Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A friendly charge

This experience got the ticker revvin' a bit. After spending some time on the beach with the semipalmated plovers, I decided to head back to the car. As I walked down the east side of the dune, I found a lovely female deer who curiously watched me but decided not to run right away. By this time, I had already put away my tripod, so I decided to pull it back out and see if she'd stay around for a bit. Well, to my luck she did and as I made my way down to the junction of the beach access trail and the side trail that goes down the estero, I noticed this gorgeous buck who was likely checking me out for a while.

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I felt a bit nervous to be lined up in his 6-point sights, but he seemed content just to sniff the air in my direction. Conveniently, I was standing right in front of a bench, so I figured I would sit down, set up the tripod, and see what happens -- it seemed to make more sense than continuing back towards the car, which was in the same direction that the doe had gone.

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After he posed for a few shots, the doe had wandered further off and he had a decision to make. What he chose, was to run straight at me!

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Now, he didn't do this in a threatening manner, but all I could picture was some of those "when animals attack" videos I saw when I was younger....

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And I started to wonder just a little, if I made the right decision of not heading back to the beach

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Thankfully, after getting my adrenaline flowing and before I had to dive under the bench, he veered off the path and into the bushes -- but first stopping to give me this perfect pose.

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4 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your blog, Pat. And these are a couple of great posts to get it going. What an encounter you had with this handsome fellow, and an amazing series of shots.

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  2. Thanks, John and Cheryl. I think having this blog will be a fun project, and I hope you enjoy it too!

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  3. Love your blog Pat!
    I can't imagine the rush of seeing a buck heading toward you.
    Excellent shots!

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  4. Thanks, Dawn! I think it will be a fun experience to try to run the blog. And it was a rush to have him start coming straight at me down the trail -- if he got a bit closer, I would have been hiding under the bench - lol.

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