An Encounter with Deer in Washington, D.C.
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A white-tailed deer looks back at the camera before entering the woods.
At first glance, the photograph above could have been taken in any wooded area that contains plentiful wildlife. There is one sign that it may not be from a rural location, and that is the bright spot in the upper left corner of the picture. To the casual observer it may be easily overlooked, or wrongly attributed to the sky, but in fact it is a car rounding the bend and headed south on Massachusetts Avenue, NW in Washington.
Continue reading for more deer photos and a little information about these urban-dwelling wildlife.
A deer looks at the camera while seeming to smile as a D.C. Metro bus passes on Massachusetts Avenue in the background.
While D.C. ranks much lower than our neighbors in Virginia and Maryland on the likelihood-of-hitting-a-deer list, the odds and numbers of deer have gone up since last year. Plenty of deer do reside in the city, mainly in Rock Creek Park as well as the woods connected to the park. Lively discussion has re-emerged recently regarding management of the deer population in the city.
I have personally witnessed deer a handful of times over the past few years, but this was the first time I have seen them during the day while having a camera on me. I came across them around 6 p.m., just south of Observatory Circle on Massachusetts Avenue.
Previously looking for some early fall color, I had to quickly adjust settings on my camera to grab a few photos before they disappeared back into the trees.
Two deer are seen with traffic in the background.
A deer emerges from the woods prior to the previous shots being taken. I had to adjust camera settings further, eventually to ISO 800, to enable faster shutter speeds.
By Ian Livingston |
October 12, 2009; 12:30 PM ET
Photography
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Posted by: eric654 | October 12, 2009 12:59 PM
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eric654, interesting. I had to Google "rut". ;-) Oddly enough I saw some more yesterday while out with my camera, but they were on the Observatory grounds and I did not feel like trying to stand at the gate with my zoom lens.. no need to draw attention to myself, haha.
Posted by: Ian-CapitalWeatherGang | October 12, 2009 4:22 PM
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I have found it far more challenging to get close-up photos of bucks compared to does or fawns. Nice shots Ian!
Posted by: Kevin-CapitalWeatherGang | October 12, 2009 5:06 PM
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Since abandoning MetroFAIL, I have been commuting to work through Rock Creek Park (via Military and Missouri). I must see deer grazing near the road every other day. They seem completely acclimated to traffic.
Posted by: WashingtonDame | October 12, 2009 6:27 PM
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Since abandoning MetroFAIL, I have been commuting to work through Rock Creek Park (via Military and Missouri). I must see deer grazing near the road every other day. They seem completely acclimated to traffic.
Posted by: WashingtonDame | October 12, 2009 6:27 PM
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4 legged locusts... Baah.
I also find it amusing that all the pictures are of bucks when I find the vast majority of what I see out here in Loudoun are either immature males or does.
Posted by: tws1372 | October 12, 2009 7:45 PM
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Thanks, Kevin. They were actually fairly easy going. I was able to walk around them enough to get the (difficult contrast) photo with traffic behind and they did not mind too much. I just looked back at EXIF data for the first shot and was surprised the shutter speed was only 1/15 second at ISO 800 at 300mm zoom. Image stabilization helps for sure. If I was better prepared I could have used flash but that may have spooked them and I didn't have the external one on me.
Posted by: Ian-CapitalWeatherGang | October 12, 2009 7:52 PM
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No PM Update today?
Posted by: natsncats | October 12, 2009 8:00 PM
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@natsncats
No PM Update on weekends and holidays -- unless there's severe weather.
Posted by: CapitalWeatherGang | October 12, 2009 9:01 PM
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You know, after I posted my question I remembered it was a holiday (slapping forehead) -- didn't feel like one to me, since I had to work! Thanks CWG ;-)
Posted by: natsncats | October 12, 2009 9:05 PM
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Nice shots, is that a tongue in the last shot? Here's a shot of a buck lying down in our yard. Bucks lose their antlers in the winter and when they regrow, they are felty before that gets rubbed off.
My wife and I hit a doe near Rectortown a few years ago. The deer ran off, but we had some damage to the car. About a month ago, there was a motorcycle accident on Rte 55 in the morning with a motorcyclist and deer both down.
In weather news, we were in the 40s all day today. Low last night 41.4. High today 49.1. Currently 46.0.
Posted by: spgass1 | October 12, 2009 9:49 PM
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spgass1, cool photo. Yes, that was a tongue in the last shot. I included it because of the tongue more than anything. They seemed to be "panting" when they came out of the woods.
Posted by: Ian-CapitalWeatherGang | October 12, 2009 10:40 PM
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You should substitute bucks for deer in your captions. That is somewhat important because in a month or so they will be in rut and do completely unpredictable things, like suddenly jump out into traffic.