Blacktail Buck

I went out yesterday to photograph some old brick. A few blocks from my house is the marshaling yard of the E & N Railway, which has several large old brick buildings. It is surrounded by new condominiums and is soon to be developed as a heritage mall and social area. While I was lurking around in the bushes in the back of these buildings trying to find some good shooting angles, I heard some rustling. I looked up to see this beautiful young buck disappearing around a corner of the building. I followed and the result is this photo. I took a few others but the buck is not so clear although the skate board park shows up well (off camera to the right in this photo).

What is amazing about this sighting is that this neighborhood is very near the city center, not rural at all and not even on the edge of any bushy or forested areas. I suspect he must have come in at night along the railway tracks from outside the city, perhaps in pursuit of a doe since this is rutting season. I worried about him getting mixed up with city traffic but then I realized that he's probably safer here than out in a forest full of neanderthal Nimrods with big guns. Hunting season on blacktail deer opens next week.