Waking up early has many advantages. For one, I get to hear an awakening of birds and to watch as a local Turkey vulture seeks an updraft that will carry it skyward in search of late winter’s spoils.

This particular morning is as rewarding as any. 

A lone White-tail doe walks through that space between earth and sky, today blurred by a light fog that loosely hugs the ground.

She hasn’t yet seen me and so feels safe to search out newly sprouting broadleaf plants, probably a nice change from the woody brush that has seen her through winter’s famine.  

I watched quietly from behind an apple tree.

A moment later she is joined by another.

The noise of my camera has given me away. I have been seen.

I zoom in for a closer look as the sun peaks over a faraway hill.

As I remain frozen the two dear, nervously, return to eating.

Soon they follow their urge to flee, lifting the tail that gives their kind their name.  With a flash of white. they disappear over the hillside.  

But this time it isn’t me who frightens the deer.  A pair of bucks have entered the field, one with a right antler still attached. The left one has apparently fallen off.

White-tail deer (Notice the right dear still has its left antler - a small one)

These two are quick to notice me and soon lop out of the scene, leaving me alone to enjoy the morning.

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