The angle of the light, the color of the light, and the angle of the deer can create what seems like totally different versions of the same deer. The photos above were taken just 3 weeks after the prior photos in this post, and she looks like a whole new deer. Some of that is her coat changing with the season. She’s got some particularly dark coloring in places, too, compared to the other does. Although you can basically see it in these pics, it’s been hard to capture Pi’s leg in a way that looks accurate to what I see with my own eyes, which is an interesting aspect in itself. These photos do not always accurately depict my lived visual experience. For every photo and video in these notes, there were days worth of photos and videos I didn’t record. That was mostly purposeful, leaving my phone behind in favor of a dominantly IRL experience with these animals. So as I try to absorb and record this pretty amazing experience, that stuff swirls around when questions come up. Is the imprint of a prior experience right or is the photo right? Certainly, I have never seen Pi golden like in that pic above, though she definitely deserves to be golden.
I’m bringing these guys above up again because they’re about to be part of an event. The photos left top and bottom are from that undated Cannon Elph. Based on the flowers, it’s early-mid July. And while there were photos close by these two that would almost make me guess 2020, I’m hedging 2019-2020. The center and right photos are correctly dated. Is it the same buck in both the center and right photos? Do antlers grow that much in a month? If I better understood how antlers grow out, I’d understand the buck pics better. Bucks drop their antlers after rut in the fall, and regrow starting every spring. I assume that each year they grow, the antlers grow bigger unless genetics or accident intervene. But maybe I’m wrong. Many plants do that in our area, grow stronger once established but die back in the winter. Guessing buck ages escapes me.
PLAY DAY!
On October 27, 2021 there was a sudden ruckus in the backyard. I filmed it as well as I could through a vinyl window damaged by the 2021 heat event. It had sort of spotted up and taken on a purple-blue sheen, and I couldn’t open a door or window for a clearer view without disrupting the games. Still, you can see what’s going on and it’s pretty fun.
I remain confused about something near the end of the video. It concerns the far right photo and the numbered deer. While moving around into “clearer” window spots to track the fawns doing their zoomies, didn’t even see the older deer hanging by the bank. When I first noticed them, I thought they were bucks grooming bucks, which was very exciting and I had some questions about that. But what it really looks like is they’re a buck, doe and fawn. And it looks like buck marked #1 notices doe marked #3 grooming the fawn with the #2 on its butt. He then interferes, stops the grooming, and kind of nudges the fawn off. It walks off to everyone’s favorite spot on the bank and is joined by the other fawn its own age that was also part of the play day. So I have new questions.
Would it be normal for a buck to nudge apart grooming between anyone just to show dominance, or was that fawn the buck nudged away likely also a little buck? Was that antlered buck maybe already waiting on that doe to enter estrus? OMG do son-bucks and their doe-moms mate? And if yes, what’s the genetics implication? Or if they avoid breeding, how do they avoid it? Here’s the play day vid. Tell me what’s going on at the end. And watch for the quail!
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