White-tailed deer in Vermont hardwood forest
— — the moment before the herd lifts its heads.
Not only on a wall.
“A doe and yearling at the edge of a sugar maple stand, the kind of small woodland clearing that opens between Vermont's hill farms. The white-tailed deer is the state animal, roughly 130,000 strong, a presence in every county. In October the does and fawns drift through ridge-top hardwoods following the last green understory before the leaves turn. From the studio.
White-tailed deer in Vermont hardwood forest, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is the official state animal of Vermont and the most widely encountered large mammal in the state's hardwood forests. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department estimates a statewide herd of roughly 130,000 animals, concentrated in the broadleaf belt below 2,500 feet — sugar maple, American beech, yellow birch, and white ash forests that cover much of the Champlain Valley and the foothills of the Green Mountains. The population has recovered from a low in the early twentieth century when the state held an estimated 1,500 deer after extensive clearing for sheep pasture.
Late October is the most photographed moment for white-tailed deer in Vermont. The rut peaks in the first two weeks of November, when bucks shed velvet, the necks thicken, and antler-rubs appear on roadside saplings. Through October the herd feeds heavily on acorns and beechnut mast, building fat for winter. By late December, with snow above twenty inches, deer yard up in dense softwood stands of hemlock and northern white cedar — groves that hold deeper snow off the bedding areas and provide thermal cover. The same yards are used across generations of deer.
Hardwood deer are quiet animals. Beyond a snort-blow when a doe spots a walker, the herd moves with very little sound across the forest floor. Vermont's deer are smaller than the southern subspecies — an adult doe averages around 110 pounds dressed weight, a mature buck 150 to 180. The state's annual rifle season opens the Saturday before Thanksgiving and runs 16 days; about 17,000 deer are taken in a typical year. License revenue funds the habitat work and winter-yard protection that keep the herd healthy across the long Vermont winter.