Whitetails, Ruffed Grouse (20131129) A quick run with Ignacio

After getting home and spending most of Thursday resting up, Ignacio and I made arrangements for a quick run to see if there were any GGO's out and about. The woods here are full of hunters as the 30th is the last day of the season for many types of game including Whitetails. It was not unusal to find a group of four Doe's in an area of rural houses.

While it was a very quiet day we did manage to find this male Ruffed Grouse. I love the feather patterning on these birds, all grouse really, they are designed to not be seen!

I'll post this next shot for two reasons, the first is that it is likely my best Grouse in flight shot :) , the second is that you can clearly see the full black band on the tail feathers that is the signature of the male Ruffed. 

The light was starting to fade when Ignacio spotted two nice Whitetail bucks. This is a very nice 8 pointer. While his antlers are a little thin or light, they extend out well passed his ears, an indication of a nice buck!

It was nice to see that these two fine fellows had made it through the rut and had been passing those genes on to another generation of thier kind. Hopefully they survived the evening and the next day as the season closed out.  It was a light afternoon, I believe things will pick up after the hunting pressure is removed.

Glad to be back in Calgsary chasing first class critters, come on out and we can chase some together.

Turbo