Late October Rut

Each year I hear people argue about when the rut "officially" begins.  Hunters try to schedule vacation time so they can be in the woods during peak buck activity, photographers do the same, hoping to catch rutting behavior through their viewfinder.  Fortunately, I am able to be in the outdoors every day and in this post I will share the images that I was able to capture over the last few days...

Bucks are moving a great deal more during daylight hours now. They are almost always trolling (walking with their noses to the ground in search of the scent of a doe in estrus), visiting licking branches and scrapes, or chasing does...

I really enjoy the early morning light as the sun is rising and the deer emerge from the shadows...

This floppy eared buck was photographed in the evening on the edge of dark...

 

For those of you interested in the technical photo data the photos above, and below, were taken at ISO 6400, f 5.6, shutter speed 1/160 second, 400 mm, hand held with vibration reduction set to "normal".

 

 

The sun illuminates this rub, a sign post that bucks are using the area...

I will finish this post with a series of photos taken yesterday at 1:05 p.m. Not the time of day one would normally expect to see deer running about, except during the rut...

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting, and happy Halloween!