The Rut Begins

The Whitetail pre-rut is kicking into gear here in southcentral Pennsylvania. Bucks are now scraping, checking their scrapes and following does in hopes of finding one in estrus.

The young buck pictured here is exhibiting the classic flehmen behavior. For a full description of this and for much better photographs of a huge buck exhibiting visit my brother Willard's blog.

For those of you, who live and drive in whitetail territory, drive carefully as the deer are becoming much more active particularly at dusk, dawn and throughout the night. Few things will ruin your day or the deer’s much quicker than to be driving when in your peripheral vision you see a flash of brown followed by a sickening crash. The damage they can do to an automobile is incredible not to mention the damage to the deer itself.

Drive carefully and enjoy the Rut, the most interesting time of the year in Whitetail Country.