Tag: deer

My Favorite Buck of 2022

I have lots of photos of Mule Deer bucks from July through December of 2022. I feel like I got to know them well through the photos taken of them on my Trail cameras. It was interesting to watch them the last 6 months. They changed their behavior through the observation time. In the summer they were solitary or hung out with one other buck. I saw some sparring through summer and early fall and then the very serious business of competing for does in November and December. My favorite buck of the year is a classic 4 point western count. He has a large, very symmetrical rack and is in my opinion the handsomest of all the bucks in that area this year. He posed nicely for several photos and I enjoyed going through all his photos to choose a few I’ll show here.

Band of Brothers

I was fortunate to run into this handsome herd of Mule Deer bucks just as they were leaving a field in the early morning. It isn’t often you see this many horned ones together and it was a joy to watch and photography them for about an hour before I had to move on.

Mule Deer

These fellows got over their alarm at my presence fairly quickly and it was interesting to watch their interactions at my leisure.

Four Point and Three Point

Western count, this is a nice four point and three point hanging out.

Alert

King Stag

This guy was definitely the biggest buck and the most wary. He dived into the tall brush and hid for a good little while until he decided I wasn’t a threat. He ran out an joined the rest of the herd and allowed me to get a few good shots. He has some pretty gnarly eye guards. Classic four point Mule Deer Buck.

Mix of Bucks and Does
In Motion
Play Fighting

These bucks did a little bit of play fighting while I watched. I was hoping they would knock their horns off it being March and time for them to be dropping their antlers. No such luck.