Bachelor #3

As you might have guessed, what Bachelor #2 kept looking at was the arrival of Bachelor #3. #3 asserted his dominance over #2 by slowly walking towards him with his head low and a focused gaze (directly looking at another is considered rude in black-tail etiquitte). As #3 approached, #2 slowly withdrew and after a couple of hundred feet, #3 broke off and returned to the feeding does. Interestingly #2 came back and walked past #3 and the does without any reaction. I'm guessing I missed some sort of a cue that #2 showed respecting the dominance of #3. The big guy stayed near the does and when one squatted to urinate, he was indirectly watching her. When she was done and moved off, he moved in the get a whiff and did a lip curl to determine her breeding condition. Alas, she apparently wasn't ready, so he moved on across the field and into the woods by himself. I've got some interesting photos of the lip curl which I'll post later. The image was warmed slightly to more closely match what I thought the light was like and a small sharpening done for the web. Comments and critiques welcomed and always appreciated.

Tech Info

Canon 60D with 70-200mm f/4L @ 196mm and TC 1.4
1/200th @ f/6.3 and ISO 1000
tripod