At the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, I captured an amusing moment when a Whitetail Buck stuck its tongue out, and I was able to snap a few shots of it. This was my first visit since the flood (Flooding At Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge) that occurred in the area, but I was glad to see that the refuge had done an excellent job with the cleanup. Although some areas were still closed, I was able to access a few spots to observe the wildlife.
During my visit, I spotted several animals such as Deer, Raccoon, Turtles, Coyotes, Great Blue Herons, and Great Egrets. However, I could only take pictures of the Great Egret, while the Coyotes were too far away in a plowed field. Although I couldn’t see any Fawns, I did come across several Whitetail Does.
To capture the shot of the Buck with its tongue out, I positioned my Fujifilm X-T3 with a Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens on a beanbag draped over the open window of my pickup. The Buck was near the road between Reeves Ramp and Shug’s Pond, and I parked on the road without disturbing it. Despite the high weeds that made it challenging to see the Buck or the other Deer nearby, I was able to capture several shots of the Buck chewing.
For this shot, I used aperture priority mode (AV) with a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second at f5.6 and an ISO of 160, with the white balance set on auto. I hope to return to the refuge soon, perhaps when the Fawns are out and about.
I didn’t get photos of the Coyotes because they were far away. They were laying in the middle of a plowed field. I drove by this area three different times and they were in the field each time. I didn’t see anything they could have fed on so I’m not sure why they were laying in this open field. Each time I drove by only one of the Coyotes would stand up. This was also late in the morning. These Coyotes were in the north field west of the Sally Jones West Causeway.