Oh, Deer
Through the year with our hooved friends
It’s mid-summer in upstate New York. White-tailed deer seem abundant, as they do in all seasons here. Recently, I had the privilege to come across a doe and her twin fawns at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center near Albany (above).
Soon the bucks will be growing their bony antlers, initially covered with velvet as in the photo below from one August morning.
As summer moves into mid-autumn rut, their thin, reddish-brown summer coats are replaced with thicker, gray-brown insulating winter coats.
Their diet transitions as well, from spring and summer grasses and leaves to autumn “mast” such as acorns, berries, and apples, to woody winter twigs, buds, evergreens, and tree bark, and what they can find under the snow.
Spring marks rebirth and new life, as the cycle renews.
Enjoy our lovely deer in every season!
Precious dear deer pose
for Scott’s photographic ode.
Beauty beyond words.
Beautiful photos. The young spotted deer are just so darn cute.