A few days on the road have revealed patterns among cervids that were not readily apparent from the smaller sample that could be seen around my home.
First, all that I saw were moulting from their winter coat into their summer coat.
Second, the tails provided an indelible way to distinguish species.
White-tailed Deer show off both their strikingly large tail along with some patchy moulting on the hip.
A Mule Deer shows some patchy moulting and its rope-like tail with a black tip.
An elk shows a short white tail on a white butt, and a bit of moulting on its hip.
Finally, a male Mule Deer with tiny antler buds on its crown looks at me and asks the perennial question posed by other local animals: “Why are you pointing that camera at me?”