Mule Deer

After a stop at Urban Ground Coffeehouse in Swift Current (recommended) we headed home on the final leg of our road trip. Shelley reminded me that this was the stretch where I photographed the snowy owl at the beginning of the trip so I pulled out the camera and big lens and kept it ready to go on my lap. Which usually just about guarantees I won't see anything :-) I saw a few hawks and one snowy owl but they were either too far away or not in a good place to stop. We managed to stop near one hawk but typically it flew away as soon as I got out of the car.

As we started down the hill at Saskatchewan Landing I spotted a group of deer. I wasn't going to bother stopping since they're pretty common, but the light and position were good so I asked Shelley (who was driving) if she could stop. There was nowhere convenient to stop so we turned around at the bottom of the hill and drove back. But then there was nowhere to stop on the way up the hill so we again drove past, turned around, and this time managed to find a half reasonable place to stop near the top of the hill. (Thankfully, Shelley is a good sport about these hijinks!)

Amazingly the deer were still in the same spot. I jumped out and headed down hill. I managed a few photos before they decided they weren't happy about me and headed down into the valley. I got a few more photos as they climbed the far side of the valley.









I was lucky to have a fence post to rest on. Even with stabilization in the lens (Sigma 150-500 at 500) and in the camera (Pentax K3) it's still a challenge to hold a long telephoto steady.