Breakfast with the does

Snow was predicted for sure and these ladies were munching the sagebrush just a few feet from my back lawn this morning and I watched them rip at the foliage.  We have been watching a small herd here consisting of one buck and 8 does.  But a few days ago, he had lost track of about 3 does.  Over the years, we have witnessed the ritual of the creatures in the fall.  The antelope have their young in the early summer or late spring and the bucks gather in small groups away from the does and their young until fall. 

Then the fun begins.  Trying to keep their small herds together can be quite comical.  The does will graze with their young and might wander a little farther away from the buck's control until he realizes it and then he will run like crazy to gather the roaming females until he has his small herd in order.  Under his watchful eye, they will eat anything they can find.  My dear neighbor has lost most of her flower garden to the critters.  However, with this snow now, all of the gardens are gone to frost and the herd will have to be content with the prairie provisions. These two girls who have temporarily escaped the herd, can continue to roam and munch until their "buck" finds them.

Since the picture above was taken about six hours ago, we have had about that many inches of snow.  This is our first storm this year and although it is a wet snow, predictions call for another dry winter.

Hope the weather people are wrong!