Prairie Coyote with Prey - and Watching Deer - near Regina, SK

Its gray-brown, winter-furred body low to the ground, the coyote digs in snow and emerges with...

Coyote with lunch in a snow-covered field near Lumsden, SK  © SB

Lunch?

Whatever that straw-covered, maroon blob in its mouth may be, it looks bloodied and, well, edible.

If you were a coyote, that is. A hungry coyote, prowling a field surrounded by trees, where deer stood in the shadows and watched you.

Two deer watch as the coyote passes by.   © SB

Deer. Danger Passed. Relax. Oops - there's still that photographer...  © SB

What are these? A Coyote, and two White-tailed Deer 
Location: Near Lumsden, north of Regina, Saskatchewan

Photo dates: April 1, 2014. 

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White-tailed Deer: Hunting Season (Is it safe to come out???)

I don't know when hunting season opens — nor do I want to know, as I'm far from convinced that shooting animals with anything other than cameras is a good thing — but this White-tailed Deer seems deeply, and probably justifiably, concerned!

This doe was photographed with two fawns in Cypress Hills Inter-provincial Park (Alberta and Saskatchewan), as she and her young — one tan, one grey — wandered through a deserted and closed-for-the-season campground.

A White-tailed Deer, a doe, hiding
(less than successfully( behind a tree...  © SB

What is this? A White-tailed Deer — a doe, mother of two fawns. 

Location: Near the edge of the West Block, Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park (Alberta and Saskatchewan) .
Photo date: October 10, 2013.

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Herd of Mule Deer in the Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan

On the weekend, we saw a herd of Mule Deer foraging on the hills of the Qu'Appelle Valley — an interesting change from the White-tailed Deer we've seen several times lately.

Mule Deer grazing in the Qu'Appelle Valley. © SB

To me, Mule Deer look grayer than the more common White-tails, but there are other, more prominent differences:

• Mule deer's ears are enormous, well, like the ears of the mules they are named for. 
• They don't have as prominently white eye-rings as White-tailed Deer. 
• Their tails are thin and more ropelike with black tips — and are not raised like white warning flags when they're startled and run. 

Line of Mule Deer walking up the hill. © SB

Mule Deer, Saskatchewan, Canada.  © SB

Not obvious at a glance is that fact that these are true Western deer, said to more abundant in the southwest of the province, while White-tailed Deer are widespread across Saskatchewan and most of North America.


What are these? Mule Deer.

Location: Near Craven, Saskatchewan, Canada.  

Photo dates: April 13, 2013.

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White-tail Deer of Deer Valley, Saskatchewan

Out driving, looking for deer this week, we found these White-tail Deer in the aptly named Deer Valley, near Lumsden, Saskatchewan.

The deer watch me as, elbows and lens propped on a distant snowbank, I take a telephoto shot. © SB

The deer are watchful, cautious. They don't look like they approve of human incursions, even (especially?) at the edge of this new real estate venture — an area marketed with their name and body parts (Whitetail Ridge, Deer Point Place), where their wild majesty may soon be seen only as an annoying intrusion into gardens and golf.

Yes, the lowland where they are feeding will be a golf course again once the snow clears and the land dries out. Lush valley bottom claimed for human recreation...

Try to ignore the natural world if you will. But it is here, hidden perhaps and unnoticed. But watching...

What are these? White-tail deer.
Location: Near Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Photo dates: March 14, 2013. 

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White-tailed Deer in the Qu'Appelle Valley

As I drove around a bend in the Seven Bridges Road towards Lumsden, Saskatchewan, three White-tailed deer bounded out from among the hay bales in a nearby field. I slowed down. The deer ran a short distance along the road ahead of me, their white tails high and feathery. And then, one by one, the deer stopped to watch me.

White-tailed deer, watching.   © SB 

What is this? White-tailed deer.

Location: Near Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada (on Seven Bridges Road/Lumsden). 

Photo date: February 4, 2013. 

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White-Tailed Deer at Grasslands National Park

This White-tailed deer watched from the wildflowers as we drove along the Frenchman River Valley Ecotour through Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan this summer.

White-tailed deer.  © SB

What is this deer? White-tailed deer

Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.

Photo date:  June 23, 2012.

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White-tailed deer: Condie Nature Refuge

Warily watching... © SB 

Condie Nature Refuge, Regina, Saskatchewan: A young, still spotted, white-tailed deer watched as I drove through Condie today, its large tail a banner as it ran to the shelter of trees and then back across the field to the lower land beside the creek.  

The tail is certainly a marker for these deer; it's so different from the mule deer we saw at Grasslands National Park.

White-tailed deer at Condie Nature Refuge © SB 

What is this? A young white-tailed deer. 
Location: Condie Nature Refuge, near Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Photo Date: August 27, 2011. 

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