Party Week for the Deer

Deer live mostly boring lives.  They munch on stuff.  They drop little piles.  For the ones who are not dumb enough to jump in front of cars there are few major predators left.  They really only have complicated lives for two weeks out of 52.  Rifle hunting season, of course, and approximately the first week of November.

Bucks and Does don't interact much the rest of the year.  Our trail cams over the spring and summer show sweet little families of moms and fawns.  And loosely organized gangs of bucks.  The latter just seem to hang out together.  Critter Bros.

But one week out of the year the deer go hormonally insane.  They run around, chasing each other, heedless of danger or consequences.  For instance:

Yesterday coming up to hunt I saw a six point buck loitering around the four way stop near our cabin.  Broad daylight.  Today I saw him again, same spot, 10 am.  Hah, I figured, I'll just set up there.  Sitting around for a fair bit of time...nuthin.  Gave up, walked out and started putting stuff in my car.  And saw a doe run across the road with Bucky in hot pursuit.  Heading right where I had been.  Here's what he was seein'

This by the way is the first AI generated image I've ever used.  The parameters are: show me a cartoon deer with lots of cheap makeup.  I specifically said not to use anything under copyright by a gigantic media and theme park corporation.  I don't wanna cross the Doom Mouse and his lawyers.  Even if the mother of a certain beloved character was a round hoofed floozy.

Well its been a bit frustrating but I remind myself that this is just the second year I've bow hunted, and my success last year may have been a fluke.  The learning goes on.