True Beauty of Nature

 

I usually try to record beauty and perfection in nature ignoring its imperfections. A perfect specimen always gets my attention, whether it is a trophy deer or wildflower at peak bloom. This otherwise healthy buck is an example of survival in an imperfect world. The beauty here is its ability to adapt, survive, and thrive. Isn't that the beauty of our lives as well?

Prairie Trail

Winter is a great time to see animal signs on the prairie. It may a longstanding deer trail or you may find a story in the snow showing recent wildlife activity. Unfortunately the only thing warm about the prairie in the winter is its color. The wind can be brutal!

What deer?

That's what my wife said when after watching yesterday's time lapse video. Each video is watched a dozen or more times in the editing process so the minute details seem obvious to me by the time the finished product is ready to share. The same can be said when editing and enhancing still shots. We see the flaws others overlook making us at times our own worse critic. In case you missed the deer yesterday here it is in a moderately cropped image.

Bucks Sparring

I love recording animal behavior and a Bushnell Trail Cam is a perfect tool to get scenes of animals acting normally.  The camera trap is set up at a location with high potential of activity and left in place at least a week before checking the card.  Occasionally I'll use an attractant but it is more fun reading the signs and setting up a camera. Material will be eventually used to give a presentation called "Meet the Neighbors" to show the variety of wildlife in the park.

Be Careful

This young deer had its first experience with ice a few days ago. Another deer also slipped in front of camera trap the but was too close to get a good recording.

This pair of deer got out a little further out on the ice and had to be rescued. I noticed one is a buck. My wife and I frequently talk about my creative route finding. I wonder if this discussion took place between them. Deer Rescue

The Final Days of Winter

Whitetail Deer Struggling for Survival from Dale Bohlke on Vimeo.
This was recorded earlier in the month but with the sweet aroma of organic fertilizer in the air on warm days winter is almost over.For deer it's all about energy conservation at this point.

The Amateur Biologist

Healthy Deer

Malnourished Deer

These images are from a pair of coyote killed deer carcasses.  In 1949 a short article was published in the New York Conservationist magazine by E. L. Cheatum.  This article is the basis of all current studies of ungulate mortality analysis, however machines are now used instead of fingers to determine the fat content of marrow.  Analysis of bone marrow fat gives an indication of the nutritional status of the animal since it is the last fat reservoir used by a starving animal.

The tracks in snow gave an intriguing story. The healthy deer was the adult which apparently was defending its weak fawn which is the lower image.  The kills were made a few days apart since the fawn was almost intact and the doe was mostly consumed when I found them.  An alternative explanation is a simultaneous kill and the adult was eaten first.  The deer died in an open woodland and all bones were intact therefore not a wolf or bobcat kill.

Cheatum's article is an interesting study in field biology.  I couldn't find the original article on the web but would be happy to send a PDF file of it to anyone who is interested.

Conserving Energy

This young deer was chewing, chewing, and chewing with occasional pauses to lick its lips.  An analogy for the lack of nutritional food in winter that has stuck with me is the cereal is eaten during the warm months, during winter the box is eaten.  Some might say I was desperate to see color in March and its tongue was the only color available.  Technical: photographed from my portable Toyota blind.

Lonesome Deer

This young deer walked about a hundred yards out of thick cover to check me out.  It eventually was about 15 feet from me, so close I could hear it chewing.  This is not typical behavior although they do have an intense curiosity.  A great experience and a couple good shots before it got inside the lens' minimum focusing distance.

Getting Snorted

There is one sound you do not want to hear when trying to photograph deer.  Yesterday the gig was up way before daylight when I heard two quick puffs of air from an unseen deer.  It didn't race away but was gone before there was light.

The Other Guy

My great luck last Friday which has not been repeated.  This is the second young buck seen that day.  Since then the timing has been off, too early or too late for either the deer or me.  Yesterday a doe was almost in my face at 40 feet but even at ISO 6400 she did not show up on the viewfinder.  This morning snorting in the dark was the best I could do.  This was captured at ISO 3200, 1/250.

Alert Doe

The deer in Flandrau are hunted each fall and it shows with their extreme alertness to any movement.  They also like to hide behind clutter making a pretty picture tough.  All you can do is shoot a narrow depth of field and hope for a better shot the next time.

Young Buck

I was deer hunting this morning for the first time in nearly a decade.  I was reminded how quietly deer move and how cold 30 degrees is when you are sitting.  My deer hunting weapon of choice has gone from a shotgun, muzzleloader, bow, and finally to a camera.  I hope to shoot this guy again and again.  Photographed at Flandrau State Park.