However, you may remember I had moved a few cameras over buck scrapes. I was alittle late in the season for a lot of activity at a scrape, but I had hoped for the best. I did get a few individuals that came by and checked the scrapes out in the week that I had the cameras over them...but the angle was bad. Thus, I didn't get the perfect picture of a buck scraping and rubbing an overhead branch.
This doesn't mean that there hasn't been stuff going on. The rut must be underway and I've finally seen the Brute hanging around after no sign of him for a coupla months. He's been all over and I've gotten him in two locations on-site.
First, a little Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) stops by. The pic is washed out becuase he was so close the camera. Introduced or not....I can't help but smile when I get pics of these little canines....
...and here he is (or at least here's a Red Fox) near the other scrape I was hoping for some activity at....
Below is a completely new location I started monitoring two weeks ago. A woodland path. Lots of deer activity. Also a Coyote (Canis latrans). His coat appears to be thickening nicely in preparation for winter....
This picture of a doe is the one that got me to thinking the rut must be in full swing here. Her hide looks to be alittle roughed up at the back end. Perhaps it's from brush she's pushed through, but I wonder if this isn't due to the advances of resident males.......
The "broke-horn" (more correctly, the "broke-antler") male also passes by here. Not sure if he lost his right antler in a bout of some kind (perhaps with the Brute?)...or if perhaps this is a developmental abnormality.
But the Brute is clearly the "Big Deer on Campus". Here is a picture of his backside. Head high, tail up... In this picture, I imagine him chasing a female or investigating a rival male that must be ousted....
...and again this morning, not long before the dog, the kid and I came up to the camera.....
Lots of deer activity out behind the house. Very interesting because we have a relatively small woodland fragment....surrounded by a sea of agriculture and occasional wooded strips along riparian corridors or between rural houses within a five mile radius. I guess this little fragment is about the best thing around and the critters congregate here. It would be interesting to compare species diversity within fragments of different sizes on the landscape to see if they support MacArther and Wilson's theory of Island Biogeography.
-sigh-
If only there was unlimited time and money.......
Further Reading:
MacArthur and Wilson, 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ.
I am trying to turn this deer into a different individual than the one featured in the original Brute posting. I should warn you all that I have an active imagination when it comes to antlers and I am ALWAYS trying to create new deer.... But look at just the brow tines. The Brute has some distinctive bending there and I do not see that on the deer in this post. Again, I am not convinced they are different but it seems worth a discussion :)
ReplyDeleteNICE shots. Especially those last two.
ReplyDelete