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Thread: New to the Neighborhood

  1. #1
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    New to the Neighborhood

    While stepping out to drop my coffee filter into the compost bins a doe was at the edge of my porch staring back at me. She had her fawn with her:

    2020 Fawn.jpg

    After quietly stepping back inside and letting the screen door close my camera was retrieved. When stepping back out on the porch the fawn ran one way and the doe another. The fawn stopped a short distance away and the picture was taken.

    This little one has been around for a couple of weeks and has more than doubled in size. This is the first time it stayed around long enough to get a good picture.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  2. #2
    That is a great shot! I notice that a long grass stem just clears the face and makes a "feather in her cap" !

  3. #3
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    If they are anything like llamas they grow SO fast. I weighed the baby llama born here a couple of years ago - she gained about 1 lb per day for the first few weeks or month.

    baby_deer_IMG_20130612_152722_655.jpg

    This fawn was abandoned by the mother (or the mother killed) just a few days old. After three days of observation I got permission from the wildlife agency to catch and feed it until we could transfer it to a rescue organization halfway across the state. It was so hungry catching it was easy - it walked up to me and let me reach down and pick it up. My cat Noah is curious about it.

    JKJ

  4. #4
    Have you seen the pictures of what comes up to meet the UPS truck? First photo shows a dog and a fawn looking in the door of the truck. At our daughters house in West Virginia, the does leave their fawns in flower bed behind garage while they go up the mountain to the meadow to graze. They been doing this for years now

  5. #5
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    We live in Suburbia, USA. A couple years ago, we had a fawn camp out in our rose bed on the house side of a privacy fence. Stayed 3 days. Hope the mother came back by.
    Brian

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Tymchak View Post
    We live in Suburbia, USA. A couple years ago, we had a fawn camp out in our rose bed on the house side of a privacy fence. Stayed 3 days. Hope the mother came back by.
    The mother was out grazing so as to be able to feed fawn. Fawns don't have any odor, so preditors can't locate them by smell, but out in an open field they would be easy prey.

  7. #7
    Bruce, interesting about the odor-less fawn. Don't know how that could be, but I hope they don't get used as a
    deodorant ingredient.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Tymchak View Post
    We live in Suburbia, USA. A couple years ago, we had a fawn camp out in our rose bed on the house side of a privacy fence. Stayed 3 days. Hope the mother came back by.
    Mother deer often leave their fawns in the same place every day while they are out foraging. The spot is usually well hidden, often out in the middle of tall grass. "You stay right here and DON'T move, understand?"

    JKJ

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Mel Fulks View Post
    Bruce, interesting about the odor-less fawn. Don't know how that could be, but I hope they don't get used as a
    deodorant ingredient.

    We didn't either till daughter contact wildlife in WV about the "abandoned fawns" behind her garage. She has had as many as three at the time, with only one being the norm. You could stand on porch (second story) and see fawns lying there, but at ground level they were impossible to detect if you didn't already know they were there.

  10. #10
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    We have had a few does who have birthed twins. Often we see a few mamas and the kids hanging together.

    Today Candy saw a young buck walking across the yard. It took me a bit to get to the door and look. All that was seen was another deer running at high speed across the yard in the direction she said the buck was headed.

    Could that have been a territorial dispute?

    Buck Out Back.jpg

    This image was a couple years ago, again out the backdoor.

    It seems the bucks are less common than the does. They also seem a bit more timid about hanging around. Could they have noticed that humans do not hunt the does?

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    We have had a few does who have birthed twins. Often we see a few mamas and the kids hanging together.

    Today Candy saw a young buck walking across the yard. It took me a bit to get to the door and look. All that was seen was another deer running at high speed across the yard in the direction she said the buck was headed.

    Could that have been a territorial dispute?

    Buck Out Back.jpg

    This image was a couple years ago, again out the backdoor.

    It seems the bucks are less common than the does. They also seem a bit more timid about hanging around. Could they have noticed that humans do not hunt the does?

    jtk

    Here, the taking of does is encouraged. If the bucks are killed off, a doe will go into heat every 28 days till she is mated, which means some late summer fawns. This late summer fawns mature late summer the next year, and the cycle spirals downward.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Wrenn View Post
    Here, the taking of does is encouraged. If the bucks are killed off, a doe will go into heat every 28 days till she is mated, which means some late summer fawns. This late summer fawns mature late summer the next year, and the cycle spirals downward.
    In my former area when deer became over populated they would have a doe season. Someone told me they do not do that in Washington, but imo, that isn't the last word on it. From what others have told me only bow hunting is allowed in my immediate area. Most of the lots around here are 5 to 20 acres. Residential buildings and roads are too abundant to just be firing a rifle off in any direction.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  13. #13
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    This is another "new guy in the neighborhood:"

    Junior Buck in Front.jpg

    Yesterday coming home a deer in the road made me slow down until she decide to turn up a driveway.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    Mother deer often leave their fawns in the same place every day while they are out foraging. The spot is usually well hidden, often out in the middle of tall grass. "You stay right here and DON'T move, understand?"

    JKJ
    While walking thru head high grass I nearly stepped on one.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bender View Post
    While walking thru head high grass I nearly stepped on one.
    I REALLY hate to remember this but driving the jeep in the mountains one day I ran over one in a clearing with maybe 12" high growth. This was over 40 years ago and I still think of that with horror whenever I'm off-roading, jeep, 4wheeler, RTV. I get out and check any place that has enough grass or weed covering where I can't see the ground.

    JKJ

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