7 point buck (Fremont, NY 11/12) |
We paced the distance as we walked up on his buck. 193 yards. I snapped a few photos of my proud papa and then got down to the messy work. Truth is, I enjoy gutting a deer (or any animal for that matter). Besides being "The Eviscerator" I am also the butcher. But the reward is venison for us and a carcass for the camera trap.
I selected a location in our short hedgerow simply becuase it was close enough to the house to check easily. The carcass has been out for several weeks now and the cast of characters has not changed.
THE DAY SHIFT: The diurnal crew is all-avian. A murder of crows and a single red-tail hawk. I have up to seven crows in one frame but the one below is my favorite.
THE NIGHT SHIFT: The nocturnal crew is decidedly furrier and toothier. I call them the Dust Mop and the Powder Puff.
Dust Mop -- This was the first image of the opossum that I obtained and it was so unglamorous that I had to laugh. The poor opossum has quite the image problem already without me plastering unflattering photos all over the internet.
To be fair, let's have a look at a good hair day:
Opossum on deer carcass (Seneca Falls, NY 11/12) |
An unexpected benefit of the carcass is that Powder Puff is no longer tearing our lawn to shreds in search of grubs. This is clearly the same skunk from a previous post.
For weeks, the day and night shifts never crossed paths. No skunk or opossum photos in the day and obviously no crow or hawk photos at night. But in addition, the night shift and day shift didn't intermingle within their respective tours of duty. Not surprisingly, no photos of hawk and crow appeared and no photos of skunk and opossum were captured. But that changed recently. A few nights ago, numerous photos of Dust Mop and Powder Puff in what I would like to believe is a tentative detante.
Opossum and striped skunk (Seneca Falls, NY 11/12) |
Nice buck! And loving the title of the entry.
ReplyDeleteNice job on the back straps!!! you didnt leave much for the critters, the skunk seems upset about it
ReplyDeleteAlso through excellent education I can tell that the possum has been through at least one winter.
ReplyDeleteSo, no signs of frostbite? Agreed... :)
DeleteI love the "pattern" on that skunk.....the almost all white back is cool looking.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, I will bookmark and be back again
Dust Mops
Thanks for the interest!
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