WILDLIFE WATCHING -- While nature seems to be wrapped up with producing this year's new crop of fawns, bucks are in the background quietly getting ready for the next mating season.

Daniel Haththorne's trail cam recorded this nice whitetail buck and its blooming rack of antlers.   Hawhthorne has been watching the buck for two years and has photos of the buck with his mature rack from last fall.

In comparing notes with other hunters with trail cams, he notes that whitetail bucks in the low Spokane Valley seem to be a little more advanced in their anter growth than the bucks in velvet at higher elevations.