over the Buck Moon

The full moon for July is called the Buck Moon and will be at its fullest on Sunday July 21, 2024 4:17am Mountain Time.  If that's too early for you, it will appear full the night before.  This is an excerpt from the Farmers Almanac explaining the name for this full moon.

"Male deer antlers begin to grow in late spring. Antlers grow as fast as ¼ inch per day or one and one half inches per week during this period making them the fastest growing bones in the world. Antlers grow from the pedicel in the buck’s skull. The lengthening daylight in spring triggers the hormones that start the growth each spring. Buck antlers can easily be spotted in full velvet come July. Unlike horns, antlers are bones made mostly of calcium and phosphorus that the deer shed after mating season. Buck antlers lose their velvety coating, usually within a 24-hour period, closer to mating season in fall."

This is my watercolour painting of the Buck Moon! It will represent July in my 2025 calendar.  For some reason and I don't know what that reason is, it was a challenge for me to paint the buck with its head to the left and tail to the right as shown in the reference photo.  I did a flip of the photo in "Photos" showing the head to the right and tail to the left.  I had no issues with replicating the buck facing in that direction.

These are my reference photos for this painting.   They were taken at Nose Hill Environmental Park on various days during the month of July over the past few years, except for the deer itself as you can see there is snow on the ground.  My moon photo is not quite full but it was the fullest July moon photo that I had.  When I was envisioning what I wanted my twelve full moons to look like, I made notes to refer to when the time came to paint each of the moons.   

 Wherever I am on the night of July 20th or morning of July 21st, 

I will be over the moon if I get to witness the full Buck Moon!