Cookie was out camping from the last week of Oct through Nov 20 on her annual critter run. If it walks, crawls, flies, swims, or digs in the earth, she'll take its picture people excluded. She does tend to focus on mule deer though. I was elsewhere assisting some fellow hunting buddies for about 15 of those days, so am a bit ignorant on some of the specifics involved. Will complete this post in several steps, as I think there's a limit on how many images one may include in a single post.

She's had little luck running these guys down, and is still not overly happy with this opportunity given a few stems of grass interfering with left side of the image. Seems badger might be missing a right eye.


California Quail


Coyote that thought he was hidden


Great Horned Owl seemingly a bit sleepy


Gray Jay that's locally labeled as a Camp Robber. Quite tame and will exploit near any food source one leaves out.


Stellars Jay that seems to have the same reputation


Probably the first image of a gopher that's ever been posted here.


On to another post:

Darn great pictures.

Kudos!

Great photos! I especially like the Badger picture!

Now into a few of the deer

Spike that might place in our Dinkathon competition.


Fork wading up a spring creek and foraging on duckweed.


A 3By


A slightly heavier 3By


Now some slightly better bucks

A nice skyline shot


Nothing spectacular, but only packing one brow tine and a nice portrait.


Now a couple shots of a gnarly buck. Seems she only ran across this guy once but took several shots. Will do some further digging to see if she has any unobstructed views.




A few more points but needs another couple years. 5By3


Good buck on a frosty morning.


A camp buck that she's seen in previous years. Seems he was around early for a couple days and then disappeared. Looks like a coyote might have used his ear as a handle during his formative years.

Another image of the same animal


One of the better mornings when she was headed up the mountain into the sun.


Now getting into the once in a million realm. Over the last 7 or 8 years, she has had some encounters with melanistic deer usually a single or two and they have all been does. This fall we had 3 in the neighborhood and finally a buck.

A couple shots of the fawn and note mom packs normal coloration.


The following two images were taken about a month later

Very cool!
Thank you for sharing!


MORE!!

Excellent!!!

Here's a couple shots of the black doe. We think she was the fawn we encountered a mile or two away in 2020. Did not appear to have an accompanying fawn of her own.

Running with some of her buddies right center.


And a slightly closer shot.


Now for the big score found about 20 miles away. Truly a one in a million opportunity with maybe even longer odds. Not a bad buck at all. These shots were snapped in late Sept with the landowner swearing Cookie to absolute secrecy as to his whereabouts. Prayers were he'd get a few more years to disperse genes. Not the best images as the timing was post sunset and we had some serious smoke in the air from regional wildfires. Sadly, he was taken by an adjacent landowner and is no longer with us. Quite a trophy, and given opportunity, I don't know if I would have taken him or not.





From Cookie,
The best to all, and have a great Thanksgiving

cool badger pic

She's better than any trail-cam.lol

Absolutely great. Always look forward to your posts of her pictures. Thank you for posting them.

Yep.

Gorgeous photos as always thank you.

Nice shots!!

awesome!!


Thank you so much for sharing these fantastic pictures.


GRF

Always look forward to these threads,
her photos are outstanding,
tell her thanks again and Happy Thanksgiving.

Fantastic photos! Thanks!

Yes sir!!!

Thanks for letting us enjoy her pics.

Wow. Outstanding talent & commitment to get those shots! Thanks for sharing.

1minute;
Good afternoon sir, I hope the day's a good one for you folks and you're all well.

Thanks so much for sharing these fantastic photos with us, I'm among those who look forward to them every year.

Please pass along thanks to your wife and Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Dwayne

Very nice! She has a lot of talent, thank you for sharing.

Great photos. She's quite the deer hunter, I'm jealous.

The pic of the gopher in the first post reminds me of the movie The Great Escape, So does anybody know what I'm referring to here?

I always look forward to her pics.

Fantastic pics as always. Please pass on my Thank You.

Great captures - per always. Thanks for sharing.

great photos!

Amazing photography!
Is she doing this professionally? She definitely should. Thanks for sharing her art with us.

Great pictures and....um.....can....I....um... borrow her to do a little scouting if I ever get out that way?

SS336:


Not a pro, although she does rub elbows with a few that show up each fall. Mostly just a very expensive reason (camera gear and fuel) for her to get out. I thank God we are past the film days.

Rooster 7:


Only if one gets in line behind me. She has more and better captures than anything I have on the wall.


A little follow up on one of the pics above:

We think the black doe in the images above was a fawn in 2020, and here's a shot of her with her then twin brother Nov of last year.

Note the tail of her sibling carries color for its full length. Not typical for a mule deer, and we thought that might be an identifier if he persisted. Well, he showed up this fall in the same area as last year and is a proud forked horn. Will be interesting to follow him over the coming years if he manages to survive.


Also, went through some more of her images and found a less obstructed view of the Gnarly buck. Looks to be an 8 or 9 pointer on each side, and we're hoping that he too can manage to hang around for a few years.


Last. Closing out with 5By4 she ran into.


Again, have a good one, and eat until you barf,

Cookie is a badass!

Please give her my thanks for some great pictures and thank you for sharing them with us.

Great pictures. Always look forward to seeing them.

Some great pictures, thanks for sharing!

Amazing pictures, as has already stated, I always enjoy seeing these posts.

Troops:
Appreciate the comments and will pass them along to Cookie. She'd welcome constructive suggestions too if one has any to offer. While she packs a camera on nearly every outing, her most sincere passion is the fall mule deer run. She's going through hundreds of images still, and I'll pick out a few more and put them in the Deer Hunting realm in a couple days.