One of the challenges with winter camping is finding a good place to set up camp. This looks like a great spot.
Human activity must give deer a good laugh now and then, but especially in the winter.
The deer are busy trying to survive in the snow – looking for food and a safe place to rest while keeping a constant lookout for predators, including humans.
Meanwhile, all around them, humans are demonstrating all sorts of odd winter behaviour. Some fearfully hide inside, some count down the days to leave to the tropics and others embrace the snow with all kinds of activity.
A second challenge is having to deal with the nosy neighbours who always seem to be checking out what you’re doing.
The mobile folks are self-propelling themselves with cross-country skiing or snowshoes, harnessing gravity through sledding or tubing or more likely flying around on the snow or through the air in snowmobiles.
That all makes varying degrees of sense to me and I’ve done them all. The ones I don’t understand are activities like ice fishing. On our last trip up north we saw this guy in a lawn chair sitting with his fishing rod beside a hole in the lake ice. Hours later we returned and nothing had moved. Yikes. I’ve had people try to explain the attraction but they failed miserably. Even with all that inconvenience and boredom, you’re still eating fish at the end of the day, not even anything special like Saskatoon berry pie.
Another odd bunch are the ones who like to pretend to be deer and go winter camping. Some take tents and some build a shelters from snow called a quinzhee. I have even heard reports this winter of people sleeping in their back yard. I’m fine with being outside in cold weather but sleeping is a whole different category. After all that inconvenience there’s still nothing to eat!
Winter camping is best left to the experts – deer.
And then there’s the evening search, trying to remember where you set up camp. It has to be around here somewhere. The trail looks familiar.
Krahnpix 
all great shots but the last one – well the light is warm and really amplifys the shot
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Thanks. I wish I could shoot in that light all day!
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You’re so funny 🙂 These photos are exquisite !
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Thanks. Humour is a tricky affair that doesn’t connect with everyone so I’m always pleased when it does.
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These are gorgeous!
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Thank you. The light really made the difference that evening.
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So very lovely and sweet…. And that lighting!
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Thanks. The light was pretty amazing. It is a lot easier to make a good photo!
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Absolutely gorgeous light on those deer in the last shot especially. Nice!!
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Thanks. It was gorgeous light and the deer were kind enough to show up on the hill where it was shining.
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Great photo and funny story. I couldn’t agree more with you about the ice fishing thing. I love that you take the perspective from the deer. I am a huge fan of the Far Side and I always have moments where I try to figure out what the animals must think of us … most of the time i’m sure they are laughing at us humans 🙂
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It’s always nice to hear if somebody enjoyed a story. The beauty of taking the deers’ perspective is that no one can say I’m wrong! And oh yes they are laughing at us.
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Love this post!!! Has us in stitches!!!! However we love winter so much and yet have no desire to go winter camping even though we have built and igloo in our back yard a few times… But ice fishing? Unless you’ve been there in your little shack, all warm and snacking and drinking a beer…. You don’t know what ice filching is. It’s fun with the right people. 🙂
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Glad you liked the humour despite the fact you like ice fishing! It’s interesting that people seem to either endure winter or embrace it and take advantage of opportunities. I will grant you than any activity with the right people is a lot more fun! Enjoy your shack.
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Looks like they enjoy the snow. Good for them.
We had three deer pop out in front of us as we were walking to the swamp this morning. Coyotes have not got them yet.
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I imagine you are cheering for the coyotes. I’ll be watching for the photos. Enough of these easy fish getting swallowed!!
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I love them in all that snow and I’m glad it’s your snow:) Seriously though, I was shopping for a sleeping bag last summer and the guy tried to sell me a zero degree bag. If it’s zero degrees I’m gonna sleep inside, not in a tent.
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We got some melting going on today but the snow will be around for awhile yet. It does make a nice backdrop. We’ve never camped in winter, but some nites its been pretty frosty and challenged the ratings on our bags.
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If it’s below freezing, I prefer the bag be in the house by the fireplace:)
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The deer look so bemused. Maybe they’ve been watching an ice fisherman!
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Yes that’s probably it. Though I have to confess I may have the same effect on them.
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The deer are so dear, and you have a sense of humor!
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I try with the humor and sometimes it works.
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I’m with you on the Saskatoon pie and the ice fishing – a deadly dull sport, if you ask me. But – I was out on my snowshoes yesterday, and had so much fun with the almost geological formations in the fields! Amazing from the car window – priceless up close and personal. I wonder if I gave any deer a good belly laugh in all my cavorting and contortions trying to get some good shots? 😀
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This year there is definitely enough snow to make the snow shoes worthwhile. It sounds like we need to see photos of you taking photos as well as the photos you took!
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I thought about it – and dismissed the thought as evil and unnecessary to human development as we know it.
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You may have underestimated it!
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🙂 I thought about a self-portrait, just of my snowshoes. They were barely making a scratch on that rock-hard sculpted surface. I felt a little like I was exploring all by myself on the moon somehow. Quite the experience – I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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That sounds great.
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Dear Lyle, beautiful Pictures. The deers definitely look healthier than the wild buffaloes. Thanks , Regards, Ganesh.
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Yes, despite far more snow than usual, they seem to be doing fine. And there certainly are a lot of them.
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After all these great posts I could just end up liking snow! 🙂
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I’m thinking that might be significant!
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I jest. I almost perished in December three years ago at Heathrow. It was -1 and my body went into Protest Mode. Stonehenge was just as cold and I lasted all of 15 minutes in the open wrapped up like a mummy while all the Japanese and European tourists did the full nine yards, guided tour and all. I”ll go back in the summer methinks! 🙂
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And here I thot I was winning you over! Maybe it is more an acquired taste. Although if you are dealing with humidity and cold, then it’s a problem – no amount of warms clothes seem to work with that. Enjoy the summer tour.
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🙂 It’s still great to experience Canadian winters through your photographs and those of others. I’m amazed, as I was in the extreme heat in Namibia in December (43 degrees C), how anything survives such extremes, yet they do. Happy snapping!
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There is some amazing resilience at the extremes.
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Lovely shots!!! They are so cute!!!
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Thanks. They were looking pretty good that day in the evening light.
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Thanks for continuing my education about the strange things that some people do in snow country and for including links to unfamiliar words. English is my native language, but I had no clue that “quinzhee” was a real word.
Life must be a lot more simple for a deer, with so much of their activity directly related to survival (unless, of course, the are playing with the antelopes). Human behavior is often mystifying to me and must seem alien, or at least laughter-inducing, for animals like the deer.
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I figured quinzhee might be new to some people! People are involved in many mystifying activities and that is definitely one of them.
It’s interesting that you mention the deer playing since that song has still not entirely left my head either.
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It seems like you should open a deer farm! You seem to have a lot of them around? And there is the world of ticks .. .
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There are a lot of deer around. We were out again yesterday in my favourite spot for looking for them and its the most I’ve ever seen. Hopefully the ticks aren’t so plentiful in summer!
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Lyle,
You had me at “Saskatoon berry pie!” Whatever a Saskatoon berry might be… 😉
RPRT Photo
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Funny! It’s a wonderful berry that grows wild around here – similar to a blueberry but better.
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