Above, you see July’s full moon rising over Great Cove last night. Below, you’ll see an earlier image of its ascent:
The July full moon traditionally is called the Buck Full Moon because male deer (“bucks”) are growing their “velvet’-covered new antlers at a rapid pace at this time, sometimes half an inch daily.
As you may know, deer velvet is soft, blood-vessel-filled skin that is a protective covering for the growing antlers. When the antlers mature, it is shed and rubbed off by the bucks. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 27, 2026.)