Photograph and text by Joey Melvin
From the Holiday 2017 issue

As November arrives in Delaware, the mornings become crisp and the woods come alive. Gusts of wind clear the treetops and blanket the forest floor with a quilt of brilliant colors. November also fills the woods with deer hunters all in hopes of exciting encounters. The dry leaves become an amplifier to hunter’s ears, making each step of the gray squirrel sound like a stampede. As the bucks begin their courtship, the does always play hard-to-get. As this doe took a break from running from an interested buck, I took advantage of the rising sun as a backlight to capture the shot.