White tail buck in velvet

Today I decided to bird and photograph the area that I have not visited since early this spring. I went to Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown Rhode Island, where I first stopped at the salt marsh. The tide was coming in to the salt marsh, but the migratory shorebirds are starting to be present. There were Short-billed Dowichters, semi-palmated plovers and sandpipers, least sandpipers and others. In just over a half hour, I had 39 different species of birds. Then I went up to the main refuge, where the resident red tailed hawk was sitting on the building, I was discussing the bird with visitors. When from behind the building came two whitetails bucks. The bucks were growing their antlers and antlers were in velvet. I was able to obtain some lovely pictures, and I am presenting to you one of them.