Thursday, April 19, 2012

Missed white deer opportunity

I will never forget the day. I missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to record in photo my white deer sighting.
Let me tell you about it.


Spotted in a country field similar to this.



Photo credit: thegipper from morguefile.com

 
Early one morning I decided to drive to the beach so I could be there for breakfast one nice Sunday morning about 10 years ago. I was between Troy and Brundidge driving happily along when off in a field I spotted deer. I've seen deer a lot when driving, but not usually in the mornings.  So it was unusual, and even more unusual was these weren't ordinary looking deer. They were  white deer. Maybe they were albino, I couldn't determine that, but they were unlike any deer I had ever seen. I couldn't believe my eyes! A male with females and little ones, maybe 10 to 12 in all, just grazing but walking slowly as a group in the direction of the highway which I was passing by. I slowed down to feast upon this rare sight. No one was behind me so I opened my purse to get my camera. Uh oh, no camera.

So I turned around and made another pass to get another look at this beautiful grouping of deer. Yes, they were all white, not just white tails or light, brownish-gray in color, or no spots of white mixed with another color. My eyes were seeing them clearly and each of them was white in color from head to tail. They didn't run or even seem to care about anything around them. They were walking slowly, but also eating as they walked. The sun was coming up and they stood out against everything else in the field just 30 to 40 yards from the highway. I turned around and made another pass as I still was about the only vehicle headed South on the highway.

My terrible thought was I'd forgotten my camera, and so my opportunity to capture on film my sighting was not to be. It would take me at least 15 to 20 minutes to drive back to Troy or ahead to Brundidge, purchase a camera and drive back. I had to face reality of this missed opportunity and made a promise to myself to never be without my camera again. I just had to burn this image in my brain for my own visual memory.

I'll never miss a rare opportunity again


Photo credit: procrastinator from morguefile.com

 

Below is a website featuring an article and photo of 'the mysterious albino deer herd' in Wisconsin.

http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/big-buck-zone/2010/05/mysterious-albino-deer-herd

Video showing a white buck and a normal buck fighting.
 



There are white deer in Alabama. I witnessed them early one morning. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.