It’s fall, when a young buck’s fancy turns to thoughts of love.

Deer do it in the fall, in other words. By spring, the does are too busy with babies to give the bucks a second thought.

But this time of year, romance beckons. Two bucks, like this guy in the photo, have been hanging around our resident herd of does all week, hoping to get lucky. They trumpet and look serious, and the does pretend to ignore them. Though we know better. Otherwise we wouldn’t have all those fawns each spring.

The bucks also pee a lot, meaning the whole orchard smells musty. Kind of like a bad singles bar.