Sit #5 - A close encounter

So Thursday evening, after finishing a one year old photo session, Steph and I high-tailed it to the Refuge. We just about settled in at about 6pm (way too late), and all of a sudden we heard a deer blowing to the west. As soon as we could pinpoint where it came from, the young deer bounded off. I'm guessing he was bedded there on the edge of the field. It looked to be a basket-racked 2 year old. We got settled after that and the mosquitos came out to pay us a visit. At about 7pm Steph said, "There's a doe." She was up in a stand and I was on the ground. Not the best for communication. After trying to look around two popples a few times, I caught movement and the deer lifted it's head at the same time. "That's a buck." I said. I tried to get her attention without her moving much. I told her, "I've gotta get down (as I was standing at the time to stretch my legs)." "Should I stand up?" she asked.

We got into position as best we could and the buck still hadn't seen us. All of a sudden Steph said, "There's a doe right behind you." The buck was staring at the doe for a long time. We were anticipating deer to come from North to South, but this buck came from west to east and looked to be continuing east. I was worried that he wasn't going to come our way, so I grunted to him and he turned and looked. We didn't have much time before dark and so after another 5 or 10 minutes of him just standing there, I grunted to him again. He didn't like that so much so he took two or three bounds towards the woods and stopped and looked back. During all of this, I was on the ground and so I could barely see his head at only a few different times. Steph had a great look at him. Luckily we got most of that on video, just from a bad angle. I'd say he was between 120 and 125 net. It sure was exciting anyway.