Took this picture on the way into work this morning.  In a hayfield between my house and the university, I spotted this coyote perched up on top of a row of haybales.  Would have been an awesome photo opportunity if I had been armed with a long telephoto lens.  As coyotes go, he was awful shaggy looking and if I hadn’t been able to confirm it was a coyote with my binoculars I would have been doubtful that it was a coyote and not just a feral dog of sorts.

Adrian Bustle, a consistent follower of the blog, sent these pictures in of a white-tailed deer doe battling a bad case of the “warts”.  In this picture from 2008, some of the warts almost look as though they’ve developed into sores, especially the ones near her back.

3 months later, the same warts look to have scabbed back over.  The biggest wart (in the above picture) located near the deer’s brisket has been reduced greatly in size in the 2009 picture.

Great pictures Adrian.  I appreciate the awesome feedback.  It will be interesting to see her condition this fall.

Well, I left my fishing poles behind at the house in Auburn because of the predicted weather and rough seas.  Probably a wise decision.  Still had a great time though visiting my aunt and uncle who are “snowbirding” from Pennsylvania down at the Alabama Gulf Coast.

A few pictures from the weekend…

Pretty choppy for Gulf of Mexico standards.

Me looking contemplatively towards the ocean…probably thinking about what I was going to write about in today’s blog.

Me and my better half.

A few pictures from the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge

Nice walking trails.

Some low growing lichens.

Click below to see some great black racer and pelican photos.

Read the rest of this entry »

Buck slipping through a patch of thinned pines.

One of the biggest hornet’s nests I’ve ever seen.

Bits and pieces of a nice buck running through the timber.

Kara snapped this pretty picture when I took her down to the research site for the first time.

Hen turkey pecking her way through a field.

Well, I do live in Alabama now, so it is appropriate that I should post a few of the winning pictures from the Outdoor Alabama photo contest to accompany the NCWRC’s photo contest winners that I posted yesterday.

~Michael Heston

Passionflower ~ Nickey Jackson

White ibis ~ Terry Hartley

Green Tree Frog ~ David Cline

~ Jerry Foster

My favorite was this shot of a luna moth’s eyespots by James Hybart.

There is a bunch more pictures posted on the Outdoor Alabama website, just click the link.

Here is a buck I got on camera at the study site about 2 weeks ago.  Nice 3 year old probably, great potential.

Same buck, 2 weeks later, he’s going to have to take some fighting lessons in the off-season because he got his butt whooped!  I know the photos are small on blogs, but trust me…same deer.

You can see how fresh the break is on the brow tine.

The 2008 photography contest is over with the Wildlife in North Carolina magazine.  In the contest’s fourth year, over 6,000 pictures were submitted.

The grand prize winner

-photo courtesy of NCWRC

Jared Lloyd, Currituck County

-photo courtesy of NCWRC

James Jernigan, winner of the 13-17 category.

-photo courtesy of NCWRC

Teresa Koester, 12 and under category

Sachem skippers hovering around a thistle

Brown thrasher eggs

I sat in a stand down at the study site on Friday night to see if I could shoot a couple of deer with the camera.

My first “harvest” was this 8 pointer that stepped out of a thicket on my way to the stand.  He stayed there for 5 minutes until he looked over his shoulder, saw me pointing a camera at him from the top of the hill, and bolted.

My second victim of the night was this 8 pointer that came wandering through the green field I was sitting on.  That was the only deer that I saw in 2 hours, but watching him for 30 seconds was worth it. You hear people talk about “squinty eyes” as being a characteristic of mature deer.  This buck might show that trait better than any I’ve ever seen.

I had an extra camera the other week from our camera survey, so I hung it up on this big scrape.  It captured this great sequence of pictures made by a big rutting buck.  Remember, it is peak rut for these central Alabama deer and they are expending some serious energy trying to court the last remaining estrous does.

Right side profile

Left side profile

Committing to the scrape

Didn’t think he would be that committed.

One last sniff.

…with my camera this morning.  I had to travel down to my research site to change trail camera batteries and decided to leave a little early to see if I could catch some rutting action going on.  Armed with a camera, grunt tube, and rattling antlers, the hunt was on.  I was just about to where I wanted to sit along a hardwood ridge, when I saw this buck cruising the opposite hillside.  Grunting wouldn’t get his attention, but the antlers did.  He swung downhill and came in to only about 15 steps.  He let me snap 2 pictures, before he picked me out and ran off.  Pretty exciting moment.