The white-tailed deer hunting season here ended last month and I saw only one buck then – briefly, within heavy woods, and I didn’t get a good shot of him (with a camera). So, of course, I’m now seeing bucks all over the place, including open areas.
This young buck ambled slowly through our south field Friday, saw me, and didn’t change his slow pace. I would guess that he’s about one and a half years old, judging from his small antlers and other signs (disproportionately-long legs, relatively tight stomach, hardly any leg gland stains, etc.).
As you probably know, those are temporary bones grown on his head, not permanent horns like those on cattle and goats. He’ll be shedding that antler rack sometime between now and early spring.
It looks like he has six “points” (three on each side) of his rack. A projection out of the “beams” (the two major arm-like bones) of the rack usually is eligible to be counted as a point if it extends at least an inch out of the beam with that length exceeding the projection’s width by one or more inches. A beam tip is counted as a point, but not measured as one. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on January 5, 2024.)