Yesterday my brother and his girlfriend and I went hiking in Payne’s Prairie and the nearby Sweetwater Wetland Park. Needless to say, we had a great time. I don’t get to see them often since they live in Anchorage, Alaska. Both of them work in outdoor conservation jobs and are avid birders as well, so they made me look like the amateur that I am. I really learned a lot and we made some interesting sightings. I took a lot of photos that will take me days to sort through and process before I post them here, but I ended the afternoon at dusk and my last sighting for the day was this young white tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). He was grazing at the edge of the woods that boarder the prairie itself and he was very attentive to me as I went by him. By moving slowly and keeping a good distance between us, I didn’t spook him and was able to take some nice photos of him. At the time I didn’t realize he was a buck, but if you enlarge the images you can actually see little horn buds on top of his head. I see deer just about every evening when I come home from work, but I rarely get to take photos of them since I’m driving. It was nice to see one when I was actually out looking for wildlife.