Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cookie's 2023 Fall Run (A Boatload of Pics)

Put up Cookie's camp (trailer and wall tent) in mid-Oct and she was out through Nov 21. Her focus (pun intended) is deer, but she'll snap pics of anything that walks, crawls, swims, flies, or digs in the earth. Had some good and bad days but she snapped thousands of images. Thank God we are past the film days. The price of diesel, however, still strains the budget. This will be assembled as a series, as there is limit on the number of images one can attach to a single post. A sampling of several thousand.

Sadly, seems the melanistic specimens are no longer about this year.

For those interested, Cookie runs around with Canon gear relying mostly on a 100-400 mm zoom and a 500 mm prime when there's a need to reach out. EOS 70D, 5D, and 7D bodies.

First, a 2 by 4. Seems both he and the lady he's pursuing have lost the tips of their tails


A 4 by 3 packing a cheater. There will be a couple more images of him later in the series.


A 5 by 4. Not massive, but a good buck.


A couple of the baby guys that will shape the future.


A Kingfisher that rarely poses within camera range with a seriously bad hair day.


A buck crossing the river.


Three or four examples of what we term cactus bucks. I think most have reproductive plumbing issues, and once in a while such might be an antlered doe. They typically have larger than average bodies, can be backed down in a challenge by the smallest of fawns, are loaners, and never hustle the ladies.

A couple more cacti with the second having sort of an axis configuration.




One of the two campground bucks that hustled the local ladies. An apple dump in the morning would bring in the does, and a buck or two would usually follow.


Pretty easy to run them down on any given day.


A couple guys exhibiting their challenge postures. Ears back, some circling, and a little grunting warns one of a potential scrap.


This guy was about early on, but it was about 3 weeks into Cookie's run before he came within camera range. A substantial neck on this one.



A no intro needed coyote. Not many around this year, as I think our rodent population is down.

As always ,,great stuff.
I really enjoy the quality of her efforts.

Cool pics

Awesome pics.

I always enjoy checking them out when you post them.

Thanks again

A buck crossing the river


and doe and fawn doing the same.


Taking time for a drink


Cookie got pics of this guy in velvet in July, but it took almost 3 weeks to find him again this fall. He'd moved about 5 or 6 miles south of his summer haunts. Not tall, but a lot of width.
July


Oct/Nov




We were surprised one evening to see another buck around willing to take him on. There was no posturing with these two, as they simply approached head on almost at a run and got it going.

Love the drop tine buck!

Very cool!

🦫

It was a pretty good scrap, with Cookie being frustrated due to packing too much glass (500 mm). She was about 30 yds away from the action and could not back out quick enough to capture more of the scene. Got some good shots never the less. In the image below, one can see a detached antler tip just above a right ear. Pretty sure it came from the challenging 4 by. She was unaware of the breakage until she got home and started through the series.



Another 5 by 4


and another of the larger forkies.


Some of the regular 4by's.




And a Magpie on a doe. It pays to watch those birds in big country, as they often drop down to reveal the presence of deer hiding in thick cover.

Just a midday break in the shade.


A charging muskrat


Was this guy an optimist or what? Talk about outclassed! Had to be, as he got into about a 30 second go around.


Looks like a great way to endure some eye damage if one is not careful.


There is a nearby apple orchard that usually had some early AM and PM visitors. Brow tine configuration is a good way to sort them out

Owl in a neaby barn. Today's digital cameras do an amazing job in rather dark environments.


Just a couple bucks eyeing the same doe.



Immature Red Tail. Appearance of being hit in the chest with a snowball is the ID give away.


A couple Ringnecks.



Moving out.


And a couple images of a rather strange brow tine configuration for a muley.

What great photos! Does Cookie work for National Geographic?

Same buck slightly closer up.


Was able to read the collar (Θ64) and turn it in. A 14-year-old swan that was actually collared in this same pond as a hatchling.


A couple 3 by's



and the 4 by three that had the go around with the forkie.


A weak 5 by


and a shot of a wide but wimpy 3 by.

Moving out at a trot.


Have a good one,

I don't really post all that much...but thanks for taking the time to post all these. Your photos are a real treat for us flatlanders.

Excellent photos. Thanks for posting!


RS

OUTSTANDING !!!!!!!!!! I haven't been any further East than Bend in OR

Excellent photography, and Tell Cookie thanks for sharing with us once again. And thank you for posting them.

Great pics, Thanks for posting these.

Cookie’s awesome.

Though her natural ability to get close and take these pics does suggest your own lack of such ability to shoot some of these animals, since I’ve never seen a hunt pic.