Almost Run’d Over by Baby Twin Fawns

Earlier this week I was out taking a little 3.4 mile stroll around the block just to get some exercise.  While walking down the dirt road, a deer popped out of the thick brush right into the road only 25 feet in front of me.  Neither of us saw or heard the other one coming, so we were both quite startled.

After the deer ran off across the road, I stopped and waited to see what would happen next.  Ten seconds later a little baby fawn popped out of the woods.  And suddenly a second baby fawn popped out into the road . . .  they were twins, and still had their spots.

They stopped in the road and took a good long look at me.  Then they circled in the road, and looked me over some more.  Finally they walked over to the edge of the road, and looked at me again.  They probably had never been this close to a human before.  After 25-30 seconds of checking me out, they finally decided they weren’t too impressed with me and chased after their momma.

I’ve had several encounters over the years with fawns around my backyard.  The picture above is a fawn hanging out under my backyard birdfeeder in August of 2003.  On another occasion I witnessed the rare sight of a doe nursing her baby fawn right in my backyard.

Later that same year I was sitting in my lawn chair out by my garden planning my next move (I was definitely not goofing off . . . no seriously).  All of a sudden there was some thrashing in the woods just behind me, and a fawn came tearing out of the tree line followed by the doe.  The fawn started running and frolicking all around my yard, having a good ole’ time and frisky as could be.

The absolute best encounter I ever had was the time when a doe and her fawn came out while I was sitting in my deck chair on my deck.  I had previously put out some dried whole kernel corn in some deer feed boxes at the edge of the deck.  (This happened years ago before the Michigan DNR banned putting out food for deer to reduce the spread of CWD - Chronic Wasting Disease.)

The doe and her fawn came right up to the deck, and started eating corn only 12 feet away from me.  They were so close that I could even hear the little fawn sneeze!  For the entire fifteen minutes that they were there I had to remain perfectly motionless, so they wouldn’t recognize me and run away.  Luckily the wind was blowing directly towards me that day, so the deer didn’t catch the scent of a human, get spooked, and run away.

I’ve really enjoyed living here in a semi-rural area, because I’ve had the chance to see and experience so much fantastic wildlife up close.

Labels: Home and Garden