Peek-A-Boo Deer

After dropping my daughter off at school the other day, I had a little bit of time and wanted to enjoy the cool weather. I didn't have enough time to drive to my hunting locations, so I decided to go for a hike. For the sake of brevity, I'll fast forward...


As I was walking along the trail, I approached a bend where another trail branches off. I glanced over and there was a doe standing in the fork of the two trails. I immediately froze and she cautiously walked into the trees while keeping her eyes on me. I then noticed more movement and spotted a fawn. It was actually more like a "teenage" deer and probably born back in the spring.


The doe, fawn, and I played peek-a-boo through the tangle of limbs and trees while they tried to figure out what I was. I crouched down and kept the camera in front of my face. Fortunately, there was no breeze in their favor or they would have been gone in a heartbeat. When I first tried to take some pictures, my auto focus went bonkers because of all the stuff between me and the deer. It sounded like a Dremel tool with a short circuit. I switched to manual focus and it took me several seconds to locate the them in the viewfinder. Even on manual, it wasn't easy keeping the shots in focus.

After a few minutes of this "I see you", "you see me" game, the doe crossed the second trail and walked into the trees on the other side. The little one wasn't quite sure what to do at first, but finally followed Momma.

Like any smart whitetails worth their salt, these two got ahead of me in the woods and then popped back out on the trail to investigate again. The doe walked toward me for several yards and then decided enough was enough and disappeared into the adjoining meadow, once again leaving junior to figure out what to do.

It took a minute for the light bulb to come on, but when the fawn realized Momma was gone, he followed suit like he'd been shot out of a cannon! He reacted much faster than I could so the photo is quite blurry, but I had to include it.