The Weeds Have Eyes

I was out in the garden today, doing some weeding and minding my own business, when I heard some rustling behind me just outside the garden fence.  I thought it was a robin causing a fuss up in the lilac bushes, but when I turned around it wasn’t there. 

As I dropped my gaze, I saw a baby Fawn standing there only 12 feet away, just outside the garden fence, lookin’ right at me.  What a nice surprise!

My fenced garden is 25 feet away from my house, and in between are some seriously overgrown lilac bushes, wrapped in wild grapevines, and knee-high weeds.  He had been hiding out in the lilac bushes, spying on me the whole time.

The Fawn walked around my garden and went into the tree line just 25 feet from the opposite side of my garden.  I went back to weeding.  After a little while he came out of the tree line and walked into my backyard to eat a little grass.  I weeded some more.

Suddenly the Fawn raced around my garden fence at full speed & ran back into his hideout in the lilac bushes.  I kept pulling weeds, but every time I looked over I could see him in there watching my every move.  After a while he wandered out a little to chew on some nearby weeds wildflowers.  He was wary, but didn’t seem too afraid of me.  He probably thought the 7 ft. high garden fence was there to keep me locked up inside, rather than to keep him out.

Then one time I looked up from weeding, and the Fawn wasn’t there.  As I turned to my left I saw him standing out in the open, just outside my garden gate.  Luckily I had closed the garden gate earlier from the inside.  The Fawn looked at me like he was expecting me to come over and open the gate, so he could come inside to get something good to eat.

Then the Fawn wandered back over to the tree line again and disappeared into the thick brush.  It’s not uncommon for a Doe to leave her Fawn alone for several hours at a time and go feed.  The Fawn will lay up somewhere in the thick brush, and his white spots help to camouflage his position.

It’s funny . . . I just made a blog post a week ago about my several encounters with baby Fawns over the years.  Then this close encounter happens, and it was the best one yet!

(Picture from Wikimedia)

Labels: Home and Garden