More Late Night “Grab Shots”; Serendipity!

White tailed doe lying down in my front yard (garden for those friends in the UK)  I regularly see deer in my yard but
I've never seen one feeling safe enough to lie down even at 11 p.m..  Very unusual. (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-H1; 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 55mm; 0.7 sec. @ f/4; ISO 1600

 Last Monday, I posted an impromptu, late night “grab shot” of the moon, nice and full and on a night with little humidity that I made from my front porch as I was getting ready to go to bed.  You can find that post here.  Tuesday night, as I was going upstairs to bed, I stumbled across another situation which caused me to grab my camera and make some impromptu images.

Full image area of above. You can see the gray street in the background.  The lighting came from my LED porch lights,
which were about 18 ft. (5 m) from the deer.  A nearby streetlight is illuminating the street behind. (click to enlarge)

Who says you have to travel far to photograph wildlife?  I was going up to bed Tuesday night at 11 and what do I see laying in my front yard?  A white tailed doe!  I literally crawled to my camera bag to stay out of sight through the window, attached an L-bracket to my X-H1, then attached the camera to a small tabletop tripod.  I then crawled back to the window—all in the dark.  I set the camera on Auto ISO, f/4, aperture priority and manually focused on the doe using the LCD and the magnification feature.  She kind of knew I was there but evidently felt I wasn't a danger, otherwise she would have left.  About 30 minutes later, after making several images, I resumed my trek up to bed but this time wide awake and with a little smile on my face!

This deer laying down in my yard, about 10 ft. (3 m) from my front porch, is highly unusual.  (The deer was illuminated by white LEDs in my porch lamps about 18 ft (5 m) from where she lay) While it is not unusual to see deer in both my front and back yards (I’ve seen as many as 9 at once in a group including 2 bucks), they are very skiddish and mostly run if they see you watching them from inside.  This doe was one of three that I see several times per week, either at around 11 p.m. or around 6:30 a.m.  Mostly they are feeding off my shrubs and flowers.  I love them being around but my one fear is the increase in deer ticks, which have the potential to transmit some serious diseases.

She sees the camera inside the window but since it isn't a predator, she doesn't seem worried. (click to enlarge)

Two other does are approaching out of the frame from the left causing this one to stand.  They all then wandered away
looking for shrubs, flowers and other vegetation to eat. (click to enlarge)

I live in the middle of a moderately sized city of just under 200,000 persons.  I find it amazing as to the amount and diversity of wildlife I’ve seen in my yard (garden for those of my friends in the UK).  Here is a list of what I’ve seen at one time or another in my yard or flying overhead:

White tailed deer
Red Fox
Coyote
Owls
Cooper’s Hawks
Many varieties of song birds
Crows
Snake
Box Turtles
Opossum
Raccoon
Bald Eagles
Ospreys
Frogs
Skinks
and one pesky mole that I've been trying to trap for several months now!

The lessons here are that if a) I didn’t know exactly where all of my gear (camera, L-bracket, tripod) was located and b) I wasn’t thoroughly familiar with my tools, I would have been forced to turn lights on in order to find everything and assemble everything  quickly.  Additionally c), if my camera wasn’t set with my “default” settings, again, I would have had to turn lights on or take unnecessary time adjusting it.  In all cases, if I had turned lights on inside my home, the deer would have clearly seen me and my movements and most likely would have fled the area.

What do I mean by my “default” settings?  Whenever I put my cameras away, I always reset all setting in a precise manner so whenever I next pick any of them up, I know exactly how everything is set and there is no second guessing as to ISO, mode, focus mode, single or continuous advance, white balance, etc.  That eliminates time and if something occurs, I may not need to adjust every setting, only those pertinent to the situation before me.  In other words, knowing what settings are already in the camera results in more efficiency and less time looking at all of them.  Extra time fooling with my camera and trying to get it properly set could cost me the opportunity.

Just wanted to share my good fortune.  I hope you enjoyed my little serendipitous capture!

UPDATE: More serendipity!  More unexpected wildlife.  Three nights later....

On Friday morning, I briefly woke up at 2.  I told myself if I'm awake I might as well go to the bathroom.  (That's what us old guys just do!)  Whenever I wake up, I always look outside around the house to ensure all is well.  Old police training, I suspect.  I saw a lump in my front yard in the shadows.  Thought it might be another deer but it was too small.  I came downstairs, stood by the window and watched a fox tearing up my yard, I suspect, looking for that pesky mole that has been driving me crazy.  I watched him for between 5-10 minutes.  He then started "tracking" the mole and came right over to the flower bed right in front of me.  When he was in the good light about 4 ft. from me, I saw it looked like a gray fox, but the light was marginal.  He then tracked the mole along the perimeter of the porch and around the corner of the house and out of sight.  Serendipity once more.  A nice middle of the night interlude.  No pix this time, however.  I went back to bed with a slight smile on my face.  Only the second time I've seen a fox at my home.

On Sunday morning I found out I was wrong about the fox being a gray fox.  It was a red fox the other night.  How do I know?  At 6:45 a.m. crows in my backyard we're just raising Cain.  I knew something had to be going on.  I looked out the patio door and what did I see?  A young red fox had just gotten a squirrel.  My wife and I watched him for several minutes (she turned away because she didn’t want to see the fox eat the squirrel).  I tried to get a photo but he was situated just so I couldn't get one.  I walked out into the garage and tried to photograph him through the garage entrance door.  No dice.  Still obstructed.  I needed to crack the door and stick my camera out.  He heard it, looked around, grabbed the squirrel and jumped over the brick knee wall between my house and my neighbor's with his catch in his mouth and trotted off.  Gone!

This fox wasn't large enough to be full grown.  Probably born last year or real early this year.  Wow!  Unbelievable.  If there is one young one, there probably are more in the same litter.  Being that he has successfully found prey, he may be back.  If so, I hope to make some images.

Again, just wanted to share my good fortune!

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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