Ten Point Buck

Last night, driving home from musical practice, we came upon three deer at the entrance to our driveway. First we saw a doe. She was startled and quickly jumped over the fence and disappeared into the lower hay field. After a few more feet of driving, a ten point buck burst onto the drive and after giving the vehicle an annoyed glare (long enough for me to get a good look at his antlers, obviously!)  he followed the doe with a light hop over the fence. A few seconds later, illuminated faintly by the headlights, I spied an 8 point buck grazing on the side of the board fence that the previous two deer had jumped to. He looked up at us in a bored way and continued munching, just feet from our noisy bright car, so we got an especially good look at him.

I imagine that the ten point buck was the one that I saw on Friday. During lunch we saw him walk very purposefully across the upper hay field and slip into a thicket at the edge of the woods by the head of the lake. These are the pictures I quickly snapped as he did so.

It always tickles us to see bucks this time of year. Most of the year we only see herds of does. It's in the fall that the males usually turn up. And it seems to coincides with the start of hunting season (firearms). 

Every morning of the first week or so of the season, the hunters drive or walk down the logging road behind our house to hunt in the classified forrest behind us. Never have they bagged a deer that we have seen. Perhaps the deer migrate to our land... the only homestead for miles without a dog and where no one hunts. (My oldest boy has hit one with a sling shot, but the startled deer trotted off a few paces, and then got back to the business of grazing.)

This reminds me of the new twists in the hunting saga that occurred this year (refer to the following post for the back-story: Deer Season). I have yet to write about the most recent developments with the hunters/caretakers of the classified forrest behind us. I should soon. (If you want to read a few of my other previous deer posts, refer to the following: Deer Antics, Deer Sanctuary, Coyote Chase, Look at the Deer, Dear!)