Whitetail in Flight

So I think I see your reflection and maybe(?) the eye of the deer in the bushes?

Whitetail Doe playing Hide 'n' Seek




This is the flank and rump of the Whitetail Doe that is in the initial post, across the windshield, about midway up.

This is not the greatest of pictures, but it is an important part of the story.

The last thing I expected to see when I was roaming around the driveway, fiddling with the automatic satellite time setting feature of my camera, was a deer about twenty feet away.

She didn't spook right then, but hurriedly put the feed-mill truck between me and her, hence the rump shot.

With the truck between me and her, she started playing Hide 'n' Seek with me.

There is more to this story when I get the photos ready.

That old truck has plenty of stories of it's own as well; 1991 Dodge D350 6BT Cummins 5-speed; 600,000-miles plus; I am the 3rd owner.

When it was less than a week old, it was stolen from it's original owner and later found about half-a-mile out in a lake-covered bottom, in about six inches of water, still running wide open with a cement block on the accelerator; the rear wheels slinging water and mud furiously.

The 30-gallon tank was full when the truck was stolen and it still had about a 1/4-tank when it was found.

Running full throttle for such an extended time did not harm the diesel engine; had it have been a gas burner, it probably would been the death of it.

The consensus was that the thieves thought the water would be deep enough to sink the truck; what they didn't know was that it was a level corn bottom that the unusually high lake waters had backed up over and was about the same depth all over the field.

They also did not know very much about trucks; there was absolutely no need for the cement block on the accelerator, as there is a dash-mounted locking throttle cable that will hold the throttle wherever you wish, from idle to wide open.

Sunday_07-November-2021

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is why they are called Whitetail.

When I snuck around the back end of the cattle trailer, I knew that deer was just on the other side and close against the trailer.

I had the camera up and ready when I peered around the end of the trailer and was immediately on the deer and snapping off shots; and, look how far away she has already got in the millisecond that it took me to react.

Those bright spots of light are the late evening sun burning through the gaps in the trees behind me.

I snapped fourteen photos of the deer in flight; according to the timestamps, the action lasted a mere 4-1/2 seconds from the first photo to the last.

Sunday_07-November-2021