Horn Pond At Dusk

 

    Every fall, I tend to put in a lot of effort trying to go after rutting whitetail bucks. I have plenty of trail camera videos, and photos of bucks, but the photos are all of bucks while they still have the velvet layer on their antlers, which in my opinion, is less aesthetic than the very famous, hardened antlers that they display in the fall.

    I decided to make a trip to horn pond after I got out of class at Massbay. I had seen whitetail bucks there in the spring, when their antlers were just beggining to grow. These bucks were also very comfortable with humans, and would allow me to approach to around 20 feet before they would flush. Very good for photography.  

                                            (Photos from May 6th and April 25th, 2023)

I parked and immediately headed for one of the bedding areas that I had seen deer in during the spring. Deer beds are sheltered locations that are used as daytime resting places for whitetail deer, since they are mostly nocturnal, and sleep during the day. I stirred up a large buck as I entered the area of the deer bed! he began to run. There was a thick wall of glossy buckthorn plants between me and the buck, so even when he happened to pause for a moment and let me take a picture before launching himself away, into thick brush, the photo was ruined...

I attempted to track him, and encountered the deer a couple more times, but he quickly became agitated, and started to put more distance between himself and me, and eventually he must have left the peninsula that the bed was on, because I couldn't find him anywhere. I gave up after about 15 minutes, and decided to check an area called "The Pines" by hikers Ive talked to. I still had about an hour left until sunset.

"The Pines" are the most common roosting area for Horn Pond's pair of barred owls. They are also featured in this post: Barred Owls And Falcons In Woburn, MA. I scanned the canopy for the dark, oval shape of a sleeping owl. At first, as I entered the grove, I did not find anything, but when I walked up the trail, I saw a dark spot in the top of one of the pines. There was an owl, just beginning to stir.

It's mate was nearby, in another tree. It was much closer to the ground, which made for better photos, but it lacked the protection of the thick pine branches that only grow high up in the canopy. as a result, it was getting mobbed by blue jays from another tree. The owl just glanced around, probably hoping the annoying birds would keep their distance...

Eventually, it had enough. The mobbed owl flew to another branch, In a pitch pine, and was followed by it's mate. They only stayed there for a minute, though, and then the owl that had been mobbed moved to a tree stump...

 Then, it flew again, and landed on a low pine branch. It was about 10 feet off the ground..

Then it chose a maple, flying into a thicker, darker part of the pines that was more swampy...

The sun had set. I decided to leave the pair of barred owls alone, and work more towards my original goal. Deer like to come out of the woods, and feel safe in open areas, like fields when the sun goes down. I headed in the direction of the golf course. I had seen deer herds congregating on the course in the evening before, back in Spring. I did not see any deer at first, when I emerged from the woods. Just a bunch of canada geese, and a great blue heron, gathered around an artificial pond. I decided to focus on the heron, and take vertical images...

as you can see, it was already getting very dim.

I was lying down in the grass, holding my camera sideways, and tilting my head for the vertical photos. Completely tuned out from what was going on around me. All of a sudden, I heard a golfer yell a warning at me. The entire flock of geese erupted into flight, honking and squeaking in a panic. I was confused for a second, and then immediately spun around and started snapping photo after photo, as fast as I could hit the button, as the perpetrator came into focus...

 

for a second, I thought someone's dog had gotten off the leash. It charged in my direction, as the geese flew over my head, and into the sky, glad to have escaped. When the coyote noticed me crouched in the grass, it took a sharp right turn, and started to trot across the green, away from me...

...After running, stopping breifly to stare at me, and continuing to retreat into the woods, it was gone. I had a feeling that it would pass through the wooded strip, and pop out the other side, in another section of the golf course, so I ran around the trees to the other side, and waited. 

I quickly noticed a small herd of deer browsing near the edge of the green (2 does, and a fawn).

I stayed very far away from them, mainly because I was still busy scanning the entire tree line nonstop for the coyote. I was not seeing any movement at all.

Suddenly, the fawn's mother jolted, like she was startled, and her white tail went up, but she was not even looking in my direction anymore. She was keeping her eye on something further up the hill.

The coyote had somehow managed to sneak past me, and run across the green without me even noticing! 

Coyotes have been known to occasionally predate on whitetail deer. This usually only happens though with very young fawns, and injured/exhausted adult deer, so the doe did have a pretty good reason for being cautious. The coyote realized that I had spotted it, it started running at full speed back towards the other half of the golf course. 

I decided to leave, and let it hunt in peace. In my opinion, this is the best photo i've ever taken. I have wanted a good shot of a coyote ever since I started wildlife photography. The photo above is an absolute dream shot for me. This also inspired me to start spending more time and money on going after large mammals, and expanding my mammals portfolio.