check station oddities

is not a three-antlered deer. That's just an illusion from the flash on the camera, making it look like there's a separation when it's just shadow.

This...

is a three-antlered deer.

An oddity that I'm sure I've seen before, but I can't remember when or where. But yeah, it's rare.

Unlike a drop tine...

which is actually a pretty common abnormality with deer antlers, and with elk.

This season I did see something I've never seen before:

Near as I can tell, that mass growing on top of that buck's muzzle is velvet. The soft, hairy tissue that grows antler inside. This was a mule deer trying to grow a rhino antler, like some pronghorn. But near as I know, ancestors of mule deer never sprouted an antler in the middle of their face, so I have no idea where this comes from.

And it's not a papilloma, a fairly common skin wart caused by a virus.

These are normally harmless to the animal, and eventually drop off. 'Bout the only time they can be a problem is when they grow someplace vital, like over the eye.

Which may have put this buck at a disadvantage when hunters took the field.

And have I mentioned keds yet this year?

At least with deer from this south country, the infestation seems to be a little high this year. These "keds" are actually insects, not closely related at all to ticks. Although they also survive by sucking blood from their host. The only good news, as I've explained plenty of times this year, is they're fairly host specific. A deer ked may bite a human, but it ain't likely to stick around to suck your blood.

"Course, this little piece of wisdom provided little comfort to the young woman frantically picking the numerous keds off her dead deer's muzzle as I tried to check her tag and its teeth.

I guess if it was riding inside the same SUV as I, I might try to pick them off, too. But I told her I didn't think she should throw her keds out upwind of my truck.

"Why? You said they don't bite people." was her response. As I watched smugly as several keds burrowed back under her buck's fur near its eyes, irretrievable.

And it's not just deer that produce oddities, or what some hunters call "freaks".

A pronghorn with a twisted horn isn't as uncommon as you might think.

And I usually see one or two "longhorn" bucks a year.