Mule deer buck with antlers "in the velvet"

Mule deer shed their antlers yearly and regrow them. During this regrowth process they are covered in what is termed "velvet", which is actually skin with a lot of blood vessels. These blood vessels provide the minerals and vitamins necessary to build new bone for the antlers.
This pic shows a nice sized mule deer buck with his antlers in velvet. I think he is quite the attractive guy and can see how he will do well at attracting the cow deer this fall when they go into the "rut" (or mating season).
SeEtta

More pics from Snow Goose Festival

The top photo shows our keynote speaker, Pete Dunne, giving a program on "pishing". In this photo he is demonstrating hwo to use your fingers to make scolding calls. Both of the programs he gave, "The Art of Pishing" and "25 Things that Changed Birding", were excellent. He is a great speaker, very knoledgeable and entertaining, and an amazing birder.


The bottom photo is of one of the MULE (not white-tailed as I had originally noted) deer that hang out in the Lamar Woods area. They seem to wonder what we birders are doing especially when we make pishing noises and mimic bird calls when they are around. The motel I stay in, the Blue Spruce, is located adjacent to the Lamar Woods area and these deer spent the night in the yard of the motel and I found them bedded down there when I took my dogs out before we went to bed.
SeEtta