Fawn Memories

Most countryside changes in the spring and summer are obvious, but you'll never see some of them just by driving along the road. In fact, seeing fawn can be difficult in a wooded area even when they're only a few yards from your house.​. 

Before I moved to my current acreage, the trees were just woods and the occasional critter I saw pleased me. I never knew how many animals truly roamed until I moved near a pond.

For me, perhaps the most fascinating are the small deer.

Even while I'm striving to keep an eye open for them in the springtime, I usually don't see any until they've doubled or tripled in size from their birth. I would say in humans, it would be equal to discovering them at about five years old. 

But even when they're in the pre-teen or teen size, I'm happy to see them. The one following was born in the spring, and I took the picture in September.

By the time December rolls around, they're getting difficult to distinguish from the older deer.

Then the next spring, they may be having little ones of their own.

​Unless they have a strong distinguishing characteristic, it becomes difficult to keep up with them from year to year.

But it's a good guess to assume that the buck you see in the woods in the winter started out as the little guy having fun in the springtime.

Photos from my collection.