Quiet solitude is something that we humans crave. To witness nothing more than silence, and nature’s raw beauty every day of our lives, would be a true Eden for some of us. But the reality of the natural world is that freezing winter temperatures, constant worry over starvation, and predation would render us modern humans extinct in a great hurry. Our ability to survive the great outdoors, for extended periods of time with only what the wilderness provides, has depleted over the last centuries. Our connection as a species to the wilderness, has fallen to the wayside and been replaced by technology and so called progress.

My wife and I stand on a windswept ridge; she takes pictures of this majestic warrior foraging among the alder and red willows. His snow covered body and long tined antlers are a stark contrast to the snow and northerly winter winds. Yet somehow he blends in with the surroundings. He just seems to belong to the land, not an intruder upon the landscape like we are. I close my eyes and say a prayer for the old warrior below us. He will face many long cold days and nights, many challenges way up here in the frozen inhospitable wilds. We will be snug in our cabin through the long winter and wet spring, while he braves this place he calls home.
Come September when the first bugles echo across the land announcing the rut, this old warrior will proudly stalk the dark timber. I will be there too, a longbow in my left hand and an arrow of wood, nocked to the string, hoping for a chance at a bull like the one before me. I finish my prayer and hope that he and I never meet in the age old dance of the hunt….. but a close relative of his would be just fine by me.

~Hawk

This buck was in a completely different part of the state than the bucks that I featured durring the rut.

The difference in the antlers is amazing to me..

All dependent upon genetics, and food sources as well as game management.

~A conclusion to this latest series of the Whitetail rut..~
All too often in the game of love, the contenders do not know when to quit. And as these two beautiful boys show…. in any battle, there will always be a looser.

Even though he faces a long recovery and may have already lost the sight in his right eye, I believe the buck in the second photograph will live to compete another year.

I fear that the fate of the buck in the first photograph will not be the same. These creatures do not only have each other to contend with, they live in an area that is also home to wolves, and I doubt that he survived for more than a few days.