during spring.The reddish color will give way to grayish brown hairs at the onset of colder weather, providing better camouflage as well. Deer can increase the insulative value of their fur by puffing out their hair. These are probably nursing does because they keep their reddish color longer than bucks and does that have weaned their fawns.