Early Sunday morning, eight young bucks and one old buck gathered in the open space behind my home in the Rockrimmon neighborhood of Colorado Springs.
After a day of high winds and blizzard conditions, the bucks seemed to be enjoying the warm sunshine. They were feisty, engaging in group sparring.
The old buck with a broken antler stayed away from the group and relaxed behind my fence.
Meanwhile, the young bucks took turns locking antlers and pushing each other around.
A couple of them were particularly rambunctious, even pawing the ground and driving each other into trees and bushes.
The winner of that bout then went over and challenged the old buck, who had been relaxing under a pine tree.
They went at it for several minutes. We heard the clacking of antlers as they pushed back and forth.
Eventually, the old guy drove the young buck into a bush and shook his head vigorously and it was over.
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