Deer

Throughout my life I've seen plenty of deer.

Probably an equal number alive as dead.  Struck by cars, of course, them dead one.  And most of the live ones I have seen while I was also sitting in a car.  Not all.  Call it 40% road kill, 40% alive but I I spied em through car glass.  The other 20% in parks and hikes and hunting and whatnot.  Out walking around.

That's probably pretty typical.  We moderns cover a lot of ground in our cars.  Hard to spot deer sitting in a cubicle at an office 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

With the hundreds of deer I have seen in my life, I rarely see deer with antlers.  I think older bucks are more wily, except when they are horny.  And of the antlers I have spotted, none are truly spectacular racks.  Either big racks are rare, or deer able to grow em are smart and reticent of roads or a combination of both.  I see a lot more does with yearlings

But yesterday morning was the first time I saw a buck with antlers that had velvet on the antlers.  It was standing on the shoulder of an off ramp and though better of crossing the road so ducked back.  He was maybe a two year old?  Three?  The antlers got a few inches past maximum ear length.