A Touch of Velvet

Some of this year's fawns are still waiting to be dumped out into the sunlight, (The doe that feeds outside our door was on the near side of the pond as I was taking these photos and hasn't dropped her fawn yet.) but these guys are already gearing up for next fall's round of mating.

There were about a half dozen of the lads over on the other side of the pond this morning.



If you look close you can see that I caught this one in mid-chew with his lower jaw cocked to his left (Our right) and his eyes half closed.



And I guess it was my day for catching unflattering poses. I'm not sure what this near-spike was doing. Coughing? Maybe singing an aria?



But I wasn't going to run on over there to get signed releases for the photos. Especially from this guy who I'm pretty sure was hollering at me to knock it off and put the camera down.

Though the bucks are always more standoffish than the does, (Based on my own experience I surmise that having testes automatically imparts a confusing sense of bravado and guilt so they tend to keep their distance.) at this time of year they are pretty gentle and gregarious, hanging out a lot with their buddies, but come fall rut they're going to turn into lads in the English sense, which is synonymous with football(soccer) ruffians, and will be kicking ass and - well - just plain bitchy!!