We had some welcome house guests during our family Black Hills retreat last weekend. As I rolled into the driveway I saw a doe hanging out behind the deck, and sprang out with my camera without even unlocking the house and dashed to the backyard.

As it turns out, there were two does as well as two bucks and two fawns. With ample grazing in the yard (and apple trees over the deck) they were always rummaging about in the morning and evening.

Of course, after climbing all over the side of the mountain that suffices as a backyard, I realized that it was teeming with poison ivy.

I’ve had poison ivy so many times that it doesn’t even really bother me any more. I had one itchy spot on my ankle for a few days and, since I didn’t scratch it, it didn’t spread. I was tempted a few times but stayed strong.

I wish I had this kind of luck with human subjects; the deer posed so nicely and, since they’re deer, remained relatively still. Since we were throwing them apples from the trees by the deck from time to time, we didn’t appear to pose much of a threat.

The fawns were the most skittish, the hardest to find, and the least likely to approach the house. I only saw them a few times and they rarely left me an opportunity to point the camera at them. When not moving they blended into the background so well that they were hard to spot even when near.

Since we pretty much left them alone and there was plenty of good grazing around, they hung out with us for the week. They seemed to be okay with me wandering around nearby with my camera as long as the fawns were hidden.

I’ve pretty much had my fill of deer photos now, except I wouldn’t mind having a nice close-up session with the fawns again sometime. Unfortunately they weren’t about to give me that opportunity this time around. Maybe next time. Until then, I’m pretty satisfied with my little mountainside deer-chasing adventure.

It looks like I may have interrupted lunch…notice the remnants of a raptor snack on the horizontal fence post. This particular bird didn’t look to enthused to have me stopping the truck nearby, and took off shortly after this shot. He sure looked pretty scraggly with his feathers wet and matted! I think it made him look even more stern and cranky than a hawk usually looks.

It sure was a soaker last Saturday; when I’d get out of the truck in the middle of a rural Morton County gravel road, I’d leave footprints. Yes, a lot of four wheel drive was employed. I credit the cold, soggy day for the hawk’s reluctance to simply fly away as soon as I got close. Most of the other ones I saw that day were gone as soon as I began to slow down.