Shenandoah Piebald

We just returned from an absolutely perfect trip to Shenandoah National Park in VA. We were up at 3 am on Thursday and arrived just as the park opened to bright blue skies and relatively decent temperatures. Our last trip to SNP was as uneventful as you can imagine as we did not see a single deer but our luck improved this time! Right from the gate there were doe everywhere and they were more than happy to let me photograph them from the car window. Since we had our little girls with us, hiking is not an option so we have to leave it up to the deer to find us.

We had some time constraints as we were on our way to visit my in-laws in DC for an early Christmas celebration but we made it from the Front Royal entrance to Swift Run Gap so we did get to cover a good portion of the drive. Just after Big Meadows we spotted this rare piebald buck and as soon as I laid eyes on him I knew I had seen him before. Brad Myers had a fantastic post with photographs on December 8, 2009 which you can view HERE I remembered reading this post and thinking to myself "Wow, these guys are so lucky! They are always seeing something new and unusual!" so you can imagine how excited I was to recognize him and tell my husband everything I "knew" thanks to Brad. Although the shots aren't great (he was definately not in a photogenic mood that day!) just seeing him was rewarding enough for me.

These are by no means my best photographs from the trip but definately the ones I am most excited about so prepare for a ton of whitetail posts to come!

Thanks for visiting and for all of your constructive comments!