Whitetail Watching

I spent the better part of this evening driving around the backroads looking for inspiration for the next great photo. Unlike usual, however, instead of heading up north on 73 and hitting the backroads I grew up on, I decided to stick a little closer to home here in Hibbing. I don’t think I went further and 5 or 6 miles out of town at any given point. As luck would have it I ended up having a very good picture night for wildlife right from the drivers seat of my car.  I think by the time the sun had set and I had grabbed a handful of shots of the fat, orange moon hanging low in the sky, I had seen a grand total of around 10 deer. That included a nice little buck and doe pairing that were very patient and offered me a nice photo opportunity. The buck is probably going to wind up being a spiker, fork horn at the best, but it was a lot of fun being able to sit and watch then as they just milled around. They didn’t even seem to care all that much when I carefully got out of my car, camera in hand, to continue shooting pictures. All that concerned them was was eating and scratching away the biting insects that had to be horrible for them.

All in all it was a very nice evening for watching deer. It never ceases to amaze me how many deer I see right around and often times right in town. I know there are many more deer up north in my usual stomping grounds but here in town they don’t have as much room to hole up out of sight, which leads to being spotted more often. Unfortunately I have not spotted any newborn fawns to take some pictures of, at least not yet. I used to see them all the time on the roads when I was younger, but of course now that I have the camera and want to actively seek them and take pictures they are no where to be found!

Couple other notes on the evening drive for you. Deer were not the only animals I saw as there were many birds, rabbits and squirrels running around. Including the hugely fat rabbit I saw that had to weight about 45 pounds and was bigger than a basketball. It looked like a tame rabbit, however it was out on the edge of a road with no homes in sight. Must have escaped somehow and now is trying to fend for itself. I have a feeling some lucky fox, owl or hawk will have a nice tasty treat when they stumble across this big boy.

I also managed to get an up close look at my least favorite animal, Pepe LePeau. Yep, a skunk. I was driving down a fairly busy paved road on the backside of town heading on my way out and *presto* like magic it was right there. The shoulder of the road in this spot is almost non existent and what little bit there actually is has waist high grass protecting it like some sort of racing barrier wall or something. Anyhow, I was driving along and all of a sudden I noticed the grass just in front of me on my passenger side started to really move. Within about 2 seconds I was motoring past the wiggly grass and that is when I saw, partially hidden in the grass, the familiar white striped stinker. The bad part was that all I saw of it was the tail posed high up in the air with the back end facing my car, ready to douse my poor Leganza in a healthy dose of stank. Thankfully there were no cars passing by me right then, so I swerved into the opposite lane to give it some space and I punched the gas to try and avoid any spraying. I must have given it enough room because it never sprayed me. Yet another close encounter with a skunk avoided. Thinking back on it, I have had quite a few. Maybe I will share the stories here sometime.

One last little note here. As I mentioned I finished my evening shoot with a handful of shots of a big fat, orange moon. Tomorrow night, June 30th, will be the second full moon of this month. That means that tomorrow night you can get away with things you normally wouldn’t by using the excuse that you only do it “Once in a Blue Moon” since the second full moon in a month is considered to be the “Blue Moon” cycle.

Enjoy the fine summer days in the great Northland Outdoors!