The Deer Woods Reacts To Our Rain Spell

I watched the weeklong rainfall every day, wanting the rain to stay longer, or at least bring water enough to wake up the sun parched land and bring out the underlying green of native grasses and plaster some leaves on the dry brush and trees, young and old.

It took two days for the change to begin.

Deer came out during the daytime, munching leaves and twigs.

Lots of deer were depleted from our recent sizzling, dry and waterless months. I chronicled their story with a combination of my Minolta and iPhone. Below is a doe walking along a old and rusty fenceline.

Every new day was noticeably greener as new growth crept into view.

I stalked along the woods edges and fence lines. I covered a wide area and saw how tough the drought and heat had been on the does.

ABOVE: A Fawn keeps an eye on me as I slip in closer and leave with its picture.

BELOW: The field across from my home is greening up, slowly but steadily.

A young buck walks past, either without noticing me or possibly not caring this time of year.

Here is a different buck chewing on the new green growth that grows along a fence line. The faint streaks of green on the ground are new natural grass.

Notice the ribs showing on this underweight, shinny legged doe below.

The young buck returns to the same place the next day and I get another picture of him.

Normally, this time of the year, I would’ve already seen several velvet racked bucks, but not in this year’s 100 degree scalding mid year heat. I’m sure they were in the area but they weren’t walking as far as the does and fawns were.

And I couldn’t have known it, but, the rain had conditions preparing to make a correction, I was gonna start seeing bucks regularly.