This image from last spring shows a favorite buck of mine named “Goal Post” tasting the air. Usually when they lick their nose they are getting some taste information to augment their keen sense of smell in the big snout. Humans are stinky and noisy for sure lol.
“Goal Post” is known to me as a deer with his left brow tine absent in the growth. I instantly recognized him this spring and he was as tolerant of me this year as last… This is very early in his horn growth and he is actually a 4×5 as those horns finally developed. His sidekick “Slow Boat” was nearby in this image lol. They are like peas and carrots those two deer are. I have some AMAZING images from working those two. I can usually work very close to them.
No mistake though, they are wild bucks. They would flee in a heart beat if I stepped outside my rig.
Catching this behavior is usually luck or just really good timing because it happens really fast as you can see by the slightly blurred tongue and this was a 1/400th sec image lolol.
I’ve know quite a few of these deer since they were fawns and photographed most of them every year several times. I know many of them by name based on ear notches or horns (which doesn’ help in the winter at all lol.
Remember I’m mixing and matching seasons all winter reworking those images finished to current standards. I’ll mix a few in a day from the past with the rest current. I’m posting 6 a day at the moment every day.
Writing my narratives takes as much time as the rest of the phototaking process sometimes lololol.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.