“I was setup in a dirt road between two houses, about 20 feet wide, and fenced on both sides. I look up the road to the northeast, and there are about 5 or six coastal deer of varying size, both does and two bucks, one fully grown (big) and a yearling, marching steadily toward us.”
The bucks up here in wino country after the rut will separate from the does until the next rutting season.
We have this Amazon Doe in our area, which will chase away the younger bucks from this time of the year until a month or so before the rut. This past week, she looked like an all pro linebacker chasing the younger bucks away. She hit one so hard in our unfenced back yard, she knocked him down. When he staggered back up, she charged him again until he left.
There is a herd that lives at Rossmore’s golf course that never separates too. I had my jacket pocket picked by a huge buck there that wanted my apple.
The Rossmore herd usually have a deep thick fur coat, almost like an elk.
There is a woman in Orinda that was attacked by a large doe, and she wrote to Gary Bogue about it. He tried to tell her that it had to be a buck, and does just don’t behave that way. Urbanization seems to confuse the deer.