Deer Hunting

There is a sanctioned deer hunt at Crosby Farm today through Wednesday. I discovered this when I went there for a relaxing afternoon walk on a fine November day. The road block and the sign on the post said that the park is closed for an archery season. I took that as a sign to go elsewhere for my relaxing walk in the forest. The alternative is the state park across the river from Crosby, Fort Snelling State Park and the island in the river system where the Minnesota River merges with the Mississippi. The park was open and I drove towards Pike Island, passing a flock of wild turkeys on the way. I wasn't able to stop for a photo, but they were beauties. I decided I'd hunt deer with my camera. I had my telephoto lens on my best camera and it seemed like a good project for the afternoon. It took about five minutes before the buck in the photo below ambled in my general direction and I stood in place and took about thirty photos before he passed me and disappeared into the brush. Neither one of us was frightened and no blood was spilled.

I continued up the west side of the island for another ten minutes or so and encountered a doe grazing in the forest on tender plants, the ones which have not yet frozen. She was pretty tame and stayed as I took another twenty or so photos of her activities. I was even able to get a bit closer to her without scaring her, and after a while she decided to trot off across a clearing to thicker cover. Again no blood was spilled, but I figure that I bagged two deer today. The doe at Pike Island:

As I left Pike Island I passed another guy with a big lens taking photos of another buck. I glimpsed a pretty big set of antlers in the brush. I crept by without taking any photos, leaving the big buck for him. I had already filled out my license.