Nature can be as brutal as it is beautiful. It might be the ivory symmetry of a winter-killed deer skull resting in a crystal stream, or the vibrant colors of a flower atop a poisonous plant. 

If anything is true, there is balance between these forces. Despite the obvious magnificence of nature in its original design, the abnormalities can be attractive too. Peculiarities that stand out among regular visitors to the yard are often more special than the unmarred splendor of the other, more typical critters. 

Most mornings of late, I’ve been able to enjoy a few moments of quiet at the breakfast table as the sun comes up. Mornings are the most active it seems for stirring animals. As I sip my coffee, I take inventory of the new black squirrels we’ve been seeing this year. My eye has been out for a glimpse of the white chipmunk my neighbor has reported seeing. Occasionally the turkeys come close to our house through the ferns, picking their way for what they can scratch for their own breakfast. A few does have made a habit of bedding down not far from our back door, in the low part of our woods beside the ebbing lagoon that swells and subsides with the rains. 

I often don’t see the bucks I know are around in the morning, but one morning I happened to notice an antler atop one whitetail’s head. Upon first glance, I thought perhaps it had simply lost the other antler, but as I looked closer, I saw a bit of a lump on its head and a brown curve along its face. The skull had broken around the pedicle at some point, and the antler now grew along the outside curve of the face. 

Fortunately, it didn’t appear to be affecting the deer’s health, as it would if it were an open wound or if the antler were pressing into the body. I took several shots with my camera, trying to see the antler and how it looks even now in velvet. Hopefully, as the year goes on I will still see him and will find out how the antler looks post-velvet. But there is no mistaking him for any other deer in the yard. 

A day or so later I was walking home on the road and saw him again in the evening with two large, typical bucks at the neighbor’s property. They were grazing right along his driveway and keeping an eye on me as I quietly strolled past. 

The next morning, I stepped out to put some trash in the bin. As I turned to head back inside I noticed him not 50 yards away, standing still and watching me leave. Perhaps I’m as interesting to him as he is to me. Probably not, but if I happen to look out and see him standing there with a cup of coffee too, I’ll know he’s mocking me. 

Who knows what may have befallen this buck to damage his skull like this, but regardless, he seems to be doing fine now. Ideally, whatever it was knocked some caution into him, but for all I know it could have been as simple as a lost fight with another buck last year.

The way out here things happen that we can’t always explain. But rather than cause concern, they add intrigue to our ordinary day-to-day. There’re a hundred stories about big bucks out there, but the best ones are about the once-in-a-lifetime bucks, the challenges around them, and the tenacity and endurance of nature to withstand such incredible would-be setbacks. These animals give us depth to an otherwise limited spectrum of variety in our observations of nature. They also give us the opportunity to come up with clever nicknames to refer to our fellow woods-dwellers. Perhaps I will call this one the over-under buck. Perhaps you can think of something equally creative?